Abbey is cutting its typical personal loanrate for Internet applications. Because of this interest rate cut, first time buyers in the UK are now more inclined to buy a new house. Most first-time buyers are not prepared for costs involved in buying and moving into a new house, such as legal fees, stamp duty and moving costs. Gary Hockey-Morley, Abbey's Director of Mortgages, suggests that the first-time buyers must anticipate such costs before buying a house.

Abbey claims that it offers a free valuation and also helps the first-time buyers reduce their costs of buying a house. According to Abbey, 44% of the first-time buyers aim to raise more than £13,000 as a deposit for a house and 9% aim to raise a deposit between £10,000 and £13,000. 12% said they would raise between £7,000 and £10,000. 8% don’t intend to save any deposit at all.