Nearly three quarters of buyers paying under the asking price

A survey of over 6,000 people who bought a property in the last 12 months shows that 72 per cent paid under the asking price for their home.

The report from Rightmove shows that Wales has the highest number of people who paid under the asking price (82 per cent) while one in five buyers paid the exact asking price.

"These results emphasise that talk of a national housing bubble is unfounded and that although prices are rising, most people continue to make offers in line with what they can afford or what they perceive to be the right value," said. Miles Shipside, Rightmove Director.

Meanwhile, figures from LSL Property Services indicate that first-time buyer deposits fell 10 per cent in the last twelve months to £24,637 in May 2014. The average first-time buyer deposit represented 67 per cent of their annual income in May, compared to 77 per cent twelve months ago.

"Help to Buy has helped support the first-time buyer market over the past year," said David Newnes, director of estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, part of LSL Property Services group. "It has encouraged banks to extend more loans to lower equity borrowers, relieving some of the burden of saving for a larger deposit often out of their reach. Average first-time buyer deposits have got cheaper by nearly £3,000 as a result."

The four regions of the UK with higher than average first-time buyer property prices between March and May this year were London, the South East, the East of England and the South West.

In London, the average first-time buyer purchase price was £267,572 compared to £83,899 in Northern Ireland. London first-timers also paid the largest deposits at an average of £65,989, more than double the size of the average deposit in the South East (£30,484).

The North East was the cheapest region in terms of first-time buyer deposits, with an average deposit of £12,274.