FTBs taking on ‘absurd levels of mortgage debt’

Many people in the UK are so desperate to get a foot on the housing ladder that they are willing to take on “absurd” levels of mortgage debt to do so, according to one expert.

Mortgages have been a source of serious debt management difficulty for many British families in recent years and Paul Holmes, chief executive of Firstrung, is convinced that many should avoid taking on home loans altogether.

Affordability has become a real problem for many thousands of would-be home buyers in the UK, but some of the mortgage deals taken on recently have been destined to result in debt management disaster, Mr Holmes suggests.

He said: “In my experience the priced-out first-time buyer is genuinely starting to look at [paying] five to six times [their] salary, which nine times out of ten is the point at which a first-time buyer should simply say no, because the weight of debt is absurd.”

Figures compiled by Halifax recently showed that the average first-time buyer mortgage deposit has risen by 88 per cent since 2002.