In the first half of the year the society upped its FTB activity by 18% year-on-year. Activity increased by 26% and 10% in Q1 and Q2 2015 year-on-year respectively.
The society offers 90% and 95% loan-to-value products for the first-time buyer market largely because Genworth’s private mortgage insurance products insurers Monmouthshire against the risk.
Patrick Bamford, business development director for Mortgage Insurance Europe at Genworth, said: “By utilising private mortgage insurance, building societies are not just sustaining the first-time buyer community but, as Monmouthshire’s loan figures show, are increasing their activity levels at a time when many lenders are moving in the opposite direction.
“The government’s Help to Buy Scheme has certainly helped but there needs to be a focus on the long-term use of private insurance, especially when we know that Help to Buy 2 is going to finish at the end of next year.
“Without societies like the Monmouthshire we are looking at a post-Help to Buy 2 drop off in low deposit mortgages; indeed they could fall to pre-Help to Buy levels, if the government is not proactive in putting an appropriate exit strategy in place.
“The government could, for example, actively support a full transition to the private mortgage insurance sector which has sufficient capacity to support lenders who wish to offer these types of products and it could put in place the foundations to allow first-time buyers access to the low deposit mortgages they so desperately need in order to secure that first home.”
