No longer is Mr & Mrs Average with 2.4 children driving the housing market it seems. Instead Mr & Miss Alternative have hold of the reins in today’s society.

Nowadays, over one in five buyers are twenty-something’s and a similar proportion are same-sex couples. Add in nearly one in five who are singletons and it’s clear to see that it’s a ‘Not so average Joe’ kind of market.

Over one in ten people are planning on buying a new home in the next 12 months, and 60% of them will be ‘alternative’ buyers, according to new research from Birmingham Midshires 'Not so Average Joe' campaign.

At a time when house prices are rising at their fastest rate for two years, the latest findings show that as many as 28% of homebuyers plan to purchase a new property within the next 12 months as an investment. More than one in ten (12%) homebuyers will be downsizing and buying something more modest.

At a time when the majority of financial services companies focus primarily on the average Briton - the new Birmingham Midshires study - ‘Not so average Joe’ focuses on the consumer groups that live outside the parameters of Mr or Mrs Average, looking instead at the issues that affect them and how their views vary from the UK average.

• Almost one in three (28%) people buying a home in the next 12 months are doing as an investment.
• As many as 41% of same sex couples and single people see their next purchase as a good way to make money on house price rises, compared with just 24% of average 2.4 child families buying their next property as an investment.
• More than one in ten homebuyers (12%) will swap large for small, and will be moving in the next 12 months in order to downsize. Almost half of over 50's buying property over the next 12 months will do so in order to downsize.

Regional Findings

Home sales in Newcastle will be driven largely by those people looking to downsize. Almost a third of all property bought in Newcastle will be bought by the over-50's looking for something smaller - compared with just 15% in Birmingham.

Londoners are the most likely to be buying to capitalize on further increases in house prices. Almost a third of the capitals homebuyers plan to purchase a buy-to-let property as an investment - compared with 25% in Bristol.