First-time buyers in England are being locked out of the recently reopened housing market because there are hardly any mortgages available to those who can only manage a 10% deposit, it emerged this week. Mortgage lenders have been busy pulling home loan deals catering for those homebuyers looking to borrow 90% or more of the property’s value, with some saying they simply could not cope with the unprecedented demand. It was a month ago that the housing market in England was given the green light to reopen after seven weeks of lockdown. However, some commentators are saying that if first-time buyers cannot get mortgages big enough to buy homes, then the property market will stall and prices will fall. Accord Mortgages (a division of Yorkshire building society), Virgin Money and Clydesdale Bank are among the lenders that have pulled out of the 90% loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage space during the last few days. On Wednesday, Ipswich building society withdrew its 90% LTV two- and five-year fixed-rate products. There was a bit of good news: Bank of Ireland has returned to 90% lending via its semi-exclusive Bespoke range, while Coventry building society was on Friday due to re-enter this market in a much-needed boost to the sector, said Nick Morrey, the product technical manager at the mortgage broker John Charcol. This means that on Monday 15 June he is only realistically expecting HSBC and a small handful of other providers to be offering something to people needing a mortgage with only a 10% deposit. Morrey said that as of Thursday, it remained the case that no one was offering 95% mortgages through brokers and other intermediaries – Nationwide was offering 95% via its branch network. “The market is desperate for some or any of the big six to join HSBC, who are literally allowing applications to be submitted for about 40 minutes early each morning, to control the volume of applications they receive,” he added. Lenders are citing a variety of reasons why they are not offering mortgages for (predominantly) first-time buyers, including their ability to process applications being severely reduced as social distancing means fewer staff in offices to do the work, and employees being seconded to answer mortgage payment holiday inquiries. There are also some more niche products out there that may help some get a foothold on the housing ladder, such as Tipton & Coseley building society’s Family Assist mortgage, which lends at 100% LTV and involves a family member providing help.