THERE are fears that securing a home in Malmesbury as a first-time buyer is becoming more and more out of reach, as prices continue to soar well above the national average.

New figures from property website Zoopla show that it is becoming harder to purchase a home in the market town.

In the last 12 months house prices have risen by 5.55 per cent compared to the national average of 0.45 per cent, while flat prices have increased by 5.43 per cent compared to a national drop of 2.35 per cent.

The pattern is concerning for people in the area who are often left renting indefinitely.

Keith Maslin, director of Blount & Maslin, a Malmesbury-based estate agents, said: “I’m struggling to think when Malmesbury was affordable.

“People don’t have a job in the same place for 30 years like they used to. The workforce is more moveable now, people go where jobs are.”

Paul Barton, 34, works in Malmesbury and wants to move there, having been brought up in the town. He says it is impossible to find affordable and available housing.

Mr Barton said: “The cost of buying here or renting is ridiculous. How is anyone supposed to get on the property ladder when wages don’t match the cost of living these days?”

Sallie Randall now lives near Chichester having moved away from Malmesbury. She said: “We would eventually like to move back, and so I keep an eye on prices, and have to say that I have seen prices soar.”

It is feared the problem will only get worse with the introduction of the Housing Bill that Parliament is currently debating.

The bill is an extension of Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme which gave council housing tenants the ability to buy their homes from the council.

The new bill means that tenants of housing associations will be able to do the same.

Malmesbury Town Council member Gavin Grant said the bill presents a “huge danger that we’re about to see history repeat itself”.

Speaking about the bill he said: “It will mean far less opportunity for people who can’t afford to buy a house to stay in Malmesbury.

“We need to find a way of replacing those properties that are bought up. If we don’t that means one less social rental home for people who can’t afford to buy.”

North Wiltshire MP James Gray is chairman of the committee looking at the Housing Bill. Due to commitments to this role he cannot comment – or vote – on the bill itself but said: “We think that where possible people ought to own their own houses.

“I sympathise with people with young families [who want to buy in Malmesbury] and we have allowed new houses to be built, but, you could make Malmesbury the size of Swindon and it will ruin the town.”

Howard Toplis, chief executive GreenSquare, a housing association that owns a number of properties in Malmesbury, said: “All across the country young people are being forced to move away from the places they grew up in because they’re being priced out, or because there aren’t enough homes available for them to move in to.

“Increasing the availability of affordable homes in rural areas, including those for shared ownership and for affordable rent, means that we are helping young people to put down roots in countryside locations, close to their friends and families.

“Over the next year in Malmesbury, GreenSquare will be offering 54 properties for affordable rent at the new Filands View development, helping local families in housing need.”

It is hoped the 800 homes provision in Malmesbury’s Neighbourhood Plan will help alleviate the shortage in affordable homes.