“It’s not that difficult” to buy a first home, says Chairman of NatWest
Sir Howard Davies says first time buyers have always had to save up – his comments came as Halifax reported prices were up last year.
Buying a first home “is not that difficult” according to the head of NatWest bank, despite new figures showing house prices rose last year.
Sir Howard Davies (main picture) said nothing had changed, people have always had to save in order to climb onto the property ladder.
You have to save and that is the way it always used to be.”
Asked why it is so hard to buy a first home, Sir Howard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t think it’s that difficult at the moment.
“You have to save and that is the way it always used to be.”
Beat expectations
Sir Howard’s comments were made as Halifax said house prices rose 1.7% last year.

Kim Kinnaird, director of Halifax Mortgages, says: “The housing market beat expectations in 2023 and grew by +1.7% on an annual basis. The average property price is now £4,800 higher than it was in December 2022.
“Whilst it’s encouraging that we saw growth in the last three months of the year, this was preceded with property price falls for six consecutive months between April and September.”
She says the increase in prices is probably driven by a shortage of properties on the market, rather than by buyer demand.
Sales fall
Data from HMRC, released last week, showed residential property sales fell for the third month in a row.
The figures showed that November saw another drop in deals done, with seasonally and non-seasonally adjusted transactions down by 1% and 2% respectively.
While non-seasonally adjusted residential transactions have fallen by 22% since November 2022.
Buyer demand is up…but only slightly, new figures reveal
If you are on 750K a year, and get a Nat West employee special rate, then buying a property is probably quite easy – this paternalistic, out of touch rhetoric that abounds in the UK, where the small people get squeezed until the pips pop and the fat cats laugh all the way to the bank or the local Post Office probably needs to end, but unfortunately this skewed monied viewpoint is hardbaked into the system. The rich get richer and the poor have no voice. The king is a billionaire and yet his ‘subjects’ live in tents on the high street, the church and the crown have more than enough land to house all, but it will never happen in our democratic world – question is why?