A new market that would increase the number of long-term fixed rate mortgages, which was proposed in the Conservative Party’s manifesto, has received support in a recent report by the Centre for Policies Studies.
The report, named ‘Resentful Renters’ by Graham Edwards of property company Telereal Trillium, suggested that this will see a return to what was the norm before the financial crisis, when buyers were routinely able to obtain 95% LTV rates without being stress tested.
Edwards said: “Owning your own home is a near universal aspiration in the UK, yet owner occupation has been declining in recent years.
“I think we have an obligation to try to help the younger generation get on the property ladder. I hope that my proposals will help many people to do just that.”
The report claims that the issues surfaced pre-2008, as regulators made it tougher to get a mortgage in response to the financial crisis. Since then, buyers have had to triple their initial deposit amount, with average loan-to-value rates falling from 95% to 85%.
What’s more, the difficulty facing buyers when it comes to getting a mortgage has been further exacerbated by stress tests, while on a net basis every single new home built in the decade between 2005 and 2015 went to a landlord rather than a first-time buyer, as a result of the rapid rise of the buy-to-let market.
According to Edwards, this has led to 3.6 million ‘resentful renters’ – people who would previously have ticked all the boxes for mortgage lenders and would have been capable of becoming homeowners before the financial crisis, but are now either renting or living with their families as they cannot meet the new stricter criteria.