Deposits paid by first-time buyers
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- 1. Navigate to Main facts and figures section
- 2. Navigate toDeposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity section
- 3. Navigate toDeposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity and socio-economic group section
- 4. Navigate to Methodology section
- 5. Navigate to Data sources section
- 6. Navigate to Download the data section
1. Main facts and figures
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White British first-time buyers in this sample paid a smaller deposit for a home on average compared to all other ethnic groups combined; however, these estimates are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about differences between these groups in the total population
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White British first-time buyers in routine and manual occupations paid a larger deposit than those from other ethnic groups
Things you need to know
Compared with White British households, ethnic minority households tend to be younger, to have lived in England for a shorter time and to be located in urban areas. They are also likely to live in larger households and in rented accommodation.
To ensure that there is a large enough number of ethnic minority households to produce reliable findings, the Department for Communities and Local Government has added together 2 years of data (2014/15 and 2015/16) from the English Housing Survey (EHS).
Information about households in the EHS Headline and Annual reports is normally based on a 12-month period (April to March). As the statistics on this page combine data from 2014/15 and 2015/16, the numbers here may not match the figures in those individual reports.
The commentary has focused on findings based on subgroups of at least 30 households to ensure that we report reliable findings.
The EHS is a ‘sample survey’. It collects information from a random sample of the population to make generalisations (reach ‘findings’) about the total population.
For example, EHS findings include the average deposit paid by first-time buyers. In 2015/16, the average deposit that first-time buyers paid on their home was £45,358.
Unless stated otherwise, the commentary for this data only includes reliable, or ‘statistically significant’, findings.
Findings are statistically significant when we can be confident that they are reflective of the total population rather than just the survey sample..
What the data measures
This data measures the average deposit paid by first-time buyers when buying a home in England, broken down by ethnicity.
First-time buyers are home buyers who, when surveyed in 2014/15 or 2015/16, had bought a home for the first time in the previous 3 years.
The ethnic categories used in this data
The following 2 categories were used:
- White British
- Other (all other groups, including White ethnic minorities and all other ethnic minorities)
These categories were chosen due to the small numbers involved.
More detailed comparisons using the 18 standardised ethnic groups based on the 2011 Census are not possible. This is because information on deposits is available for fewer than 10 first-time buyers in all but 3 of the ethnic minority groups.
2. Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity
| Ethnicity | £ |
|---|---|
| White British | 44,410 |
| All other ethnic groups | 49,423 |
Download table data for ‘Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity’ (CSV)
Summary of Deposits paid by first-time buyers Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity Summary
This data shows that:
- White British first-time buyers in this sample paid a smaller deposit on average compared to all other ethnic groups combined; however, these estimates are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about differences between these groups in the total population
3. Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity and socio-economic group
| Ethnicity | Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations | Intermediate occupations | Routine and manual occupations |
|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | |
| White British | 50,205 | 34,233 | 34,935 |
| All other ethnic groups | 72,209 | withheld because a small sample size makes it unreliable | 17,230 |
Download table data for ‘Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity and socio-economic group’ (CSV) Source data for ‘Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity and socio-economic group’ (CSV)
Summary of Deposits paid by first-time buyers Deposits paid by first-time buyers by ethnicity and socio-economic group Summary
This data shows that:
-
White British first-time buyers in routine and manual occupations paid a larger deposit (around £35,000) than those from other ethnic groups (around £17,000)
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White British first-time buyers in higher managerial, administrative and professional occupations in this sample paid a smaller deposit on average compared with all other ethnic groups; however, these estimates are not reliable enough to draw any conclusions about differences between these groups in the total population
4. Methodology
The EHS consists of:
- face-to-face interviews with a random sample of about 13,300 households a year
- a physical inspection of the homes of about 6,000 of the interviewed households – these are selected at random and carried out by a surveyor
The surveyor also inspects a random sample of about 200 properties identified by the interviewer as vacant.
Weighting:
Weighting is used to adjust the results of a survey to make them representative of the population.
For example, a survey which contains 25% females and 75% males will not accurately reflect the views of the general population which we know is around 50% male and 50% female.
Statisticians rebalance or ‘weight’ the survey results to more accurately represent the general population.
In the EHS, weighting makes the results more representative of the 22.6 million households in England.
Suppression rules and disclosure control
The Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has ‘suppressed’ estimates based on fewer than 30 households.
‘Suppression’ means these figures have not been included in the data because the numbers involved are too small to draw any meaningful conclusions.
Where the size of the ethnic group population is small enough that an individual’s identity could be revealed, some other figures have also been excluded. The data is deposited in the UK Data Archive, after applying a wide range of disclosure control.
Strictly disclosure-controlled data in the form of derived variables is available under the End-User Licence (for example, ethnicity is given as White/ethnic minority).
Data sets with some more details are made available under Special Licence after the user has applied to the English Housing Survey team for access.
Data that could potentially reveal someone’s identity (such as a postcode) is available only through UKDA Secure Access. To gain access, a user must complete special training, including on disclosure control.
Rounding
Estimates in the charts and tables are given to the nearest whole number. More detailed estimates to 1 decimal place are available in the downloads.
Quality and methodology information
5. Data sources
Source
Type of data
Survey data
Type of statistic
National Statistics
Publisher
Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Note on corrections or updates
Information published in the EHS headline report and other annual reports is usually based on a 12-month period, rather than the 2 years’ combined data used here. As a result, the statistics shown here may not match those in the EHS reports.
Publication frequency
Yearly
Purpose of data source
The English Housing Survey is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It collects information about people’s housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.
6. Download the data
This files contains: ethnicity, year, NS-SEC, value, standard deviation, sample size