Those looking to buy a home for the first time have been advised to wait until prices have fallen further.

As first-time buyers increasingly struggle to secure a mortgage, Paul Holmes, the operations director of advisory service Firstrung, recommended saving up a deposit so it could be put to "incredibly good use" when the market has settled.

He said: "The advice I can give to a first-time buyer who is priced out and denied access to the mortgage market at the moment is simply save and sit it out. At the moment with prices falling you are safe in knowledge that you are not missing out on anything."

It comes following figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders which revealed that the average first-time buyer is putting down a deposit of 13 per cent, the highest level in more than three years.

The Telegraph has reported a prediction from Capital Economics that house prices will fall 35 per cent in the next three years.

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