This equates to around 1,500 first-time buyers who have opted for the product, and within that, 700 have got the keys to their property and moved in.
From a regional perspective, the top five regions for Delayed Start deals were the South East, North West, East of England, East Midlands and Scotland.
The mutual brought out its Delayed Start mortgage in May last year, which is exclusively for first-time buyers and suspends mortgage repayments for the first three months to give borrowers “breathing room” as they manage the extra costs of getting onto the property ladder.
The deal is available up to 95% loan to value (LTV) on a two- or five-year term, and interest on the monthly payments will accrue from day one and be added to the overall mortgage balance.
The product can also be used alongside Skipton Building Society’s Income Booster product.
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Jen Lloyd (pictured), head of products and proposition at Skipton Building Society, said: “We were quite confident in the logic for the product and the fact that the product met a need, which is lots of people end up paying rent and mortgage in the first month or two of moving, which is a lot of additional financial burden for people.
“That was the thought behind the product and bringing it to market, but it has surpassed our expectations in terms of the popularity of it, and that’s why we are thinking about how can we further build on the success that it’s seen and how can we keep iterating?”
She added that its Track Record mortgage, which can go up to 100% LTV and uses the record of rental payments to determine borrowing amounts, saw a 120% uplift year-on-year in 2024 and it would be “building on that for 2026”.
Lloyd noted that Skipton Building Society would “welcome innovation from all different lenders”.
“It [is] just that there are more options for first-time buyers and we stand behind our proposition, but we welcome more innovation. It’s all fitting into that narrative, which is that it is becoming increasingly complex to buy a house in the UK, and so lenders need to be challenging the status quo and thinking differently about how we can support people… in a way that is more reflective of real-life situations.
“The ongoing consultation with FCA pointed to that. Obviously, it’s a very far-reaching discussion paper, but there’s lots of areas in there, which points to an acknowledgement that, as an industry, we need to think a bit differently and maybe be a bit braver,” she added.
Lloyd said Skipton Building Society was expecting a “good year” this year and would “always look to significantly outgrow the market”.
“The signs are looking good so far, we’ve got off to a strong start… in this year. You always get a bit of a lull around Christmas, then you come back in the new year, but we’re at full-throttle now already, which is great, and long may it continue.
“I think it’s been a very tricky couple of years where we saw interest rates elevated and cost-of-living pressures and it was very daunting for would-be buyers. I’m thinking a lot of first-time buyers have got lots of more reasons to be optimistic into 2026,” she explained.
