An increase in first-time buyer enquiries is bringing fresh complexity and a growing need for expert broker guidance on products and schemes
First-time buyers are returning to the market with renewed confidence, but they are arriving with more questions, more misinformation, and more family members in tow than ever before, increasing the role brokers are playing in cutting through the noise.
Rhys Edwards (pictured top), mortgage consultant at Brooks Financial, has seen a clear uptick in first-time buyer enquiries in recent months, driven by a sense among prospective purchasers that further delay is no longer viable.
"There's a bit more optimism," Edwards told Mortgage Introducer. "Clients have been holding on and decided, well, we can't hold on forever. We just want to get on the property ladder, and we'll move forward as is."
That shift in attitude has coincided with more properties coming to market, creating conditions that are nudging hesitant first-time buyers into action despite ongoing rate volatility and geopolitical uncertainty.
Beyond affordability: the lifestyle conversation
Edwards said his approach to first-time buyer advice begins well before product selection. Understanding what a client can genuinely afford, as opposed to what a lender will advance, is the starting point.
"My approach is establishing not just what's affordable with the bank," he said. "It's what's affordable for them with their lifestyle, and all that as well."
Product decisions, including whether to opt for a two- or five-year fixed rate, are treated as individual cases rather than a default recommendation. For buyers who have never lived together, Edwards is particularly cautious about longer-term fixes. He cited the early repayment charge exposure as a risk that families providing gifted deposits often fail to appreciate.
"I explain to them that you're gifting them £20,000, they've never lived together, if they decided to go their separate ways and one of them can't afford the mortgage on their own, a typical five-year fixed will have a 5% early repayment charge," he said. "That's where your advice comes in on what is a more suitable product for clients."
The involvement of family members has itself become a defining feature of the first-time buyer market. With the bank of mum and dad playing an increasing role, whether through gifted deposits or joint borrower sole proprietor arrangements, Edwards said advice conversations now frequently extend beyond the buyer themselves.
Misinformation and the broker's role
One of the most pressing challenges Edwards encounters is the volume of inaccurate or misleading information that clients arrive with, sourced from social media, short-form video content, and increasingly, AI tools.
"Every day," he said, when asked how frequently he encounters clients armed with misinformation from online sources. "The shorts, for example, are very misleading in the way that they will indicate something's possible without giving any kind of real concept."
The problem is not always outright inaccuracy. More often, Edwards said, clients have absorbed a partial picture – information that is technically correct in isolation but misapplied to their own circumstances. He recalled one recent instance in which a client had consulted an AI chatbot for mortgage advice before approaching him.
"I've checked with ChatGPT and it said this," he recounted. "Because obviously you've gone down a particular angle of asking a particular question and it's kind of giving you the answer, but that answer's not right to your situation."
This pattern of clients making decisions or approaching lenders directly on the basis of misunderstood advice has real consequences. Edwards described a client who had been declined by their bank for a shared ownership mortgage after branch staff were unfamiliar with the scheme's paperwork. When the client came to him, he was able to identify the product, confirm the lender could accommodate it, and progress the case.
"The guy in the shop said we couldn't," the client told him. "I'm like, yeah, who you spoke to hasn't asked that extra level."
The importance of brokers in navigating this complexity is underscored by wider industry data. According to Barratt Homes' First Time Buyers Report 2026, which surveyed 660 prospective buyers across the UK, nearly one in three first-time buyers would not consult a mortgage broker as a primary source of advice, with 64% citing online searches and 57% citing family guidance as trusted information sources instead. Edwards's experience on the ground reflects exactly why that gap matters.
What lenders could do differently
On the product side, Edwards called for greater availability of low-deposit lending and more flexible income multiples, particularly for buyers with clear career progression.
"I think there needs to be potentially more options on lower deposit lending," he said. "The more lenders that do it, the risk data comes back, and it means the lenders will then be able to offer lower-priced deals for first-time buyers that have only got a £5,000 deposit."
He pointed to Halifax's minimum deposit product as an early signal of where the market may be heading, but argued that broader mainstream participation would be needed to make the economics work for buyers, both in terms of rate competitiveness and product flexibility.
Stamp duty was also raised as an underappreciated drag on the first-time buyer market. For buyers looking at properties above £500,000 – currently the upper limit for first-time buyer stamp duty relief – the tax liability can force a delay of several months while they rebuild a depleted deposit.
"It takes out of their deposit, which means it pushes them back maybe three, six, even 12 months sometimes of actually making a decision to move forward because of those costs," Edwards said. "A little bit more flexibility for first-time buyers would be beneficial."
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