The prospect of buying a home for the first time can be a very exciting experience, however for many it can also be a very daunting one too.
Being able to put down a deposit significant enough to secure a mortgage remains the biggest up hill struggle for most first time buyers. The fact is that the bigger your available deposit, the wider your selection of mortgage products will be.
Traditionally the average first time buyer would have had to be able to put down a 10% deposit – in some areas of the country, this could mean well over 10,000 for an average house price!
Understandably, finding that sort of money is going to be tough for most would be borrowers and in recent times lenders have recognised this problem and have sought to look for alternative measures – it is now possible, depending on your credit record, to secure a 100 percent loan to the value of the property.
It is advisable in most cases however to provide some form of deposit as there is a danger of being in negative equity should prices fall sharply. Without a deposit, the lender will also view you as a higher lending risk which could result in your mortgage interest...