New data finds that the number of people who bought their first homes this year slid to a level last seen in 2012, when public concerns about becoming "house poor" were at their highest.

According to data from the Supreme Court’s Internet Registry Office on Monday, 168-thousand-713 people were estimated to have bought, for the first time in their life, a unit in a "collective building," which includes apartments, officetels, townhouses and multiplex housing, in the first half of this year.

The figure is the lowest to be posted for the first half of the year since 2012 and the second lowest since related statistics began to be compiled in 2010.

2012 was the year when people’s concerns about becoming “house poor” peaked. Being "house poor" refers to a situation in which a homeowner struggles to pay off their mortgage.