“Customers need to be able to access whatever type of broker they want to and access the products that are available on the market across the range. Most of us operate a whole-of-market proposition, and customers should have access to that if they walk into any of the brokers on the high street. So I’m saying there’s a place for both. And it’s important that there is a range,” she added.

In the fourth part [08.38] of a video series, in association with Accord Mortgages, Mortgage Solutions‘ contributing editor and host Victoria Hartley outlined the raft of affordability solutions targeting first-time buyers, from Accord’s £5k deposit mortgage to shared homeownership and the government’s first homes scheme offering homes at a 30-50% discount.

David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages, said of the range of product offerings in the first-time buyer market: “I think education is the key here both for brokers and for consumers.

“You’ve given a really good whistlestop tour of all those different schemes, which will pinpoint different areas of the chain from Lifetime ISAs while someone’s trying to save a deposit through to some of the schemes that might help with affordability such as first homes. Brokers are going to have to keep abreast of those, but I think as Vikki says, [you don’t want to get] too specialised for a [single] market, like first-time buyers, which is so vital to the housing market, actually you want brokers to be across all sectors the whole time,” he added.

“Education for them and for consumers [is needed] so that they’re making the most of these schemes.”

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Part-own, part-buy appeal

On shared home ownership (SHO), Hartley said half of all government funding currently goes into this form of affordability support and that broker Just Mortgages reported a spike in enquiries of new-build leads of up to 60% at the start of the year.

Jeremy Duncombe, director of mortgage distribution at YBS and managing director at Accord, said whatever the solution, advice is central to unlocking this complex market. Accord isn’t currently lending in SHO, but Duncombe agreed it’s a ‘valuable’ way to solve the affordability conundrum.

He said: “Generally people don’t buy a part of a house unless they have to. They would rather buy the full thing, but affordability is the reason shared ownership is so popular.”

He added that bringing back a form of Help to Buy* or an expansion in SHO will all help borrowers struggling to buy.

“But affordability is the challenge we’re all trying to solve here,” he added.

 

*This video was recorded before the Conservatives announced the return of a form of Help to Buy in their election manifesto this week.

 

Watch the three previous videos in the series, in association with Accord here, debating the Accord £5k Deposit Mortgage, the removal of the four-and-a-half times borrower loan-to-income cap and solving the housebuilding conundrum.

 

This video was produced as sponsored content.