Paul Roberts, senior account director at Family Building Society, said that where he operates in the North of England, the “vast majority of cases” tend to be parents helping their children onto the property ladder.
However, he said there was a “significant proportion” for whom the reverse was the case; for instance, where parents may be coming to the end of their term for their traditional mortgage, want to stay in their home and have moved on to pension income, which may not be sufficient.
He pointed to examples of siblings helping siblings or grandchildren assisting grandparents and vice versa.
Grace Bennett, business development manager (BDM) at Family Building Society, agreed that most of her cases for JBSP were first-time buyers getting onto the property ladder that needed “support from family members”.
“It’s not just restricted to purchases, either; we see clients remortgage as well. It might be that they need to do some essential home improvements,” she said.
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Roberts said JBSP is “ideally suited” to people who in 5-7 years’ time will be able to afford the mortgage in their own right, but it’s the monthly payment today that “makes the difference”.
He said that while Family Building Society may be “slightly more expensive” than a high street lender, the manual underwriting approach, recently upped maximum loan size, maximum LTV and acceptance of wider family members set it apart.
Bennett continued on to say that broker interest in the products was “absolutely” growing, adding that it was seeing more brokers who “have never used JBSP” before.
“We do class ourselves as that intergenerational lender, and it’s about different ways of exploring that and that and how we can help first-time buyers and all those clients looking to get onto the property ladder. I would say we see new brokers, existing brokers, all keen to want to learn more about this product that we can offer,” she added.
Watch the 15:55 video, chaired by Anna Sagar, with speakers Grace Bennett, BDM at Family Building Society, and Paul Roberts, senior account director at Family Building Society.
