PM to help young purchase homes

‘Generation Buy’ will help youngsters with mortgages requiring low deposits, reports Luke Powell, PA

Boris Johnson has said he wants to create a “Generation Buy” where young people are helped to purchase homes with mortgages requiring low deposits.

In an interview with The Telegraph, the Prime Minister said he believed a “huge” number of people felt excluded from home ownership in the UK.

But he said his Government would “fix” the issue by helping people get onto the property market with low-deposit mortgages.

He told the newspaper: “I think a huge, huge number of people feel totally excluded from capitalism, from the idea of home ownership, which is so vital for our society.

“And we’re going to fix that –‘ Generation Buy’ is what we’re going for.”

Mr Johnson said mortgages that help people get onto the housing ladder were needed, “even if they only have a very small amount to pay by way of deposit, the 95% mortgages”.

He said that low-deposit mortgages could be “absolutely revolutionary” for young people.

The Telegraph reported that Mr Johnson had asked ministers to work on plans encouraging l ong-term fixed-rate mortgages with 5% deposits. It comes as more than 1,000 low-deposit mortgage deals have vanished from the market in the past six months, according to findings by Moneyfacts.co.uk last month.

By early September, there were just 76 deals for borrowers with deposits of 10% or less, while in March there were 1,184 mortgages at 90%, 95% or 100 loan-to-value (LTV) available – meaning a fall of 1,108 deals.