It will be difficult to buy property, graduates told

Graduates have been warned by a financial expert that they are unlikely to get their foot on the first rung of the property ladder in the near future.

University leavers are likely to find it increasingly hard to secure a mortgage in today's economic climate, the Executive Director of finance charity UNIAID, Alistair Lomax, claimed.

And graduates are unlikely to be able to afford the cost of purchasing a home due to sky-high property prices, he said.

Mr Lomax remarked: 'We're concerned that students are going to find it more difficult to borrow money to get on the bottom rung of the housing ladder - which already may be out of reach.'

As graduates tend to be burdened with debt, lenders may be more wary of this group of buyers in current economic conditions because banks are now more risk averse, he added.

In fact, mortgage lending fell by 3.5% in February compared to the previous month, the Council of Mortgage Lenders revealed recently.