Mojo Mortgages unveil MortgageScore

Mojo launched MortgageScore™ to create transparency in the market.

Mojo Mortgages unveil MortgageScore

Mojo Mortgages has unveiled their MortgageScore™ service.

The free service will help homebuyers realistically assess how likely they are to get a mortgage by scoring them out of 1,000, as well as providing them with advice and coaching on what they need to do to help increase their scores.

As part of the new service launch, Mojo analysed the average salary of a first-time buyer from the 1970s to 2019 along with average household debt, disposable income, average age, cost of a house and the deposit needed, to figure out what their MortgageScore™ would be across the generations.

The analysis revealed that first-time buyers from 1970 through to 2003 have an average score of 975, making them 97.5% more likely to get accepted for a mortgage.

However first-time buyers from 2004 onwards had an average score of 284, meaning that their likelihood of getting accepted for a mortgage is just 25.5%.

What’s more, first-time buyers today need to borrow 18 times more than an average first time buyer in the 1970s.

Property prices have increased by 1,661% since the 1970s but salaries haven’t increased in line with this.

It now takes first-time buyers an additional four years to get on the property ladder as they now have to produce higher deposits and borrow significantly more than first time buyers in the 1970s.

Richard Hayes, chief executive and co-founder of Mojo Mortgages, said: “Homeownership is a top life goal, but for many first time buyers these days, it’s something they feel they won’t be able to achieve anytime soon.

"This data proves the fact that being a first time buyer in the 1970s, 80s and 90s was really the best time to purchase a house, while those who have tried to purchase in the last five years haven’t even been near eligible when looking at their average mortgage score.”

Mojo launched MortgageScore™ to create transparency in the market.

"The service is completely free to use and looks at affordability and credit history amongst other aspects of income and expenditure to assess how mortgage ready someone is.

"More specifically for first-time buyers, it aims to help them understand their eligibility for a mortgage and helps them get mortgage ready by providing personalised coaching.

“Combined with property inflation, high rents and the rising cost of living, there’s also a serious lack of transparency in the homebuying market.

"When first-time buyers are rejected for a mortgage, in many cases, they aren’t given a reason as to why.

"There’s a serious lack of transparency in the market, and if young people knew lenders would assess their disposable income, they would probably take steps to boost it in order to be accepted for a mortgage.”