East of England homebuyers face the biggest deposit difficulties

PEOPLE looking to buy a home in the East of England find raising a deposit more difficult than buyers in any other region of the country. When asked to rate the difficulty of putting down a deposit on a property, 48 per cent of homebuyers in the region ra

PEOPLE looking to buy a home in the East of England find raising a deposit more difficult than buyers in any other region of the country.

When asked to rate the difficulty of putting down a deposit on a property, 48 per cent of homebuyers in the region rated it as eight or above out of 10. This was higher than any other region of Britain.

Only 42 per cent of respondents nationally said that raising a deposit was such a major issue. And buyers in some other regions said it was much less of a problem, with it being cited by only 31 per cent of buyers in Wales and 36 per cent in Scotland.

The findings come from the Barratt Home Buyers Panel of 2900 people which has been established to track the changing attitudes of homebuyers and homeowners in Britain. Survey experts Com Res conducted the field work.

Raising a deposit came ahead of finding a suitable property (44 per cent) as the biggest impediment to home purchase.

32 per cent attributed the same level of difficulty to selling their current home. And 31 per cent said getting a mortgage was as difficult.

Of least concern was dealing with solicitors (16 per cent) and negotiating with sellers (20 per cent). Dealing with estate agents was cited as being difficult by 27 per cent of respondents.

Regional managing director of Barratt in the East of England, Gary Ennis, said: "Barratt operates a number of shared equity schemes which could help you buy a home in the area with a deposit of �6298. I would urge anyone who would like to buy a home but thinks they don't have a big enough deposit to call us to find out how we can help.