Why are house movers not moving? A year ago, we estimated that just over a half of mortgages taken out since the second quarter of 2005 had an equity cushion of less than 30pc. House price changes since then are unlikely to have shifted the landscape dramatically. But given that the median LTV for movers is about 70pc, it seems reasonable to suppose that a significant proportion of recent house-buyers would be unable to finance a move up to a more expensive home today, unless they also had substantial savings to top up their deposits. Moving up the property ladder becomes even more of a challenge when would-be buyers face higher transactions costs if they want to buy in higher stamp duty bands and cannot fully load the additional costs into the next mortgage deal. Interestingly, our regulated mortgage survey figures hint at a significant rationing effect taking place amongst existing home owners. While the median income of first-time buyers is almost the same as it was five years ago, average incomes for movers are 10pc higher, suggesting that lower-income households (and those less able to accumulate savings?) are now also less able to transact. Moreover, whereas the median age of first-time buyers has been unchanged at 29 years (despite misreporting to the contrary), the average age of movers has been edging up, rising from 37 in 2005 to 40 by 2010. This is a material shift over a short period of time, and may have a number of causes. To some extent, households may simply be deferring house moves in the hope they can secure pay increases or build up financial savings. But we see the main driver as there being less scope for recent buyers (as well as some who bought before the 2007 market peak) to crystallise sizeable equity gains if they sell their property. Conclusions Existing home owners, not just first-time buyers, are finding it difficult to finance their house moves. Although movers appear to be less susceptible to more restrictive lending conditions, in some cases the reverse is true. The recent weakness of house prices, and the leveraged impact this has on capital gains, may now be opening up a prospective deposit gap, even for some would-be movers, thereby restricting their capacity to fund a move. The inference that home owners are deferring or spacing out their house moves sits comfortably with the available evidence, and would help to explain why property turnover levels are currently so low. Another outcome may be that those who are able to call upon the bank of mum and dad - or other means of support - may find that help is needed not only to step on to the property ladder, but to move up it as well. While some of these effects should unwind as incomes and the wider economy recover, the speed and timing of this is highly uncertain. Moreover, the impact on future debt-service costs associated with higher regulatory costs and the need to return to more normal interest rates over the medium-term may further extend the current period of subdued levels of property transactions. Bob Pannell is chief economist of the Council of Mortgage Lenders This is an abbreviated version of Mr Pannell's article; click here for the full text