Goodbye to the gapper?

British students are finding it increasingly difficult to justify blowing a small fortune on gap year gallivanting, now that escalating property prices make it too difficult to get on to the property ladder when they return home. That’s according to latest research from Abbey Mortgages.

Indeed an impressive 42 per cent (or 830,000) of students say that they’ve already started to squirrel away money towards the deposit on their first home, that’s more than twice the amount of students saving up to go travelling (19 per cent) or to purchase their first car (19 per cent) after graduation.

Abbey’s research also found that one-in-10 past graduates that have financed a gap year in the past 10 years said they probably wouldn’t have made the same decision today - given current property prices.

Further figures underline the compulsion felt by today’s students to start thinking about their first home. Only seven per cent of graduates over the past 10 years claimed to have saved money towards a house deposit while studying - six times less than current students claiming to have already done so today.

And, despite the stereotypical image of students living off tea and toast, 21 per cent of past graduates thought they could definitely have saved more money while at University, while 2.9 million (17 per cent) wished that they had worked harder and played less!

Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, Head of Abbey Mortgages says: “House prices have brought in a harsh new reality for students. They now need to weigh up the benefits of travelling against jumping straight into a career and being able to afford to get onto the property ladder. It’s certainly encouraging to see that many university students are sensibly putting money aside for that important deposit on their first home.”

Abbey is fully aware of the difficulties first time buyers have in getting onto the property ladder, and is committed to developing new mortgages to give these customers the help they need. We have a range of mortgage deals designed specifically with first time buyers in mind. We also have products which help with the upfront costs such as free valuations and a £250 contribution towards legal fees.”

For more information, log on to abbey.com/mortgages or drop in to your local Abbey branch.