London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Aug 10, 2025

Fifty-year home loans would get more on ladder but come with risks

Fifty-year home loans would get more on ladder but come with risks

Analysis: longer mortgages would unlock the bind many renters find themselves in but could be expensive
A 50-year home loan might sound depressing to some, but perhaps not if the alternative is never being able to buy a property. Long-term fixed-rate mortgages are an emerging financial product that should in theory allow first-time buyers who are currently priced out of the market to get on the housing ladder.

By spreading the repayments over longer – the average for mortgages taken out this year is 29 years – buyers should be able to borrow up to eight times their income, rather than the current average of 3.2 times, say potential providers. The loans would be backed by borrowing from pension funds and insurance companies rather than against less stable consumer deposits, to satisfy the Bank of England’s prudential requirement.

A long-term fixed-rate mortgage could allow a household with a £50,000 annual income to borrow £400,000 instead of about £150,000, and thereby unlock the bind many renters find themselves in where they cannot get a mortgage on the property they live in despite repayments being lower than the rent.

It is an attempt to solve a serious problem. Last year full-time employees in England could typically expect to spend about 9.1 times their workplace-based annual earnings on buying a home; an increase from 7.9 times earnings in 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Perenna, a new firm awaiting its licence, plans to offer the long-term loans. Its co-founder, Colin Bell, said: “Long-term fixed-rate loans really appeal to first-time buyers. One of the reasons they can’t get on the ladder is they don’t meet affordability tests that rightly have to take into account interest rate rises. They can get a mortgage, but it’s a small one.”

He said that as things stood lenders could make only 15% of their loans at a loan-to-income ratio above 4.5. The Bank of England would have to increase this for long-term fixed-rate mortgages to make them an option for more first-time buyers.

Fifty-year and other long-term mortgages would be transferable to other properties and, unlike conventional mortgages, could be bequeathed with a property after death, he said, though inheritance tax could be payable.

There are risks for consumers, said Nicholas Mendes, a mortgage technical manager at John Charcol, a mortgage broker. “The longer-term fixed rate could be more expensive over the course of the fixed-rate period,” he said.

UK Finance, the trade body for the banking and finance industry, said upsides included lower monthly payments and certainty over interest due. Downsides included paying more interest in the long term and building equity more slowly, and the mortgage term being likely to run into a customer’s retirement. It also said break charges could be higher.

Some fear initiatives such as long-term fixed-rate mortgages may be undermined by a lack of political drive to accelerate housebuilding, which could do more to solve the affordability crisis. About 340,000 new homes are needed each year in England, according to one estimate, compared with 216,000 built in 2019-20, the last year for which full figures are available.

“The government seems to be moving away from their commitment to build more houses,” said Paula Higgins, the chief executive of the Homeowners Alliance. “They are looking to stoke up demand through things like extending the right to buy [to affordable housing tenants]. But the reality is that average earnings and average house prices are getting further apart and we won’t be able to follow in the footsteps of our parents, when teachers and doctors were able to buy their own house.”

The impact of falling rates of homeownership has been socially significant. If the rate of ownership were to return to the level of the early 2000s, 1.4 million more families would now own their own homes. The political prize for a government that can reset that balance is considerable, but achieving it when house prices are rising at 10.5% a year remains extremely hard.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Street justice isn’t pretty but how else do you deal with this kind of insanity? Sometimes someone needs to standup and say something
Armenia and Azerbaijan sign U.S.-brokered accord at White House outlining transit link via southern Armenia
Barcelona Resolves Captaincy Issue with Marc-André ter Stegen
US Justice Department Seeks Release of Epstein and Maxwell Grand Jury Exhibits Amid Legal and Victim Challenges
Trump Urges Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan to Resign Over Alleged Chinese Business Ties
Scotland’s First Minister Meets Trump Amid Visit Highlighting Whisky Tariffs, Gaza Crisis and Heritage Links
Trump Administration Increases Reward for Arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro to Fifty Million Dollars
Armenia and Azerbaijan to Sign US-Brokered Framework Agreement for Nakhchivan Corridor
British Labour Government Utilizes Counter-Terrorism Tools for Social Media Monitoring Against Legitimate Critics
OpenAI Launches GPT‑5, Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet
Embarrassment in Britain: Homelessness Minister Evicted Tenants and Forced to Resign
President Trump nominated Stephen Miran, his top economic adviser and a critic of the Federal Reserve, to temporarily fill an open Fed seat
The AI-Powered Education Revolution: Market Potential and Transformative Impact
Chikungunya Virus Outbreak in Southern China: Over 7,000 Hospitalized
French wine makers have seen catastrophic damage to vines that were almost ready to be harvested after the worst fires in more than 70 years burned through the south of the country
US Lawmaker Probes Intel CEO’s China Ties Amid National Security Concerns
Brazilian President Lula says he’ll contact the leaders of BRICS states to propose a unified response to U.S. tariffs
Trump Open to Meeting Putin as Soon as Next Week, with Possible Trilateral Summit Including Zelenskiy
Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau spark dating rumors, joining high stakes world of celeb-politician romances
US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow to seek a breakthrough in the Ukraine war ahead of President Trump’s peace deadline
WhatsApp Deletes 6.8 Million Scam Accounts Amid Rising Global Fraud
Nine people have been hospitalized and dozens of salmonella cases have been reported after an outbreak of infections linked to certain brands of pistachios and pistachio-containing products, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada
Karol Nawrocki Inaugurated as Poland’s President, Setting Stage for Clash with Tusk Government
Trump Signals JD Vance as ‘Most Likely’ MAGA Successor for 2028
US Charges Two Chinese Nationals for Illegal Nvidia AI Chip Exports
Texas Residents Face Water Restrictions While AI Data Centers Consume Millions of Gallons
U.S. Tariff Policy Triggers Market Volatility Amid Growing Global Trade Tensions
Tariffs, AI, and the Shifting U.S. Macro Landscape: Navigating a New Economic Regime
Representative Greene Urges H-1B Visa Cuts Amid U.S.-India Trade Tensions
U.S. House Committee Subpoenas Clintons and Senior Officials in Epstein Investigation
Sydney Sweeney Registered as Republican as Controversial American Eagle Ad Sparks Debate
Trump Accuses Major Banks of Politically Motivated Account Denials and Prepares Executive Order
TikTok Removes Huda Kattan Video Over Anti-Israel Conspiracy Claims
Trump Threatens Tariffs on India Over Russian Oil Imports
German Finance Minister Criticizes Trump’s Attacks on Institutions
U.S. Proposes Visa Bond of Up to $15,000 for Some Applicants
U.S. Farmers Increase Lobbying Amid Immigration Crackdown
Elon Musk Receives $23.7 Billion Tesla Stock Award
Texas House Paralyzed After Democrats Walk Out Over Redistricting
Mexican Cartels Complicate Sheinbaum’s U.S. Security Talks
Mark Zuckerberg Declares War on the iPhone
India Rejects U.S. Tariff Threat, Defends Russian Oil Purchases
United States Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Thousands of Private ChatGPT Conversations Accidentally Indexed by Google
China Tightens Mineral Controls, Curtailing Critical Inputs for Western Defence Contractors
OpenAI’s Bold Bet: Teaching AI to Think, Not Just Chat
Tesla Seeks Shareholder Approval for $29 Billion Compensation Package for Elon Musk
Nvidia is cutting prices on its RTX 50-series graphics cards after sales slowed and inventories piled up
Ghislaine Maxwell Transferred to Minimum-Security Prison Amid Ongoing DOJ Discussions
U.S. Tariffs Surge to Highest Levels in Nearly a Century Under Second Trump Term
×