Locked deposit, prices too high: why the first purchase keeps waiting

You have been saving for years. You keep an eye on the listings. And yet, your first purchase keeps slipping one notch further away. The required deposit swells, prices refuse to genuinely fall, the bank runs tight calculations. For many first-time buyers, buying a home feels like a horizon that recedes the closer you get. This article diagnoses the real roadblocks, backed by figures, and explores a concrete alternative: fractional real estate, which lets you gain exposure to property without waiting until you have the full budget. It is a fractional real estate alternative worth understanding before you decide to wait another year.

The dream of a first purchase that recedes year after year

Buying a first home remains a life goal for a large share of the population. The figures confirm it: by the end of 2025, nearly one in two borrowers who secured a mortgage was a first-time buyer. The desire is intact. What has changed is how hard it has become to make it happen.

The market went through two years of sharp contraction. In 2025, it began a measured recovery, with sales volumes ranging between 929,000 and 950,000 homes, an increase of roughly 11% year on year. This rebound does not mean a return to easy times. Above all, it reflects a normalisation after a period when many projects were simply stuck.

For the first-time buyer, the paradox is frustrating. The market is picking up again, but access to credit remains demanding. Prices are holding firm. The required deposit is climbing. As a result, the gap widens between those who already own a property and can sell it to finance the next one, and those starting from scratch.

This disconnect fuels a sense of standstill. You wait for the right moment, for prices to drop, for the ideal rate, for perfect professional stability. Meanwhile, your savings sit idle and your property purchasing power slowly erodes.

The problem, then, is not a lack of desire, nor always a lack of savings. It is a pile-up of obstacles that, stacked end to end, keep pushing the deadline back. Understanding exactly what these obstacles are is the first step to regaining control. Each one calls for a different response, and some of these responses do not necessarily involve buying a complete home right away.

The deposit, the real invisible wall

There is a lot of talk about rates and prices. There is far less talk about the deposit. Yet it is the deposit that blocks the most applications before they even reach a bank advisor.

In 2025, the average personal deposit put toward a property purchase reached around 17% of the total cost of the transaction. In several major cities, this means crossing the 100,000 euro mark. You need to have built up this sum before you even begin, not counting notary and guarantee fees that come on top.

The deposit is not just a financial requirement. It is a social filter. It favours those who can rely on family support, an inheritance, or a high savings capacity tied to comfortable incomes. For a first-time buyer with none of these levers, the step up is steep.

This wall is all the more invisible because it appears on no property listing. The advertised price of a home says nothing about the cash you need to assemble beforehand. Many buyers discover the scale of the deposit required only when they put their application together, often too late to adjust their savings strategy without losing yet another year.

Why 10% no longer cuts it in most cities

The old rule of thumb said you needed roughly 10% of the price to cover ancillary fees. That era is over in most high-demand areas.

With an average deposit now around 17% of the budget, banks are no longer content simply to see notary and guarantee fees covered. They expect a genuine contribution toward financing the property itself. This secures the loan and signals a borrower capable of saving over time.

In concrete terms, on a home priced at 300,000 euros, aiming for 10% means putting up 30,000 euros. Aiming for 17% requires more than 50,000 euros. The 20,000 euro gap often represents one or two additional years of saving. During that time, the price of the coveted property has not stood still. This is the cycle that gives the impression of chasing a target that keeps moving away.

The trap of savings sitting idle while waiting for the right moment

Building a deposit means setting money aside. The natural instinct is to place it in secure, accessible vehicles, regulated savings accounts or capital-guaranteed funds, so as not to risk losing everything when the time comes to buy.

The problem is the return. Savings earning 2 or 3% while inflation and property prices march forward lose ground in real terms. Every year spent waiting for the perfect moment is a year in which your capital barely works, while the purchase target keeps evolving. This is exactly why regulated savings accounts earn so little, and why some savers look for alternatives.

This is not a case for taking reckless risks with a deposit. Capital earmarked for a near-term purchase must remain cautious. But when the purchase horizon is measured in several years, leaving all your savings idle becomes an invisible cost. There are intermediate ways to grow part of that sum without freezing it entirely.

Rates, prices, borrowing capacity: what the bank actually calculates

Many buyers focus on the price of the property. The bank reasons differently. What it assesses is your ability to repay over time, through three interlocking variables: the rate, the amount borrowed and your income.

In early 2026, mortgage rates sit in a range of roughly 3.1% to 3.4% depending on the term and profile. Over 15 years, average rates hover around 3.2%. Over 20 years, about 3.3%. Over 25 years, about 3.4%. Be careful not to confuse these average rates with the best advertised rates, reserved for the strongest applications, which can go lower but concern only a minority of borrowers.

These levels, stabilised after a sharp rise, change the picture compared with the previous decade when people were borrowing below 2%. At an equal monthly payment, a higher rate mechanically reduces the capital you can borrow. This is where real purchasing power is decided.

The bank also applies a strict debt limit, generally around 35% of income, insurance included. This constraint caps the loan amount regardless of your desire to buy something larger. Combined with a demanding deposit, it narrows the funnel.

One lever exists for first-time buyers: the interest-free loan. In 2026, the scheme was broadened. New-build property is once again eligible across the entire country, new houses included, and the scheme has been extended through the end of 2027. Depending on income, it can finance up to half the transaction for a new apartment. Be aware, however: an interest-free loan never finances a purchase on its own. It always comes alongside a main loan, and it does not remove the need for a deposit. It eases the burden, it does not tear down the wall.

Understanding this mechanism avoids nasty surprises. The purchase budget is not the advertised price. It is the result of an equation where the rate, the term, the deposit and the interest-free loan all interact. Change a single variable and the whole picture shifts.

Waiting for prices to fall, the riskiest bet of all

Faced with these obstacles, the temptation to stall is strong. I will wait for prices to drop. This strategy seems prudent. In reality, it is one of the riskiest bets a first-time buyer can make.

Recent data tells a very different story from one of collapsing prices. In the third quarter of 2025, prices of existing homes rose by about 0.7% year on year. In some major metropolitan areas, there was even a slight rebound of 0.4% year on year, driven by apartments, after several quarters of decline. These are not the figures of a collapsing market. They are the figures of a stabilisation.

Why are prices not falling despite higher rates? Several factors combine. The supply of new-build homes is shrinking, which shifts demand toward existing properties and supports their prices. Sellers, rather than cutting sharply, prefer to lengthen selling times and negotiate at the margins. The market adjusts through time and negotiation, not through sudden drops.

In this context, waiting amounts to betting on an event the indicators do not signal. And even if a decline did occur, it could coincide with a rise in rates that would cancel out the gain on the price. A property that is 5% cheaper but financed at a higher rate can cost more overall than an immediate purchase.

There is also the opportunity cost. Every year spent waiting is a year of rent paid with nothing to show for it if you are renting, and a year in which your savings stagnate. The bet on falling prices requires correctly guessing the price, the rate and the timing all at once. Few professional investors manage this. A first-time buyer has neither the tools nor the data to do it reliably.

This does not mean you should buy anything at any price. It means systematically postponing on the hope of a hypothetical drop is a fragile strategy. Better to act on what you can control: your savings, your gradual exposure to the market, and the preparation of your application.

Gaining exposure to real estate before you have the budget for a full purchase

Here is the idea that changes everything. People often believe there are only two positions: owner of a complete home, or entirely outside the property market. That is false. Between the two, there is room to gain exposure to real estate with a modest budget. This is precisely the logic behind buying or investing elsewhere as a first-time buyer.

Fractional real estate is the most accessible illustration of this. The principle is to invest in a fraction of a real property asset, starting from tickets far smaller than those of a traditional purchase. Where some of the cheapest property funds require around 180 euros, certain forms of fractional real estate let you enter from just a few dozen euros. Public appetite for these solutions is real: a recent operation on a landmark building in a major city centre was fully subscribed to the tune of 1.5 million euros in under three hours.

This alternative for the first-time buyer does not replace buying your main residence. It plays a complementary role. It lets you place part of your savings in real estate while you build your deposit, rather than leaving it idle in a savings account.

One essential note of caution: the returns sometimes advertised for these products, in a range of 8 to 12%, are neither guaranteed nor systematically audited independently. This market is young. It carries real risks: possible loss of capital, limited liquidity, a regulatory framework still under construction. These solutions should therefore be approached with caution and represent a measured share of your wealth, never the entirety of the deposit earmarked for a near-term purchase.

Putting your deposit to work instead of freezing it

A deposit fund should not be exposed to the highest risks, since its intended use horizon is relatively short. But freezing everything at 2 or 3% for several years carries a real cost against inflation.

A balanced approach is to segment. One portion stays secure and available, ready for the purchase. Another portion, the part you can mobilise later, can be placed in more dynamic vehicles exposed to real property. This is where fractional investing finds its purpose: a low entry ticket lets you diversify without tying up large sums.

The goal is not to turn your deposit into a speculative portfolio. It is to limit the erosion of your capital during the wait, while keeping part of it perfectly liquid. Every euro that works modestly for two or three years offsets a share of the rise in property prices, instead of passively absorbing it.

Keeping the door to buying open without taking on debt

One advantage of a fractional exposure is that it does not commit you to a loan. You take on no debt, you are not subject to the 35% debt limit, and you do not weaken your future banking application. This is the crux of buying on credit or diversifying without debt.

This is a strategic point for a first-time buyer. Taking out a consumer loan or another borrowing to invest would reduce your future ability to obtain a mortgage. An exposure without debt fully preserves that capacity.

So you keep preparing your main purchase in parallel. You can draw on the interest-free loan when the time comes, present a fully built deposit, and demonstrate to the bank a culture of saving and investing. Far from closing doors, this gradual approach lets you stay an active player in the property market while keeping your purchase project fully within reach the day the conditions suit you.

The real cost of a year spent doing nothing

Let us put a figure on the cost of waiting. The exercise that follows is an illustrative simulation, not a forecast. Its purpose is to visualise an order of magnitude.

Take a buyer targeting a property at 300,000 euros, with a deposit fund of 50,000 euros. If they wait a year doing nothing, several costs pile up silently.

First cost: the rise in prices. Based on a stabilised increase of about 0.7% per year observed recently, the same property would cost around 2,100 euros more the following year. It is not spectacular, but it is an amount to add to the deposit or the loan.

Second cost: the missed gains on savings. If the 50,000 euros sit at 2% instead of working at a higher return, the performance gap over one year can represent several hundred euros in forgone income. Over three or four years of waiting, that gap accumulates.

Third cost, often the heaviest: the rent paid during the wait if you are renting. A rent of 900 euros per month represents 10,800 euros over the year, an expense that builds no wealth.

Adding these elements together, a year of waiting can represent, in this example, between 12,000 and 15,000 euros of combined real cost. This figure is not an official statistic. It is a reconstruction meant to show that inaction is never neutral. It has a price, even when nothing seems to be moving.

The lesson is clear. Passively waiting for the perfect moment costs money every year. Acting, even partially, even without buying a complete home right away, reduces that cost. This is precisely the role of a gradual exposure to real estate.

Take back control of your property project starting today

The first purchase is no longer the linear journey it once was. The deposit frequently exceeds 17% of the budget and crosses the 100,000 euro mark in major cities. Rates, stabilised around 3.1% to 3.4%, tighten borrowing capacity. Prices are not falling, they are stabilising, with an increase of around 0.7% year on year. Waiting for the perfect moment means betting against the facts, and every year of waiting has a concrete cost.

The good news is that there is an intermediate position between standstill and the immediate purchase of a complete home. You can begin gaining exposure to real property with a modest budget, put part of your savings to work rather than freeze it, and do all of this without taking on debt that would penalise your future application. This approach requires caution, because the products involved carry risks and unguaranteed returns. But well calibrated, it turns an endured wait into active preparation.

This is exactly the spirit of Shelters. The platform lets you invest in real property assets from small amounts, through digital bonds backed by physical assets. Each operation is presented with transparency: the identified property, the exact term, the target return known in advance. The tickets, ranging between 2,000 and 10,000 euros, adapt to savings still being built. And because Shelters systematically co-invests in every project alongside its users, its interests are aligned with yours. If your first purchase is still waiting, that is no reason to let your property project wait too. Explore what fractional real estate can bring to your strategy today.