Prime borrowers are subject to the mutual’s standard credit criteria which allows minimal credit issues, with none in the last year. 

Rate cuts have been made to the three-year discount product, which is 2.05 per cent lower than the mutual’s standard variable rate (SVR). This has been reduced from 3.29 per cent to 2.99 per cent. 

The three-year fixed product has also been cut from 3.29 per cent to 2.99 per cent. 

JSBP mortgages 

Its JBSP range is now available up to 90 per cent LTV, previously 80 per cent LTV. The mutual said this was in response to feedback from both customers and brokers. 

Tim Vigeon (pictured), head of lending at Buckinghamshire Building Society, said: “We pride ourselves on supporting people to own a home of their own and we are determined to do whatever we can to help first-time buyers join the property ladder. These significant changes to our product offering provides people with better value and more flexibility.  

“This, coupled with our human approach to underwriting, will ensure we are able to consider applications on a case by case basis, with the aim of a positive outcome. We work closely with our broker network and feedback has allowed us to evaluate and continuously improve the products we offer.” 

Products for first-time buyers have received the largest cuts, such as the joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP) product at 90 per cent loan to value (LTV). The two-year fixed rate product has been reduced to 2.58 per cent from 3.53 per cent.  

The lender’s Help to Buy England and Wales mortgages at 75 per cent LTV have also been reduced, including the two-year fixed deal which has gone down by 63 bps to 2.01 per cent.   

Across its remortgages, the mutual has cut the two-year fixed product at 75 per cent LTV from 1.58 per cent to 1.48 per cent.  

Morgan Miles, head of products at Principality Building Society, said: ‘’We’re pleased to be reducing rates across our mortgage range to support our brokers and customer needs.  

“We hope the reductions on the Help to Buy England and Wales mortgages and joint borrower sole proprietor offering will further assist first-time buyers looking to get onto the property ladder.” 

The society lent £483m in H1, up from £357m of loans made during the lockdown-hit six months in the first half last year.

The Newcastle enjoyed “a stable source of funding for mortgage lending,” this year, it said, with the savings market continuing to grow, on top of last year’s uplift, owing to lower spending during lockdowns. 

The “strong mortgage market” had been “fuelled by a combination of government intervention and a shift in the needs of homeowners,” it added.

Growth in mortgage lending included adding 2,300 new customers, while “maintaining a sensible lending approach,” the lender said.

It specifically highlighted initiatives for first-time buyers, including its roles in Deposit Unlock and First Homes, as well as its 95 per cent, Help to Buy and Joint Mortgage Sole Proprietor offers.

Operating profit before impairments and provisions was £13m, up from £7.3m in H1 2020.

Newcastle brokers

Advice subsidiary Newcastle Financial Advisers “delivered a strong performance,” exceeding planned targets on growth of its customer base, level of funds invested, funds under management, and customer service, the Newcastle said.

The society moved out of its Newcastle city centre head office in early 2021, and is investing in “a substantial programme of transformation”, to provide a future-friendly hybrid working environment at its Cobalt Park, North Tyneside, site.

Andrew Haigh, chief executive at Newcastle Building Society (pictured), said: “We’ve continued our focus on helping communities recover from the impacts of the pandemic, and driven innovations in home ownership to help borrowers onto the property ladder, particularly those with lower deposits.”

The lender also made two new board appointments in H1, following departure of chairman Phil Moorhouse after almost a decade.

James Ramsbotham, CBE DL, was appointed as chairman. Ramsbotham was formerly chief executive at the North East of England Chamber of Commerce, and before that served for 14 years with Barclays, and was chair of Darlington Building Society.

Michelle Faull was appointed as a non-executive director and to the audit and group risk committees. Faull is a former chief financial officer at Coventry Building Society and risk director at Nationwide.

Questions most commonly focused on cladding, joint borrower sole proprietor products and expat borrowing.

Primis’s product desk answered 2,123 queries in total in July, compared to a monthly average of 2,083 last year.

The cladding issue drew questions trying to clear up confusion about criteria for EWS1 forms. The joint borrower sole proprietor queries reflected growing numbers of parents looking to help offspring get on the property ladder.

Finally, expat questions related to concerns that lenders may stop offering products to these borrowers owing to Brexit and this would preclude those clients from switching deals.

Vikki Jefferies, proposition director at Primis (pictured), said: “These figures demonstrate the success of our product desk, with the increase on July last year especially interesting given the high levels of market uncertainty at that time. Obviously we’re very pleased brokers have continued finding value in our support.

“There are still challenges in the market and we will continue to invest in our broker relationships and provide support through our product desk and virtual experts webpage,” Jefferies added.

The broker, which launched in June, offers a whole-of-market service with a focus on mortgages designed to let first-time buyers (FTBs) lean on friends or family to support a purchase.

The firm is also an appointed representative of Primis Mortgage Network.

The funding was provided by Aviva, and venture fund Fair by Design, which is backed by Ascension Ventures – whose own backers include Nationwide, Big Society Capital and Joseph Rowntree.

Richard Dana, chief executive and co-founder at Tembo Money (pictured), said the new broking firm was “focused on finding ethical, safe and flexible ways to rebalance the property wealth gap between generations.”

The funds raised would be used to build an online technology platform with an initial fact find that takes in data about potential support from family or friends. A plan is then created to help users reach their goal.

“If they can afford a mainstream product the plan generated will show that. If they’re a bit short, there will be other options,” Dana said.

He added that while 15 to 20 lenders offered joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP) or retirement interest only (RIO) products with the aim to aid affordability for FTBs, they tended to be smaller operations with limited marketing budgets.

“We want to explain these products and raise awareness,” Dana said.

The funds will be used to develop the firm’s technology and to grow Tembo Money’s team.

“We’re incredibly happy that major players in finance and technology like Aviva and Fair by Design are joining us on our journey,” Dana said. 

Dana’s professional history includes a spell in restructuring at EY, a role as co-founder of startup accelerator Founders Factory, and time running boutique travel firm Doris & Dicky.

Tembo Money’s offering includes the Deposit Boost plan, where family or friends can unlock value from their own property by way of a RIO, to top up a first-time buyer’s deposit or create one from scratch.

Additionally, its Income Boost proposition, based around JBSP products, lets a family member allocate some of their own income to the buyer’s mortgage application to increase borrowing potential. 

Private Finance says its team has seen a 200 per cent rise in applications for family-assisted mortgages between quarter one and two this year.

As borrowers are forced to raise larger deposits and need help to pass lenders’ affordability assessments to secure bigger mortgages, family or friends are being called on to lend a hand. Brokers are also reporting that some first-time buyers are using the guarantor option to “leap frog the property ladder”.

According to Nationwide the average first home costs 5.6 times income, much higher than the long-run average of 3.7 time earnings.

A report published by the mutual, Future of Home, revealed that a 20 per cent deposit for a starter home was the equivalent of 104 per cent of a first-time buyer’s pre-tax income and would take between six and 16 years to save.

Thanks to low interest rates, those first-time buyers who can get on the property ladder will spend 28 per cent of their take-home pay on mortgage payments, which is just below the long-term average.

However, the affordability of a mortgage varies by occupation. Carers, labourers, salespeople, couriers and other low earners will find their mortgage payments swallowing over 40 per cent of take-home pay.

Chris Sykes, associate director and mortgage consultant, Private Finance, said: “While a low interest rate environment is good for borrowers, it has contributed significantly in driving up property prices – nearly 10 per cent higher than year ago, especially in combination with the stamp duty holiday and changing tastes and needs off the back of the pandemic.

“This has led to us notice a rise in guarantor and joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP) mortgages in recent weeks as borrowers need to take advantage of friends or family members’ higher income to get the house they want.”

First-time buyers are also opting to skip the first rung of the housing ladder by relying on a guarantor.

“Over the past few years we have noticed many first-time buyers looking to leap frog the property ladder, rather than buying a flat first and then building up equity to buy a new house every few years.  Deterred by the cost of stamp duty, people have often turned to parents to try and maximise their affordability and buy a longer-term home straight off the bat.

“But these products don’t come without complication, the older the parents generally the shorter the term so the higher the monthly payments. However we can often use things like interest only to make the loan achievable.”

Big name banks offering JBSP mortgages include, Barclays, Skipton, Clydesdale, Bank of Ireland and Metro Bank. But specialist lenders such as Family Building Society, the Market Harborough, Newbury and Furness Building Societies also play an important part in the guarantor mortgage market, said Sykes.

He added that borrowers who have taken out a JBSP with a specialist lender may have paid a higher interest rate. However, if their circumstances have improved since taking out the mortgage it is worth looking at remortgage options to remove parents from the mortgage and switch to a high street bank.

A survey of 1,000 first-time buyers conducted by Teachers Building Society revealed 12 per cent of respondents had either applied or received an offer for a joint borrower sole proprietor (JBSP) product. 

Some 54 per cent said they wanted financial help from their parents to buy a home, which is up from 27 per cent pre-Covid. The mutual said that this hinted at a potentially growing market for parent and child products. 

In terms of how much family financial help was expected, 75 per cent said they expected around £13,000. A fifth said they would receive at least £20,000 while a further five per cent expected assistance in excess of £50,000. 

Teachers BS research also revealed that 31 per cent of buyers intended to put down a deposit of more than five per cent, echoing data from the Office for National Statistics which showed the average first-time buyer put down a deposit of 20 per cent. 

The survey also found a fifth of first-time buyers said the biggest hurdle to getting on the property ladder was finding a property they liked within their budget.   

David Leek, head of product and marketing at Teachers Building Society, said: “In a red hot property market it is little surprise that parents who are financially able to support their children buy homes are offering their support.  

“Whilst for some buyers saving for a deposit is a real challenge that a lump sum gift could help solve, for others accepting family help in the form of joining a mortgage could offer better hope of making a purchase, especially in highly priced and competitive areas.”  

“JBSP mortgages are in effect a modern-day guarantor option, boosting affordability for the buyer without the implications of second home ownership for the supporting parents,” he added. 

The product enables students to get onto the property ladder with the help from a family member and up to two rooms can be rented out to cover mortgage payments. 

One product is available up to 80 per cent loan to value (LTV) and requires a standard deposit.  

The other is available up to 100 per cent LTV. For this product, an assisting family member will be needed to provide a deposit guarantee of either a second charge on their own home, a cash guarantee deposited in a specially designed account or a mixture of both.  

The guarantee will be required until such time that certain conditions are met. 

The product is available on properties in England and Wales where the student has at least one year left on their course at a university. The university must be less than 10 miles from the mortgaged property and the borrower must intend to live in the property themselves. 

Ashley Pearson (pictured), business development manager at Loughborough Building Society, said: “We’re keen to offer mortgage solutions to borrowers with a range of different circumstances and this is an excellent opportunity for those who in most cases, never dreamed they could buy their own home while a student.” 

Paradigm member firms will be able to access the Buckinghamshire’s range of residential and buy-to-let mortgages, including its joint borrower, sole proprietor (JBSP) mortgage with no maximum age for the parents.

The mutual also offers a reverse JBSP mortgage for customers who need their child’s help with affordability, and later life lending with no maximum age at mortgage entry or exit.

Additionally, it provides care mortgage products for NHS and emergency workers, as well as impaired lending including bankruptcy, IVAs and debt management on lending of up to 60 per cent loan to value (LTV).

John Coffield, head of mortgages at Paradigm Mortgage Services, (pictured) said: “At Paradigm we always want to work with lenders who push the envelope, and we are therefore very pleased to be bringing the Buckinghamshire Building Society to our members.

“The Buckinghamshire clearly look for specific customer needs in the mortgage market and tailor their proposition to this, with a range of unique and highly-targeted products available in both the residential and buy-to-let spaces.”

He added: “We know that many of our member firms will have clients for whom these products are undoubtedly needed, and we are looking forward to working with the team at the Buckinghamshire to highlight its offering to our advisers.”

Tim Vigeon, head of lending at the Buckinghamshire Building Society, said: “This is a great time to be joining Paradigm Mortgages Services; with our innovative mortgage proposition including our flexible and bespoke underwriting approach we feel we can provide extra support to Paradigm members.”

The product lets older people put their name on a mortgage to help younger borrowers who cannot afford the total loan based on income and/or circumstances.

The society also offers reverse joint borrower sole proprietor mortgages, which allow younger people to support older buyers who are retired or close to retiring. 

Its 90 per cent LTV mortgages come with a five-year fixed rate of 3.69 per cent, a two-year fix of 3.49 per cent, or a two-year discounted rate of 3.19 per cent.

Split-term loans are available. These let younger borrowers repay a section of their loan over a longer term, while the older borrower supports the short-fall in payments over a shorter term.

These arrangements work well with JBSP products, because they help to minimise monthly payments making the mortgage more affordable, the mutual said.

“We’re so pleased to introduce our joint borrower sole proprietor loans at 90 per cent LTV,” said Emily Smith, national account manager at Hinckley & Rugby Building Society (pictured).

“These products have been extremely popular in the past, enabling borrowers with smaller deposits and lower incomes to get on the housing ladder.

“Coupled with our split-term initiative, these products allow for more affordable repayments when adding an older relative to the loan,” Smith added.

The society lets four applicants sign for a joint borrower sole proprietor loan – with all four incomes considered.