First-time buyers now make up the majority of home purchases bought with a mortgage in the UK, figures show.

Research has found Pendle in Lancashire and Copeland in Cumbria were the most affordable areas, with homes costing 2.6 times local earnings on average.

An average deposit of £32,841 is required to get on the property ladder in the UK, but first-time buyers in London need to find £110,656.

The First-Time Buyer Review is based on figures from industry group UK Finance, as well as its own house price database and Office for National Statistics earnings figures.

First-time owners in 2018 accounted for just over half of all sales with a mortgage.

There has been an overall increase in UK first-time buyers from 192,300 in 2008 to 372,000 in 2018, although in Scotland and Wales numbers have fallen, the research found.

The average price of a typical first home has jumped by 39%, from £153,030 in 2008 to £212,473 in 2018.

Terraced houses, followed by semi-detached properties, were the first-time buyer's home of choice over the past decade.

A first-time buyer would be close to being able to buy a home outright in the north east of England or Northern Ireland for the same money it would take to raise a deposit in the capital last year, where the average price paid by a first-time buyer was £426,857.

In North East England the average first-time buyer home was £126,104 while in Northern Ireland it was £129,615.

In Wales a first-time buyer spent an average of £144,542 in 2018, and in Scotland it was £141,671.

Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news