First-time buyers, wages, pensions and car insurance

There’s a glut of data about first-time buyers from the Halifax this morning, including the news that the number of this type of home-buyer has hit a ten-year high.

The Halifax First-Time Buyer Review said the number of buyers entering the market hit 335,750 last year, up 7.3 per cent on 2015.

But the bank also said that the the average first-time deposit has more than doubled compared with 2007 to reach more than £32,000. And in a sign that the traditional 25-year mortgage term could be falling out of fashion, growing numbers of first-time buyers are opting for deals lasting 30 or 35 years – suggesting that many will still be burdened with home loan debt in their 60s and 70s. The Halifax said that last year, about 28 per cent of all first-time buyers with a mortgage opted for a 30 to 35-year term – up sharply from 11 per cent in 2006.

Halifax also found that the average price of a first home in the UK broke through the £200,000 barrier for the first time in 2016.

Meanwhile, analysis of the data by The Daily Telegraph reveals that seven in ten first-time home buyers now pay stamp duty. The paper said the total number of first-time buyers paying stamp duty virtually doubled since 2013, rising from 121,455 buyers in 2013 to 238,382 in 2016. Wages

Most of the media has picked up on fresh data from the Institute for Fiscal Studies which shows that the number of men in low-paid part-time work has increased fourfold over the past two decades.

The organisation says that one in five low-paid men aged 25 to 55 now work part-time. That means wage inequality for men has risen over 20 years while the opposite has been the case for women who have traditionally made up the bulk of low income, part-time workers. Pensions The Times reports on an important legal victory for the Pensions Regulator. The regulator has been fighting to bring a £17.2 million anti-avoidance claim over the retirement scheme of Silentnight, the bed manufacturer, three years after issuing a warning notice against its owner. The Times says that ‘the administrative court has backed the watchdog against HIG Capital, the US private equity owner of Silentnight, refusing to grant it permission to bring a judicial review against the regulator’. The regulator claims that the sale of the company undervalued its assets, costing pensioners millions of pounds in lost returns. Car insurance

More gloomy news for car drivers following new research which says that male motorists typically pay £101 more a year for their car insurance than women.

The BBC reports that men paid an average annual premium of £812 for comprehensive car insurance in the final quarter of 2016 compared with £711 for women, according to Confused.com.

Energy After years of urging people to shop around for cheaper energy, consumer groups have welcomed industry figures which show that the number of households switching their gas and electricity supplier soared by 26 per cent in 2016. Energy UK said there were 4.8 million switches during 2016, close to a million more than the previous year. Nevertheless, there are still worries about the large number of people languishing on uncompetitive energy deals. Finally… With the ski season well underway, research from Gocompare.com Travel Insurance has revealed many could be left without cover if they slope off without checking their policy. The comparison site found that the vast majority of policies do not cover skiing or snowboarding as standard. Most (83 per cent) single trip travel insurance policies only offer winter sports cover as an optional extra, for which an additional fee is payable, with 13 per cent excluding this cover entirely. It’s particularly important for those with annual multi-trip policies to review their policy documents as just 15 per cent of these policies offer ski cover as standard, with nearly one in 10 offering no cover whatsoever.