Home security
SIGNING on the dotted line of your first mortgage is an exciting time for anyone — you can't deny you are a grown-up when you are a mortgagee, with keys.
But it is the most expensive purchase and the heftiest debt most of us will take on and in those early days it is hard to imagine it will ever be paid off.
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But, according to property experts Hometrack, half the homeowners in UK are set to enjoy that freedom, and be mortgage-free within three years.
According to the report, which is based upon the latest UK census information, 50 per cent of those with mortgages will own their homes outright by 2015.
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It is good news for many although, of course, an underlying trend implicit in those figures is that as fewer younger people have been able to get on the property market, the profile of homeowners has changed dramatically.
Many of those soon-to-be debt free buyers will be people who took a mortgage out in Britain the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s who are reaping the rewards now, with many taking advantage of the lowest interest rates in history to pay down their debt.
Many are also enjoying the positive side to soaring house prices, which now sees the average house price in the UK hovering around £160,000.
The average price of a house in Wales stands at £152,195, an increase of 2.1 per cent compared to this time last year.
And a homeowner who bought their home three or more decades ago is likely to have made a good return on their investment.
Richard Donnell, director of research at Hometrack, said homeowners with no mortgage currently own properties worth around £2,000 billion or about 40 per cent of the total value of the housing market.
"But, as households pay off their mortgages, the number of people who now own their home outright has continued to grow. This is a trend set to continue, re-enforced by lack of mortgage availability and households taking advantage of low interest rates to re-pay debt."
But Trevor Carr, director at Swansea's John Francis says while this survey may illustrate the picture of events in certain pockets of Britain, he is cautious about applying those figures here.
"I would think the figure here is much lower because there isn't the same level of wealth."
But, he says, there were reasons to be cheerful. "We are finding sales are up about 5 per cent this year and the rental market is buoyant."
And those younger buyers who haven't found themselves represented on this survey as the lucky 50 per cent, they are finding ways to get that foot in the door.
"We are finding that first-time buyers are borrowing their deposit from parents or grandparents to get that start. People are finding their way around it."
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