Around 67% of people who have bought their first home in the last year had never been to the area before buying there, a report has found.
According to a first-time buyer report from Santander, this is an increase from 51% of first-time buyers who purchased a home in an unknown area more than five years ago.
The lender said that more first-time buyers were compromising on location, with 60% moving to an area they had never even heard of to get onto the property ladder.
Around 70% said they had bought in an area further away from family, while 68% said they had moved away from friends to be able to buy their first home.
Approximately 40% of buyers are spending fewer than two hours getting to know an area before buying there.
More than a third of first-time buyers said that the motivation for moving to an unfamiliar neighbour was it being cheaper, and a quarter said they could not find a property in their area of choice that met their needs.
The distance away from the original destination that buyers are considering is also growing, with Santander mortgage customers moving 23% further away from their previous address on average compared to the prior four years.
First-time buyers moving to new neighbourhoods in the last two years saved around £29,000 on average compared to those buying in an area they had been to before.
Graham Sellar, head of mortgage development at Santander, said: “There’s a growing trend among first-time buyers to move to neighbourhoods further away from where they grew up, or where they were previously renting. Whether their original area is unaffordable, or they’re deliberately looking to move further afield to get better value for their money, location has become the number-one compromise for many first-time buyers.”
Anna is currently the deputy editor for Mortgage Solutions and editor for Specialist Lending Solutions. She has worked as a journalist since 2019, having secured her Gold Standard NCTJ diploma from News Associates in a fast-track six-month course.
She started her career as a report at specialist publication The Insurance Insider covering a wide range of areas before joining Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions in 2021.
In her role, she helps put together and structure the news agenda for the day and writes up press releases, reports, interviews, analyses and exclusives across both titles. She also commissions blogs for Specialist Lending Solutions and hosts online masterclasses and in-person events across the business.
She has been shortlisted for three journalism awards, which include BIBA Journalist and Media Awards Scoop of Year Award in 2020, Headline Money Mortgage Journalist of the Year Award (B2B) in 2022 and 2023.
Prior to being a journalist, Anna worked in ecommerce across Snow + Rock, Cycle Surgery and Runners Need websites, and before that worked at specialist financial PR firm Rostrum.
In her spare time, Anna enjoys reading, seeing live music, and cooking for friends and family. When she gets a chance, she also enjoys hiking, skiing and indoor rock climbing.
