Halifax backs first-time buyers through our mortgages and much more, says Amanda Bryden, head of Halifax Intermediaries

Halifax supports one in five of the UK’s first-time buyers.

As the nation’s largest lender, we take our responsibility to aspiring homeowners seriously.

From designing a wide first-time buyer product range to investing in market-leading service, we’re reliable, consistent and trustworthy.

But we go beyond lending, playing a huge part in helping shape the first-time buyer sector in addition to providing a wide range of competitive mortgages.

Here are 10 of the ways Halifax directly and indirectly supports first-time buyers on top of our mortgages:

1. Supporting government homeownership schemes

Halifax aims to support all of the government’s affordable homeownership schemes, from Shared Ownership to First Homes. We think it’s important that we’re actively involved in helping make these initiatives work for first time buyers.

We work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, HM Treasury and Homes England and the devolved governments to support the design and implementation of these schemes. We also work with local authorities on initiatives, such as local discount market schemes which work well for local and key workers.

2. Financing the building of social housing

The social housing sector is a critical foundation of the UK housing market. We play a huge role in funding social homebuilding. Halifax, as part of Lloyds Banking Group, is the biggest supporter of social housing in the UK, working with over 200 housing associations. Since 2018 we have supported more than £17bn of new funding to the social housing sector, including £2.7bn in 2023.

3. UK’s largest funder of new build

As the UK’s biggest banking group, we’re also the largest supporter of the new build sector. We help to fund the building of highly energy-efficient new homes by large developers and small building firms. Many of these homes are purchased through affordable homeownership schemes, predominantly by first-time buyers.

Through the Housing Growth Partnership, we proactively support the SME house builder sector through investing in and partnering with builders to help them get established for the long term.

4. Bringing the industry together

We believe that no single entity, lender, trade body, builder or government department can be solely responsible for the first-time buyer sector, or the housing market as a whole. But together many of us play a role in shaping the market to support aspiring homeowners.

Cross-industry collaboration is vitally important in the housing market, so we work hard to facilitate this cooperation. From being present on a vast range of cross-industry initiatives, groups and projects to hosting the Lloyds Banking Group Housing Senate as a forum for cross market collaboration we’re passionate about working together and encouraging creative solutions.

5. Shared Ownership Council

Following a review of access to homeownership by Lloyds Banking Group which found that partial ownership schemes will be increasingly important to bridge people from renting to owning.

We’re a founder member of the Shared Ownership Council, designed to promote and maintain best practice in this important sector. It’s in the early stages, but we plan to do more over 2024 and beyond to support buyers.

The Council aims to create a cross market ‘consumer code’ and help to improve the experiences and outcomes of shared ownership for consumers and industry stakeholders.The Council currently comprises of cross-industry experts from  housing associations, professional bodies, lenders, academics and mortgage distributors.

6. Crisis partnership

Together with homelessness charity, Crisis, we are calling for one million new and genuinely affordable homes to be built and made available to those on the lowest incomes. And we’re working hard with a range of partners to make that happen.

7. Private sector schemes

We think that the private sector has a huge role to play in funding affordable homeownership and Halifax supports private shared equity, shared ownership and other affordable housing schemes. This includes piloting new approaches to new build and second-hand shared ownership schemes, for example.

We’re always happy to discuss similar partnerships and pilots with other providers and builders and look to create an effective private market which works well for consumers, lenders, house builders and housing associations.

8. Citra Living

Launched in 2021, Citra Living is Lloyds Banks new housing company. Its mission is to improve access to good quality, sustainable homes, positively promoting private rent and championing shared ownership. This means supporting the development of a variety of different homes, to meet growing demand, offered at good value, right across Britain. And investing in communities where people want to work and live.

In 2023 Citra launched ‘Pathways’ – offering people the opportunity to initially rent their home, and then when they are ready, to start buying their home through shared ownership.

9. Innovative Products

We recently launched our Rate Reducer mortgage in partnership with Own New. This incentive-linked discount mortgage is available on selected new-build Barratt Homes. The developer offers an incentive that is built into a discount on the mortgage rate to boost affordability and buying power. For some borrowers with high deposits, rates could start at below one per cent.

10. Supporting sustainable housing

Halifax is committed to helping create a sustainable housing market, from providing the tools and support to help mortgage advisers and their customers, supporting development of energy-efficient new homes to retrofitting existing properties.

We already reward buyers for choosing greener homes and support the building of sustainable properties, as we recently explained in Green from the get-go  and are actively developing propositions which will help move the dial towards net zero.

Laser-focused on lending

Of course our day to day purpose is to help people achieve their home ownership ambitions and we never forget that creating and providing competitive, transparent mortgages is at the heart of our business.

We’re proud to have helped 350 first-time buyers into their new homes every single working day of 2023.

Our first-time buyer proposition is wide, competitive and varied, including fixed, tracker and green mortgages, alongside fee-free deals, large loans and new build mortgages.

We lend up to 95 per cent loan to value and up to 5.5 times income, with criteria designed to support aspiring homeowners, including increasing our maximum working age to 75 and we support many schemes designed to help buyers.

The bigger picture

But we look at the bigger picture for first-time buyers too, beyond our role as the UK’s largest mortgage lender.

We want the housing sector to work together to build, not just more homes, but the right sustainable and affordable homes in the right places and we will continue to proactively work with our partners in the market to deliver this ambition.

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