THE number of first time buyers intending to purchase a house this year has dropped below one in four.

The findings come in the first Rightmove first-time-buyer report of 2011 and as the Government holds a summit into first-time buyer lending.

It shows that prospective first-time buyer levels dropped from 25.5 per cent in the final quarter of 2010, to 22.8 per cent for the first three months of 2011.

Rightmove has found that mortgage challenges are the main factors suppressing first-time buyer levels as more than half of respondents stated that their single biggest concern was mortgages.

The survey found that 44 per cent of first-time buyers cite ‘raising enough deposit’, and a further 10 per cent ‘meeting monthly mortgage repayments’, as their principle housing concern.