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Thoughts on income booster mortgages

Journalist: Emily Mee, The Sun

ended 03. November 2025

We're putting together a piece for today for The Sun on income booster mortgages, including who offers them, how expensive they are compared to other mortgages, and the pros and cons. 

https://metro.co.uk/2025/10/31/mortgage-tweak-helping-londoners-buy-first-home-30-24578144/

Would be great to get some thoughts on them please, including pros and cons, and how they compare to other mortgages as a way of getting on the ladder.

5 responses from the Newspage community

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Vijay Rabadiya
Founder & Director at The Mortgage Vine
Income-booster mortgages are giving first-time buyers greater borrowing power. Products like Nationwide’s Helping Hand (up to six times income, 95% LTV) and Accord’s Boost LTI (around 5–5.5x income, up to 90% LTV) allow borrowers to stretch affordability and buy sooner, particularly in high-cost areas such as London and the South East. The pros are increased borrowing limits that help buyers get on the ladder faster and retain full ownership, often avoiding shared-ownership schemes. Cons are higher borrowing brings higher monthly payments, greater exposure to rate rises and less room for financial change. Remortgaging later can be difficult if income hasn’t grown or if affordability rules tighten. While rates aren’t always much higher than standard mortgages, the total cost and risk rise because you’re borrowing more. For confident stable earners, these products can be a valuable step onto the property ladder, provided they’re used carefully with expert guidance and long-term planning.
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Peter Dockar
Chief Commercial Officer at Gen H (Generation Home)
Gen H launched the first income booster in 2020 as a modern take on typical JBSPs – and our booster case volumes have more than doubled in the last 2 years.

Income booster mortgages are a brilliant option for families or friends who want to help but can't spare a lump sum of cash – which is the case for most families. Buyers borrow more for no extra cash up front.

Income booster mortgages are so necessary for FTBs that it wouldn't be fair to have a separate range for them, so we use our standard rates and criteria.

One critical piece is our "Ejector Seat", which removes the booster from the mortgage at age 85. Many people don't realise how important this is; being able to extend the mortgage term is often what makes it affordable. One case with a 60-year-old booster still got a 40-year term.

If the owner stops paying the mortgage, the booster is liable for its full value. But only 9.6% of all our boosters ever contribute to the payments, and most of these contribute by choice.
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Dariusz Karpowicz
Director at Albion Financial Advice
Income boosters are transforming the mortgage game for buyers locked out by sky-high prices. These clever products increase your borrowing capacity by adding another person's income to the calculation, brilliant when you need higher lending but traditional multipliers fall short.
Without a booster, you'd need to borrow eight times your salary for London property; with one, it's just 2.7 times your combined income. The best part? Most lenders charge standard rates, and boosters automatically exit at 85 so you can still secure long mortgage terms. Though boosters technically share liability, just 9.6% ever pay a penny towards the mortgage, proving these products work smoothly for buyers navigating today's brutal property market.
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Ross Lacey
Director & Independent Financial Adviser at Fairview Financial Management
We specialise in working with first time buyers and income boost mortgages are a great tool in helping people get onto the property ladder. This can mean the first home being one that could easily accommodate a family in the future rather than a couple outgrowing it and having to move again.

Several lenders have more generous borrowing limits for first time buyers under these schemes including Nationwide, Halifax, Accord and Leeds.

There tends to be certain requirements and variables that impact whether you can qualify for these products, which include a minimum level of household income, good enough credit history, how long you'll be fixing for and the level of deposit being put down.

There's sometimes a higher interest rate on these types of product compared to one without any enhanced borrowing capacity, but not always.

As ever, it makes most sense to sit down with a mortgage broker to discuss your specific situation and understand whether this may be an option to explore.
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Elliott Culley
Director at Switch Mortgage Finance
There are a handful of lenders offering income booster products to support first time buyers in their hunt for properties. Most of these lenders have a minimum income threshold before these products can be offered. Nationwide offer this without adding any increase to their product rate, however other lenders do offer this product at a higher rate to their standard mortgage products which is due to the added risk the lender is taking. These products are more popular in London and the south east where the house prices are that much greater. But with the changes in stamp duty and the greater difficulty of building a deposit these products are likely to become even more popular.