How to buy a home with less than £10,000 - but is a small deposit mortgage wise?

May 18, 2018, 03:35 PM

High house prices mean that the biggest barrier to buying a home in Britain is raising a deposit.

With mortgage interest rates at near record low levels, many would-be homeowners could afford monthly payments - but saving the average £30,000 deposit would take years. 

For a lot of first-time buyers that means a trip to the Bank of Mum and Dad, but what if that's not an option?

It is possible to buy a home without raising tens of thousands of pounds, if you take a 95% mortgage.

With one of these deals, a first-time buyer able to pass mortgage affordability tests could put down a 5% deposit of £10,000 and buy a £200,000 home.

But is that a good idea? Didn't small deposit mortgages crash the economy a decade ago? Are they not leaving themselves heavily overexposed to falling house prices?

In this week's podcast, Simon Lambert and Georgie Frost dig into the world of buying a home with a small deposit mortgage, busting the myths and considering the benefits and the risks. 

They also look at whether giving buy-to-let landlords a tax cut to encourage them to sell could provide first-time buyers and home movers with a leg up, if a £10,000 bonus for all 25-year-olds would help, and after the dead cert rate rise that never happened, when will the Bank of England move?

Enjoy.