Nationwide Building Society has emerged as the UK’s top lender for first-time buyers, offering more mortgages to those getting onto the housing ladder than any other bank or building society.
The lender provided more than 180,000 mortgages over the year—with over a third going to first-time buyers on the back of deals allowing people to borrow up to six-times income.
And the building society is now calling on the government to allow lenders to offer more of these mega mortgages.
While these large loans do allow people to get a foot on the property ladder some industry watchers have raised concerns about people taking on debt repayments that will be difficult to cover.
New industry figures from CACI reveal that Nationwide led the market for first-time buyer mortgages for eight months in 2024, including every month in the latter half of the year.
The building society’s success has been driven by its Helping Hand mortgage, which was boosted in September to allow borrowing up to six times a buyer’s income.
This scheme offers up to 95% loan-to-value, making Nationwide the only major lender to offer such support to aspiring homeowners struggling with affordability.
The figures show the scheme is making a difference—Helping Hand accounted for 23% of Nationwide’s first-time buyer mortgages last year.
The average first-time buyer loan has risen from £159,000 in 2020 to £197,000 in 2024, but those using Helping Hand borrowed even more, with an average loan of £249,000.
However, Nationwide is now urging the government to relax restrictions on high loan-to-income lending, arguing that the current cap—which prevents lenders from offering more than 15% of new loans at 4.5 times income or above—is holding back thousands of first-time buyers.
Henry Jordan, Director of Home at Nationwide, said: “We believe it’s important to put first-time buyers first given how tough it is to get on the housing ladder. Our enhanced Helping Hand mortgage is extremely popular, and we are committed to finding new ways to ease affordability. Increasing the loan-to-income lending cap would enable lenders to support even more first-time buyers.”
With rising house prices and deposit requirements pushing homeownership further out of reach, Nationwide’s call for reform could be a lifeline for aspiring buyers.
