Two-thirds (67%) of people who bought their first home in the last year had never been to the area before making the move, a report reveals.
This is an increase from 51% of first-time buyers who purchased a home in an unknown area more than five years ago, according to the report from Santander.
The lender said that more first-time buyers were compromising on location, with 60% moving to an area they had never even heard of to get onto the property ladder.
Around 70% said they had bought in an area further away from family, while 68% said they had moved away from friends to be able to buy their first home.
Approximately 40% of buyers are spending fewer than two hours getting to know an area before buying there.
More than a third of first-time buyers said that the motivation for moving to an unfamiliar neighbourhood was it being cheaper, and a quarter said they could not find a property in their preferred area that met their needs.
The distance from the original destination is also expanding, with Santander mortgage customers moving 23% further away from their previous address on average compared to the prior four years.
First-time buyers moving to new neighbourhoods in the last two years saved around £29,000 on average compared to those buying in an area they had been to before.
Graham Sellar, head of mortgage development at Santander, said: “There’s a growing trend among first-time buyers to move to neighbourhoods further away from where they grew up, or where they were previously renting. Whether their original area is unaffordable, or they’re deliberately looking to move further afield to get better value for their money, location has become the number-one compromise for many first-time buyers.”
This article was first published on YourMoney.com‘s sister site, Mortgage Solutions. Read: Two-thirds of first-time buyers buy in previously unknown area
