UK first-time buyers at five-year high The number of people buying their first home rose to a five-year high in 2012, exceeding 200,000 for the first time since 2007. The Council of Mortgage Lenders, a trade body, said on Tuesday that the number of first-time buyers climbed to 216,200 - the highest since the financial crisis - from 193,000 in 2011. The total of loans advanced to first-time buyers in December 2012 was 3 per cent higher than the previous year. The CML also reported a "modest but discernible increase" in lending where deposits were relatively low compared with the value of the property. "While the average loan-to-value stayed at 80 per cent, where it has been for two years, this masks some encouraging movement in higher loan-to-value lending," it said, citing figures that showed one in 40 first-time buyers took out a 95 per cent mortgage compared with less than 1 per cent a year earlier. Around a fifth of first-time buyers borrowed 90 per cent of their property's value or more. Mortgage lenders are confident that conditions will improve further for first-time buyers as government initiatives to boost lending take effect. The CML has forecast a revival in mortgage market activity this year, in part because of the Bank of England's Funding for Lending scheme, introduced in August.