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100% mortgages - your views on the uptake wanted

Journalist:

ended 24. June 2025

It's been five weeks since April Mortgages launched its 100% LTV loans and roughly the same time since Gable Mortgages launched its own no-deposit mortgages. One broker says he has experienced a 50% pass rate on DIP with April while another has seen roughly a 10% pass rate — but that a “decent amount offered 95% on score”.

If you’ve submitted cases to these lenders, we're keen to know:

  •  what percentage - roughly - have got to DIP stage? 
  • have you had any applications complete yet? 
  •  Also, if you’ve submitted applications that have been rejected, why was this? 
  • Are there any common themes? 
  • Any impact on the real-world impact of these loans and whether they're flying off the shelves or running into issues

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Michelle Lawson
Director at Lawson Financial
We haven't had any interest on this product as yet. It has quite a high bar, which part defeats the object of the offering. When designing a product like this, criteria do need to be tight but if they are too tight the product becomes unachievable for many borrowers.
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Ken James
Director at Contractor Mortgage Services
The buzz around 100% mortgages is real, with glowing media coverage and mortgage brokers hyping the return of no-deposit lending on social media. But here’s the reality while the product is available: getting approved isn’t easy. Clients we’ve tried to place haven’t met the strict criteria these lenders require. So, is 100% lending already off the table? Not at all. It just means we need to be crystal clear with our clients: this isn’t a free pass, it’s a high bar. Setting the right expectations from the start is key. Let’s keep the optimism, but ground it in reality.
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Rohit Kohli
Director at The Mortgage Stop
It’s been a bit 50-50 for us with April so far. Credit score thresholds are tight and several clients have just missed out, ending up with 95 percent offers instead. No completions yet as clients are still property hunting. Most rejections have been credit-related, even with seemingly clean reports. The non-new buld house-only restriction also excludes many first-time buyers wanting flats. The message is definitely cutting through, but I don't think eligibility criteria has been clear enough. Lots of people with recent credit issues are still enquiring, and they just won’t qualify.
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Emma Jones
Managing Director at Whenthebanksaysno.co.uk
We have seen 1000 enquiries for 100% mortgages so far the main reason most clients didn’t qualify was credit score. April managed to offer 95% in some cases. 100% mortgages are real, but there is still criteria to meet. Those few that have been approved are the lucky ones.
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Kundan Bhaduri
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
As a business owner, I see the re-emergence of 100% mortgages with cautious realism. There’s plenty of interest, but the reality is less rosy—many applicants are struggling to pass DIPs, and completions remain rare. These aren’t free passes to the housing ladder; lenders are still applying tough affordability rules, and rightly so. Rejections often come down to shaky credit, unstable income, or people overextending in a cost-of-living crisis. Frankly, that's sensible. While no-deposit loans sound appealing, they carry risk, for borrower and lender, and we’ve seen where reckless lending leads. Until lenders strike the right balance between access and risk, these mortgages won’t fly off the shelves. They’re more of a cautious test balloon than a market revolution, and for now, it's only the most financially solid applicants squeezing through.