Nationwide is boosting support for single applicant first-time buyers by lowering the minimum income requirement on its Helping Hand back down to £35,000. 

For joint applicants, the minimum combined income will remain the same at £55,000.

The lender claims Helping Hand has played a significant role in helping first-time buyers get onto the housing ladder. It enables borrowing of up to six times income when taking a five or ten-year fixed rate up to 95% Loan-to-Value (LTV). This gives potential homeowners a 33% uplift versus Nationwide’s standard lending at 4.5 times income.

First-time buyers also receive £500 cashback when they complete their mortgage with Nationwide and can also benefit from an additional cashback of up to £500 if they purchase an energy-efficient property through Nationwide’s Green Reward scheme. 

Current regulations limit the amount of high loan-to-income (LTI) lending banks and building societies can do to no more than 15% of their total qualifying loans. Like others, Nationwide has to manage its lending relative to that limit. 

This has become even more important since Nationwide extended borrowing to up to six times income through Helping Hand. This has resulted in Nationwide increasing minimum income requirements for Helping Hand in recent months in order to stay within the limit. 

The latest reduction will enable Nationwide to help even more first-time buyers despite the requirements remaining above last year’s thresholds of £30,000 (for sole applicants) and £50,000 (for joint applicants). However, this is necessary to ensure Nationwide’s lending complies with regulation amid high demand.

Henry Jordan, Nationwide’s Director of Home, says: “We continue to do all we can to put first-time buyers first and aim to set our Helping Hand minimum income requirements at levels that give it the widest appeal. Helping Hand has proven extremely popular with prospective homeowners, especially since we extended it to six times income, and we continue to provide as much support as possible, whilst remaining within the high loan-to-income lending regulations.

“While we are pleased to be able to reduce the minimum income requirement for sole applicants again, we want to do more and that’s why we continue to call for a review of the 15 per cent limit.”