The rise of the over-50 first-time buyer

Telegraph

11-05-2025

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Leah Mynett has been renting for years. She currently lives with her partner, Noel Storey, and now, both aged 56, they're becoming first-time buyers.
'We're of the generation, born in the 1960s, the generation that drifted for so long. Noel's a Londoner and I've always worked there – we accepted things would always be that we couldn't afford to buy,' says Mynett.
But then several events happened that made them reconsider this. The first was Covid.
Mynett works as a business change consultant and Storey is an IT analyst. When the pandemic hit, both found that they could do their jobs just as easily from home.
'Everyone in my office works from home now and we have one day a month when we all get together in London,' she says.
The second event was that Storey had a pulmonary embolism, and it became clear they couldn't continue to stay in the house they'd been renting in east London, which was was damp and mouldy.
'It was a wake-up call. [I thought], what happens if he doesn't fully recover? There is no guarantee that we are going to be healthy in our 70s. We didn't want to be worrying about needing to find rent,' says Mynett.
Fortunately, Storey has made a significant recovery. 'Certain things are harder for him. He's getting better every month, but he has slightly less mobility than he had before – he still cycles though.'
The third factor was Mynett turning 55, the age at which she was able to access her pension savings.
'I've been working on-and-off since my 20s and I've got all these little pension pots, so I amalgamated them – except a couple which were significant,' she says.
It was estimated that these smaller pensions would only give the couple an income of £1,000 to £2,000 a year when they retired, so Mynett decided to take out the money and put it towards a house deposit instead.
'Hitting 55 did make a difference, as I didn't have a deposit to call upon before then. It's pointless having these [pensions] if you're paying £1,500 a month in rent.
'When I liquidated the pensions, I had to pay tax on them but I thought that it was worth it if it would give us a deposit and a higher deposit so we would get a better rate on our mortgage,' she says.
The couple, who don't have children, decided to look for a home in Liverpool as property was more affordable and they had friends there. They're now in the process of buying a 1950s terrace house with three bedrooms, two reception rooms and a garden for their two cats.
The house costs £175,000, which is under the stamp duty threshold, and – thanks to Mynett's pensions – they have a 15pc deposit of £26,250 and a mortgage balance of £148,750.
Their interest rate is 4.54pc, fixed for five years, and their repayments are £1,538 a month which, when household bills are taken into account, is similar to what they paid to live in London, where their monthly rent was £1,495.
The couple had no trouble securing the finance and had an offer within a week.
'We could have got a bigger mortgage but wanted to be able to pay it off in 10 years. We were quite definitive about what we wanted to do – they were talking about a 20-year mortgage, but we choose a shorter term and a house that was within our budget range,' says Mynett.
As both are on good salaries, the couple were offered a mortgage of up to £420,000 and could have extended it until they were 70. 'The mortgage broker said we were so sensible!'
The current term will see their house paid off by the time they are 67. 'This gives us the option of retiring at 67 and having the choice of what to do. We can decide whether to work full-time or not.'
Mynett still has two lucrative legacy pensions, plus the workplace pension she is paying into with her current job, but thinks her smaller pots have been put to better use as a deposit.
'This was a better way of securing our future – if you don't have somewhere to live, you have no future.'
The rise of 50-plus first-time buyers
While many first-time buyers do manage to get on the property ladder when they're younger, the number of those in a similar situation to Mynett is on the rise.
The number of first-time buyers over the age of 50 has increased by 30pc in the last five years, according to analysis of FCA product sales data by savings and mortgage platform, Tembo.
There were 12,000 first-time buyers over 50 in the UK in 2022 and, based on current trends, by 2030, this number is expected to increase to 19,000, equating to 5pc of all first-time buyers.
On a regional level, London has the lowest number of first-time buyers aged over 50, at 2.4pc, and the South West has the highest, at 3.5pc, but in every region across the UK, growth in over-50s first-time buyers has outstripped total first-time buyer growth.
'With property prices continuing to rise in the most popular areas of the country, we have seen that the age of the average first-time buyer is definitely increasing,' says Adam Watt, of Cheffins Estate Agents.
'These are not always the typical first-time buyers in their 20s or 30s, rather they can be in their 40s or 50s, and we are seeing an increase in older generations looking to get on to the property ladder for the first time.'
'It's sobering to think I'll be paying my mortgage until I'm 74'
David Boden, who turns 50 in December, is one such buyer in the process of purchasing his first home, a three-bedroom detached house, in Ely, Cambridgeshire.
The property, which was originally built in 2008, is being sold for £405,000 and, while the mortgage is in Boden's name, he will be living there with his partner, Andy, 62.
'The reason I haven't bought before now is a combination of [moving] around with work a lot, and I am also truly terrible in the house in terms of the practical maintenance of things,' says Boden.
'If I was renting, someone else would come and sort it all out for me but, in the back of my mind, I knew I always needed to buy.'
Boden works as a business development director for Stagecoach East, having worked in buses for 28 years. 'I've always loved my job and, when your hobby becomes your job, a work/life balance is challenging,' he says.
The chance to finally buy a home came when Boden's father passed away and left him some money.
'My dad, in his last few years, said I needed to buy a house and get a decent car – I had an old Skoda with 110,000 miles on it. So, to honour my dad's memory, I've bought a house with the inheritance he left me, and I also went out and bought a second-hand Mercedes.'
Boden has a £90,000 deposit and, now the first-time buyer stamp duty threshold has returned to £300,000, he will have to pay £5,000 in tax on the property he's chosen.
'As first-time buyers, I feel like it's counter-intuitive to make it harder for people of my age to buy, especially with the state of social housing at the moment,' he says.
Despite being worried about his age, Boden secured a £315,000 mortgage and could even have afforded a property up to £450,000.
'I felt the biological clock was ticking and I was terrified that I wouldn't get a mortgage, but a friend of mine is a broker and got a very good deal for me from Barclays. The rate is 4.46pc for five years and the term will last until I'm 74,' he explains.
While Boden admits 'it's sobering to think I'll be paying it off till then', he doesn't have any plans to retire.
'I love my job and, frankly, I can easily see myself doing it till I'm 70. If I didn't like working, I wouldn't take on a mortgage till this age.' He also hopes that he will move into more senior roles that allow him to pay the loan off quicker.
Boden and his partner don't have children but are thinking about fostering. 'I also have a generous death-in-service benefit, so I know, if I die, then the mortgage is paid off for Andy.' He also has two pension schemes, one with Stagecoach and another from when he worked in local government.
Boden regrets getting on the property ladder so late. 'My dad was right. I would have had some equity and life skills if I'd bought earlier. It would have forced me to learn how to change a fuse!
'I should have done it five years ago; it took a kick from my dead dad to do it.'