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nationwide building society There has been a 53 per cent increase in first-time buyers using their ‘Helping Hand’ mortgage, following the decision to allow an applicant to borrow up to six times as much. Income,
The mortgage deal was adjusted in September 2024, increasing the maximum income multiplier for first-time buyers under the ‘Helping Hand’ scheme from 5.5 to six times their earnings.
Between October 2024 and September 2025, Britain’s largest building society reported that almost 23,000 people climbed property ladders using a ‘helping hand’.
This was a 53 percent increase compared to about 15,000 in the previous 12 months.
Regulators have recently worked to simplify or clarify lending rules, making mortgage access easier for some borrowers.
Nationwide said it lowered the stress rate in May, expanded Helping Hand to 95 percent LTV (loan-to-value) new construction homes in June and relaxed Helping Hand’s minimum income requirements in July.
“These latest figures for the last 12 months show that our decision to increase lending to six times income has been a gamechanger for thousands of first-time buyers,” said Henry Jordan, group director at Nationwide. mortgageSaid.
“But we are not stopping there, and with the support of government and regulatory changes throughout 2025, we have been able to progressively increase our support for potential homeowners.”
The Helping Hand mortgage deal, first launched in April 2021, now gives eligible first-time buyers the option to borrow up to six times income when taking out a five or 10 year fixed rate mortgage with as little as a 5 per cent deposit.
Nationwide’s standard lending maximum is 4.5 times income.
In total, more than 63,000 people have got on the property ladder with Helping Hand since mortgages were launched, and they have lent almost £13 billion, the society said.
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The average age of sole applicants using Helping Hand is 31 years and for joint applicants, it is slightly lower, 30 years.
Nationwide said the mortgage has been particularly popular in areas where house prices are high.
The Outer South East region leads in terms of helping hands, with 28 per cent of mortgages. The area includes Ashford, Bedford, Braintree, Brighton and Hove, Canterbury, Chichester, Colchester, Dover, Eastbourne, Isle of Wight, Maldon, Milton Keynes, New Forest, Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Oxfordshire.
More than a fifth (23 per cent) of Helping Hand mortgages come from London and the proportion is 12 per cent in the South West.
Uptake is lower in the north-west of England, at just 4 per cent, despite the region representing 11 per cent of first-time buyer loans nationwide. The society said average house prices for first-time buyers may be lower in the area than in some other areas.
Nationwide, single applicants for Helping Hand mortgages are more prevalent in the North.
More than nine in 10 applications completed by Helping Hand in Scotland have been from a single applicant. In the North, which includes areas such as Tyneside, Teesside and Cumbria, 87 per cent of Helping Hand cases were from single applicants.
By contrast, in the Outer South East, 45 per cent of Helping Hand mortgage applications are joint applications.
The mortgage requires a minimum income of £30,000 for single applicants and a combined £50,000 for joint applicants.