It is not a great time to be a first-time buyer. Despite recent wobbles in the market, house prices remain high and deposits are increasingly hard to scrape together in a cost-of-living crisis. Rising interest rates also mean that it is now officially more expensive to own a property than it is to rent one.
Recent research by Zoopla found that, for the first time in more than a decade, rising interest rates mean that mortgages cost more per month, at an average of £2,546 in London, than renting a flat in the capital, which costs an average £2,053.
