First time buyers of homes in the UK are up against it with little wiggle room when interest rates come into the fold. Currently, interest rate levels are extremely low and don’t have much promise of increasing any time soon. This places the group in a high risk category after purchasing a home and getting started in life with a first residence. A rate rise has not taken place in some time and many are concerned that the first rise could be devastating for the group.

More than 1.5 million first timers have never had to shoulder the burden of a rate hike, according to the insurer Aviva. Mortgage lending rates have been in free fall for years and the base rate has not been hiked since the year 2009. Conversely, the number of first timers has increased from 192,300 in 2008 to more than 310,000 last year. This is almost a 30% increase.

Housing experts have claimed these low rates have been the one thing to save the first timer group to this point. Without it and government schemes aimed at assisting those with little of a down payment, the group would be playing a perpetual waiting game on their first property.

Simon Checkley of Private Finance summed up the concept many first timers need to accept as they sign on the dotted line for their first property, saying: “It is easy to get used to a level of outgoings, especially when rates haven’t changed for such a long time. Rates are at record lows which could mean only one thing: they will at some point go up.”

Checkley continued: “The chances are that if you are a first-time buyer you will have, or will be looking for, a high loan-to-value mortgage.”