First-time buyers defied the EU referendum jitters in May after paying a record amount to purchase their first home, according to estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains.

While the wider market may have stalled, May saw first-time buyers pay an average of £173,282 to get on to the housing ladder, up 2.7% from £168,656 in April and 15.8% more than the average of £149,645 seen in May 2015.

The agents’ First Time Buyer Tracker shows the number of sales slumped slightly to 24,900 in May, just 0.8% lower than the 25,100 seen in April, but that is still 13.2% higher than February and 5.1% higher than a year ago.

The average first-time buyer property price now tops £150,000, including the east of England at £161,088, the south-west at £165,068 and the south-east at £229,828.

London remains the most expensive region to buy a first home, with first-time buyers in the capital now paying an average of £338,074 to get on the housing ladder, saving an average of £84,138 as a deposit and taking out a mortgage of £253,936 on average.

The north-east was the cheapest region for first-time buyers with prices at £106,022, less than a third of the cost of the average London property.

Low mortgage rates are helping affordability, but deposits are still an issue for first-time buyers. The average first-time buyer deposit for May was £27,669, up 12.8% from £24,523 a year ago. When compared to the average first-time buyer income of £39,651, this represents an extra 29 days’ worth of salary. As a proportion of income, the average deposit has climbed 6.1 percentage points compared to May 2015.

Adrian Gill, director of estate agents Your Move and Reeds Rains, said: “May saw a crunch in the number of home owners putting up a ‘for sale’ sign as many sellers held back to see the result of the EU referendum.

“But Brexit worries haven’t dented first-time buyers’ appetite to own their own home. Many still want to capitalise on the record low mortgage rates available at the moment which mean that monthly mortgage repayments are increasingly affordable.

“The Brexit result won’t change the fact that huge numbers of aspiring first-timers want to buy a first home, and lots won’t want to wait out the two years until the renegotiations over the EU have been completed.

“In the short-term, the wider market wobbles may benefit first-timers, giving them the leverage to negotiate harder and get a good deal on purchase price. Canny first-timers will use any Brexit lull as a chance to snap up a good deal and get on the housing ladder.”