New options include fee-free two- and five-year fixes at up to 95% LTV
Skipton Building Society has announced a new range of first-time buyer products, including a suite of mortgages and £1,500 cashback options.
The range, which also features supportive home buying extras and a savings product with a 5.06% interest rate, aims to help first-time buyers save and manage upfront costs, which are often barriers to home ownership.
The new mortgage options include a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.89% up to 95% loan-to-value (LTV) with £0 fee and £1,500 cashback, a two-year fixed rate mortgage at 6.09% up to 90% LTV with £0 fee, and a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.69% up to 95% LTV with £0 fee.
These products come with several extras, such as an income booster option, free valuation for mortgage purposes, discounted level 2 and 3 surveys, mortgage terms up to 40 years, and a loan-to-income ratio up to 5.5 times.
The Home Deposit Saver offers a variable interest rate of 5.06% with a £500 monthly deposit (rollover option), a two-year term with a maximum balance of £12,000, no withdrawals allowed, but closures permitted. It is open to all customers with no member restrictions and limited to one account per customer.
The launch coincides with the release of the Skipton Group Home Affordability Index. Developed with Oxford Economics, the index highlights the challenges faced by renters, first-time buyers, and homeowners across different demographics and regions. It showed, among other findings, that only one in eight potential first-time buyers can afford the average first-time buyer house in their local area.
“Everyone should have somewhere to call home, but achieving that today is an insurmountable struggle for far too many,” said Charlotte Harrison (pictured), chief executive of home financing at Skipton Building Society. “Our Home Affordability Index shows that only one in eight potential first-time buyers in Great Britain can purchase an average first-time buyer property in their area.
“The challenge for first-time buyers is urgent, and while it demands coordinated innovation and collaboration, we at Skipton want to do our bit. Our new range of first-time buyer products is designed to help more first-time buyers get onto the property ladder.
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