Skipton launched a guarantor-free deposit-free mortgage for renters

A UK building society — the country's fourth biggest — lending on homes.

That a record of paying rent on time plus clean credit can substitute for a deposit and a guarantor without repeating the pre-2008 100%-LTV disaster

Skipton said it recognised a 'gap in the market': until now, said CEO Stuart Haire, there had been no solution for renters to buy a property 'due to a lack of savings or access to family wealth'. The government's Help to Buy scheme, which lent buyers 5-20% of a new-build home's cost, had closed to new applicants in October 2022.

The Track Record mortgage launched in May 2023 as the only no-deposit deal that does not require the financial backing of family or friends — Moneyfacts counted 15 other zero-deposit products, all guarantor-backed, together under 0.3% of the UK market. Two days later Skipton International said the product would not be offered in the Channel Islands, where housing costs 'several times more' and the affordability constraints would not support first-time purchases.

It turns rent receipts into the deposit: a decade of on-time payments is affordability evidence the mortgage market had been ignoring.

It is the first zero-deposit product that does not lean on the bank of mum and dad — all 15 rivals counted by Moneyfacts need a guarantor.

The pricing and guardrails are the answer to 2008: a 5.49% premium and strict rent-history requirements, rather than volume-at-any-quality underwriting.

An underwriting signal can unlock a market the deposit locked out — as long as the price and the guardrails (documented rent history, credit checks) answer the objection history hands you.

As of 11 May 2023 the mortgage was live in the UK, with Skipton International explicitly ruling out a Channel Islands version for the time being while 'monitoring the development and success of the Track Record Mortgage with interest'. Campaign group Generation Rent cautioned that the shortage of affordable properties to buy remained the main stumbling block regardless of deposit rules.