22nd September 2026
The UK housing market became considerably more active in 2025, but new figures from the Office for National Statistics show that buying a home is still requiring substantial borrowing, particularly for first-time buyers.
There were 717,519 mortgage sales across the UK in 2025, up from 617,295 in 2024. That was the highest annual total since 2021.
However, the recovery needs some perspective. Mortgage sales were still 34.5% below the level recorded in 2006, before the financial crisis changed the housing market.
The nature of the market has also changed dramatically.
First-time buyers accounted for 52.8% of mortgage sales in 2025, compared with only 33.8% in 2006.
The number of mortgages going to first-time buyers has actually recovered to slightly above its 2006 level. What has changed is the number of people moving from one owned property to another. Mortgages for second and subsequent buyers were more than twice as numerous as first-time-buyer mortgages in 2006, but by 2025 they had fallen to 327,045, less than the 379,207 first-time-buyer mortgages.
This suggests that the housing market is now much more dependent on people entering it for the first time, while existing homeowners are moving house considerably less frequently.
First-time buyers putting down smaller deposits
Perhaps the most interesting part of the ONS figures concerns deposits.
The median loan-to-value ratio for a first-time buyer in the UK rose from 85.0% in 2024 to 85.6% in 2025.
In simple terms, a buyer taking a £200,000 mortgage at an 85.6% loan-to-value ratio would have a property worth about £234,000 and a deposit of roughly £34,000.
The higher the loan-to-value ratio, the smaller the deposit is in relation to the property price.
The Scottish figure was even higher.
Scotland recorded a median first-time-buyer loan-to-value ratio of 89.7%, almost 90%. Only the North East of England was slightly higher at 89.8%. Wales was at 88.9%.
That contrasts sharply with London, where the figure was only 80.2%, reflecting the much larger deposits being used in the capital.
For Scotland, therefore, the figures suggest that first-time buyers are generally entering the market with smaller deposits relative to the price of the property.
Borrowing is rising again
The other important measure is the relationship between the mortgage and the borrower's income.
The UK loan-to-income ratio rose from 3.3 in 2024 to 3.5 in 2025. For first-time buyers it increased from 3.5 to 3.6.
That is still below the peak reached in 2022, when the figures were 3.7 and 3.8 respectively, but it shows borrowing has begun to rise again after the sharp increase in mortgage rates.
Scotland remains below the UK average.
The overall Scottish loan-to-income ratio increased from 2.8 to 3.0, while the figure for first-time buyers rose to 3.1.
That reflects, among other things, lower house prices than in many parts of England, although affordability remains a major issue because incomes are also lower in many areas.
House prices still represent a large multiple of income
The ONS also looks at the value of the property compared with the buyer's income.
Across the UK, the ratio for all mortgage sales increased from 4.4 in 2024 to 4.5 in 2025. For first-time buyers it rose from 4.2 to 4.3.
Scotland was considerably lower, at 3.8 for all buyers and 3.8 for first-time buyers, compared with 4.6 for England.
London remained the most expensive part of the UK by this measure, with a property-value-to-income ratio of 5.2.
That Scottish figure is significant when looking at the country's housing debate. Scotland does not have the same extreme property-price-to-income ratios found in London and parts of southern England, but getting onto the housing ladder can still require a substantial deposit and a large mortgage relative to earnings.
What about Caithness?
The ONS report provides data down to local-authority level, which makes it particularly useful for understanding differences between parts of the country.
For rural areas such as Caithness, the national figures cannot simply be applied directly. House prices, wages, the availability of mortgages and the supply of suitable homes can all be very different from the national picture.
But there is a wider point worth noting.
The recovery in mortgage sales is encouraging for the housing market. More transactions mean more activity for estate agents, solicitors, surveyors, builders and other businesses connected with property.
At the same time, the rise in loan-to-value ratios shows that getting into the market is still requiring substantial borrowing.
The ONS figures therefore tell two stories at once.
The mortgage market is recovering from the sharp slowdown caused by higher interest rates.
But for many people buying their first home, particularly in Scotland, that recovery does not mean housing has suddenly become easy to afford.
The market is moving again, but buyers are having to finance a larger share of the property themselves through borrowing.
And that may be one of the most important changes in the housing market since the financial crisis: first-time buyers have become much more important to the market, while existing homeowners are moving house far less often.
Read the full ONS report HERE