Gable Mortgages’ co-CEOs on why Britain's housing crisis demands smarter underwriting and a rethink of deposit logic
The gap between what renters can afford to pay each month and what they are required to save before they can buy is widening, and the mortgage market has been too slow to respond.
Joshua Weinstein (pictured top left) and Chris Eaton (pictured top right), co-chief executives of Gable Mortgages, argue that the conventional link between deposit size and borrower risk is not only outdated but is actively shutting creditworthy people out of home ownership.
Gable has launched a 100% loan-to-value (LTV) mortgage range for first-time buyers, home movers, and key workers – products that require no cash deposit, no guarantor, and no other collateral security – on the basis that monthly affordability, not upfront savings, is the more reliable measure of whether a borrower can sustain a loan.
"There is historical belief that the higher the LTV, the higher the risk," Eaton told Mortgage Introducer. "From a credit underwriting and affordability assessment, that isn't true. If you've got people who have demonstrated month in, month out that they can make the payments and do make the payments, using track record absolutely does help."
Why deposits have become the wrong yardstick
The numbers behind that argument are stark. Halifax data cited in Gable's launch materials puts the average first-time buyer deposit at £61,090 in 2024, equivalent to more than 42 months of average private rent. Just 8% of 25 to 34-year-olds can currently afford a 10% deposit. Meanwhile, Zoopla is forecasting rent rises of 4% to 5% by the end of 2026, against private sector wage growth that Eaton noted was running at 2.9%.
"If rents are going up by 4%, the maths suggests it's going to get harder for everyone," Eaton said. "The same people are already finding it hard."
Weinstein pointed to a longer structural shift. House price-to-household income ratios that stood at around 4.5 times the UK average two decades ago have risen to closer to 10 times today – figures consistent with data tracked by Nationwide's affordability research. "Wages have just not kept up with house price growth," he told Mortgage Introducer. "But that doesn't mean people can't afford their mortgages. They're paying more in rent than they're paying on mortgage repayments in some instances."
What lenders should change – and what Gable is doing about it
The Renters' Rights Act, which came into force in May, has added further pressure. By strengthening tenant protections and changing eviction rules, the legislation has contributed to landlords exiting the sector, reducing rental supply and pushing rents higher. Eaton acknowledged its underlying intent while noting its practical effect. "Rents are going up, which means it falls on the market as a whole to find solutions," he said. Weinstein noted an unintended upside. Landlords exiting the sector may release more stock into the market, creating buying opportunities for prospective homeowners.
On the question of what lenders need to do differently, Weinstein was direct. "Lenders as a whole need to reevaluate some of the rules of thumb of credit that were maybe appropriate in a different era," he said. "Free cash flow, stress scenarios, those sorts of things. There are other products on the market that look at rental history the last 12 months. That's a good start."
Gable's own approach combines banking and insurance expertise to separate borrower risk from property risk – a distinction Eaton said the industry has historically conflated. "There is obviously a slightly higher inherent risk at 100% LTV from a negative equity perspective, but that's not borrower risk, that's property risk," he said. "And that's why we've got an insurer entity that helps to mitigate some of those risks and put the risks properly where they should be."
Applicants go through full underwriting including income and expenditure assessment, credit history review, and interest rate stress-testing – the same rigour applied to 90% and 95% LTV products, Eaton said. Gable, which has secured a long-term institutional funding line from a European bank, is targeting up to £250 million of deployment over the next 12 months.
What this means for brokers
For brokers, the product opens a channel to a borrower type that may not previously have engaged with advice services. "What this does is it probably brings in a new set of potential borrowers to brokers who wouldn't have come beforehand because they were busy saving for the five to 10% deposit," Eaton said. "They hadn't actually engaged with a broker at all before that point."
Gable is not alone in moving into this space. April Mortgages launched a 100% LTV product last year, and Skipton's Track Record mortgage has been serving deposit-light borrowers for some time – a sign that the market is increasingly responding to first-time buyer affordability pressures through product innovation rather than waiting for policy to catch up.
Weinstein framed the company's mission in terms of who the target borrower is, and who they are not. "We're not trying to lend to every average Joe on the street. You're lending to fiscally responsible, hard-working people who have earned the help. It's not people who don't have control of their finances. These are responsible people with a target in mind."
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