PM promises to turn ‘generation rent into generation buy’ with new mortgages

Boris Johnson has pledged to turn “generation rent into generation buy” with long-term, fixed-rate mortgages of up to 95% of the value of a home for first-time buyers.

The Prime Minister, in a speech to the Conservative Party’s online conference, said he wanted to “fix our broken housing market” and help young people onto the housing ladder.

He vowed to “transform the sclerotic planning system” and make it “faster and easier to build beautiful new homes without destroying the green belt or desecrating our countryside”.

But Mr Johnson said: “These reforms will take time and they are not enough on their own.

“We need now to take forward one of the key proposals of our manifesto of 2019: giving young, first-time buyers the chance to take out a long-term, fixed-rate mortgage of up to 95% of the value of the home – vastly reducing the size of the deposit.

“And giving the chance of home ownership, and all the joy and the pride that goes with it, to millions who currently feel excluded.

“We believe that this policy could create two million more owner-occupiers, the biggest expansion of home ownership since the 1980s.

“We will help turn generation rent into generation buy.”

The 2019 Conservative Party manifesto pledged to “encourage a new market in long-term fixed rate mortgages which slash the cost of deposits, opening up a secure path to home ownership for first-time buyers in all parts of the United Kingdom”.