Nationwide, GE Money, Northern Rock, Barclays and Platform all claimed that agreeing a first-time buyer lending target was “inappropriate” after Robert Sinclair, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries challenged them.
Sinclair said direct-only lender had caused a stir with the public by committing a certain amount of cash for first-time buyers only.
Sinclair said: “Given this commitment would intermediary lenders be prepared to provide a similar commitment or are there reasons why this isn’t possible?”
Mark Snape, head of sales at GE Money, said: “It wouldn’t be appropriate to put a number of in but we are a huge fan of first-time buyers and have two products already that we feel are competitive. We are also looking at innovating that further next year.”
Northern Rock’s John Truswell said it would be “difficult and wrong to try to put a number on lending to first-time buyers” while David Finlay from Barclays said he thought a target would “force the wrong behaviours from lenders” which should rather focus on lending to a balanced portfolio including first-time buyers.
And Paul Howard, head of corporate accounts at Nationwide, said: “It ain’t going to be a quick fix for first-time buyers but we are seeing lenders making steps in the right direction with higher loan to value products.
“Lending to this group is improving and I hope we’ll see a more general defrosting of this part of the market.”
Sinclair said while he understood lenders’ reluctance to commit to a number some more tangible lending objectives would help promote advised mortgages to first-time buyers.
He added: “First-time buyers are important to create transaction levels across the housing market. By introducing a threshold of activity this would promote confidence through all the rest of the housing and mortgage chain.”
