The average first-time buyer deposit is quoted at around £61,000. The number most first-time buyers actually need is a fraction of that once the reliefs, bonuses and low-deposit products are counted properly. We have written the guide that does the counting and it is free.
The short version
- The scary average deposit figure is dragged up by London and by people putting down 20% or more. The practical minimum almost everywhere is 5%.
- Budget £4,000 to £5,000 of costs on top of the deposit for a typical first home, plus a buffer.
- First-time buyers were the largest group of home purchasers last year and there are more homes for sale than at any point since 2014.
- Our free guide covers every step, including new builds, shared ownership, leasehold flats and buying with somebody else.
- It arrives by email, it costs nothing and you do not need an account.
You are in a better position than you think
As we write in August 2026 there are more homes for sale than at any point since 2014, a third of listings have cut their price and first-time buyers were the largest group of home purchasers last year. Sellers need you more than you need any single house.
The headline numbers are still frightening and they are frightening in a misleading way. Yes, the average first-time buyer deposit is around £61,000. That average is dragged up by London, where it is nearer £125,000 and by people choosing to put down 20% or more. In the North East the average is nearer £31,000 and the practical minimum almost everywhere is 5% of the price. On a £200,000 home that is £10,000.
The number nobody adds up for you
Most first-time buyers never see the four things that stack on one purchase.
Stamp duty relief is automatic in England and Northern Ireland: nothing to pay up to £300,000. The Lifetime ISA adds 25% to what you save, up to £1,000 a year, with rules that catch people out and are worth reading before you open one. Low-deposit products are genuinely mainstream again, including 95% mortgages underpinned by the permanent government guarantee scheme, one lender that needs no deposit at all if you have 12 months of clean rent history and another that asks for a flat £5,000. Family help is used by over half of first-time buyers and there is a right way to document it that saves weeks.
Stack them properly and the buyer who thought they needed £60,000 often needs £15,000 to £20,000 of their own money. That single chapter is the reason we wrote the guide.
What is in the guide
Eighteen chapters, about 23,000 words, written for England and Wales with proper notes for Scotland and Northern Ireland:
- Can you actually buy? The deposit honestly, the costs beyond it, renting versus buying in 2026 and whether you are ready.
- Getting mortgage-ready: what lenders want to see in the six months before you apply, how much you can borrow and why a broker earns their keep.
- Boosts: stamp duty relief, the Lifetime ISA and its sharp edges, the low-deposit landscape right now, family help done properly and the schemes worth skipping.
- Finding the right home: researching an area like a professional and reading listings like a sceptic.
- Viewings: the physical checklist, the questions the agent should answer and when to walk away.
- The offer: knowing the market you are bidding in and holding your nerve.
- Sale agreed: from decision in principle to mortgage offer and the survey that regularly saves thousands.
- Conveyancing without tears: choosing a conveyancer, what searches and enquiries catch and the run to exchange.
- Completion day and the first 48 hours, including the documents you should be holding at the end.
- The first year: the budget that makes ownership calm, overpaying and remortgaging on time.
- Special situations: new builds, shared ownership, auctions, leasehold flats and buying with another person.
- When things go wrong: gazumping, wobbles and how to complain formally.
- Checklists and a jargon translator for every stage.
Day one is the best day you will ever get
On completion day you are holding something no other owner of that house will ever hold again: every document, fresh, in one place. The survey, the searches, the completion statement, the certificates, the warranties, the meter photos.
Most people put that pile in a drawer and spend the next decade slowly losing it. The ones who file it properly remortgage more easily, claim on warranties successfully and years later sell without the four-week scramble that the guide's sister volume is largely about.
That habit is what homehogs is. Fifteen minutes on the week you move in is the whole trick: photograph the meters, scan the completion statement, file the survey. Three items in, the habit exists.
Start your home's memory on day one
homehogs keeps the documents, certificates, costs and jobs in one organised place, from the day the keys land in your hand.
Join the waiting list
