The financial consequences of Covid may have pushed the average age of a first-time buyer (FTB) by almost two years, calculations by GetAgent.co.uk show.

The firm argues that with the average gross salary coming to just over £31,000, anybody who moved onto the government’s furlough scheme during Covid will have retained an income of almost £32,000 over the 19 months it was active for.

This comes to a loss of nearly £8,000.

GetAgent.co.uk assumes a savings rate of 20% of net income per month – £377 – to collect a 15% deposit of £30,000, which was, as of 2020, the average amount an FTB put down.

This meant that, previous to Covid, the average FTB took 6.6 years to gather a deposit, until they were 32 years old.

The losses incurred through Covid another 1.8 years to this, taking the average age to nearly 34 years old.

GetAgent.co.uk concludes that the £8,000 loss mentioned previously adds another 1.8 years on top of this, taking the first time somebody buys a house to almost 34 years old.

Despite these hardships, earlier this month, Barclays reported that the number of FTBs across the UK doubled in 2021, with an average deposit of £61,100. However, this cohort also had an average income of £50,800.

Founder and chief executive Colby Short says: “Buying that first home has always been one of life’s milestones and in recent times it has become particularly hard to reach as a result of ever increasing house prices, with FTBs saving for far longer simply to amass enough to secure a mortgage deposit.

“The pandemic will have only added to this difficulty and those who were furloughed, or worse made redundant, will have seen their journey to homeownership become all the longer as a result of a reduction in earnings and their ability to save.”