First time property buyers in London are having to stump up an average deposit of £64,000, a new study has found.

This all-time high comes after a period of strong house price growth in the capital which has outpaced the rest of the UK.

The report from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) also shows that first time buyers have been taking out bigger mortgages, increasing from an average of £183,900 in the second quarter of 2012 to £192,600 in the equivalent period this year.

Despite this rise the figures suggest that the affordability level remained relatively unchanged thanks to higher incomes and falling interest rates, with first time buyers spending on average 20.8% of their income on mortgage payments in quarter one of 2012 compared to 21% in the first quarter of 2013.

Nevertheless, that means affordability continues to be tight for Londoners taking their first steps on to the residential property market.

In the second quarter of 2013, first time buyers in the capital borrowed on average 3.67 times their income for mortgages, compared to 3.3 for the UK as a whole.

This could go some way to explaining why Londoners are putting down bigger deposits than first-time buyers in other regions, the CML said.

Interestingly though, despite the affordability issue there is a higher proportion of first time buyers in the London property market than in property markets elsewhere.

In the second quarter, 56% of house purchase loans in London went to first time buyers compared to a figure of 46% in the UK overall.

A total of 11,200 loans for house purchases in London went to first time buyers in the second quarter of 2013, which was the highest figure since 2007.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the report shows that incomes of first time buyers in London are higher than in other regions, at an average of £52,100 per annum compared to £35,400 in the UK overall.

And in terms of value, the figures reveal there has been a significant increase in mortgage lending in London across the board over recent months.

With 20,100 house purchase loans advanced in London worth £5.1 billion in total, this marks a 23% rise in value compared to the first quarter of 2013 and a 20% rise compared to quarter two in 2012.

CML director general Paul Smee said first time buyer activity in particular has provided a boost to the homebuying figures.

He said: "Total lending for house purchase has also increased this quarter upon last and from a year ago which suggests increasing confidence that economic conditions are becoming more favourable."

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