NatWest launched its Family-Backed mortgage at the end of April, a version of the traditional joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP) mortgage, which lets eligible customers apply for a mortgage with a family member or friend and boosts the amount a customer can borrow.
Edwards said the bank has already “started to see applications from the new proposition”, but a key aspect of the launch is that it has opened up conversations between brokers and customers on schemes and other support that is available in the market.
“There’s an optimism in the market. This proposition is an opportunity to open that dialogue up for our brokers, their customers and their homeownership aspiration,” she said.
Edwards said its recently launched Family-Backed mortgage is the first step in growing its first-time buyer proposition, adding: “We don’t see that as a one and done”.
She continued on to say that NatWest was looking at what else it can do to support first-time buyer customers.
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“I think from an accessibility perspective, if you look at how parents want to support their children to get onto the property ladder, there’s a lack of awareness around products like this being available. Our NatWest Family-Backed mortgage means that they can support them [their children] without giving money towards the deposit, but obviously their children own it on the deeds perspective, and it’s actually helping first-time buyers get on in a different way,” Edwards said.
Edwards said NatWest was looking at how it could “continue to evolve” the Family-Backed mortgage based on customer profile and demographic.
(NatWest Family-Backed Mortgage: Eligibility and exclusions apply. Minimum income £20,000 per annum is required for the owning customer. Independent legal advice is required by the non-owner.)
First-time buyers ‘integral part’ of NatWest proposition
Edwards said first-time buyers are an “integral part” part of NatWest’s mortgage proposition.
“We have really strong affordability, which supports all mortgage customers. We’ve made some recent tweaks to our stress rates, which is supporting brokers and their customers, in particular first-time buyers, to get the mortgage they want,” Edwards said.
She noted that rates are becoming more competitive, particularly after the base rate reduction implemented at the beginning of the month.
Edwards continued on to say that NatWest looks at gifted deposits from people outside of the family to help towards the deposit and offers terms of up to 40 years and up to a maximum age of 75.
“We are conscious that your average first-time buyer is in their 30s now, and the demographic of your customer profile is changing, so we are conscious of supporting that,” she said.
“There is still a real desire for homeownership, and as one of the largest banks out there with a really strong customer focus, we need to make sure that we’re always keeping one eye on what we need to be doing to evolve. We’re continuing to work with our broker partners to make sure that our initiatives strongly support the first-time buyer segment,” she added.
