Imagine you’re approached by a young couple in their late twenties who’re looking for a mortgage so they can start their journey together, settle down and raise a family.
They’ve been saving for years to get a large enough deposit together, they’ve seen the home of their dreams and they think they’ve found the right lender…only to be turned down because they missed a credit card payment or mobile phone bill so long ago that they’d almost forgotten about it.
When you combine the stricter criteria employed by many lenders in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis with the fact that house prices are now at a record level1, it’s perhaps no surprise that many first-time buyers are struggling to take that first step with figures showing the average first-time buyer is now 34-years-old – six years older than in 2007 and eight years older than back in 19972.
Seems unfair, doesn’t it? Here at Precise Mortgages, we agree. As one of the UK’s leading specialist lenders and Mortgage Strategy’s Best Mortgage Lender for 2020, we understand that borrowers might have experienced a little financial hiccup in the past and believe they shouldn’t be penalised now for something that happened years ago.
That’s why we’re always looking for ways to help borrowers underserved by high street lenders which is why we’ll consider first-time buyers with less than perfect credit histories.
If you have a first-time buyer who needs a residential mortgage and is looking to purchase a property through the government’s Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme, we’ll accept the following levels of adverse credit:
- Defaults – 0 in 24 months
- CCJs – 0 in 24 months
- Unsecured arrears – not counted, but may affect a customer’s credit score.
Credit: Roger Morris, Precise Mortgages