Near the end of 2023, Skipton Building Society renamed its ‘Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor’ (JBSP) scheme to ‘Income Booster’ in order to simplify the journey onto the property ladder.
The name change came following a survey of more than 1,000 adults regarding the process of getting onto the property ladder.
The survey revealed that 60% of aspiring first-time buyers (FTBs) worried that their lack of understanding was delaying them getting onto the property ladder, with 52% saying they felt they may miss out on a better deal due to not understanding the different types of mortgages available to them.
Not only were FTBs confused about mortgage terms, but 58% had no idea about the different types of mortgages available to them.
This meant that 77% of FTBs were feeling more stressed with the process, with 70% wishing everyone would speak in plain English.
Skipton’s Income Booster allows potential home buyers to add up to three extra people onto their mortgage, without making them an owner of the property.
Since Skipton’s JBSP product was renamed to Income Booster on 27th October 2023, it has totalled over £274m in applications – boosting total applications by 37% since 2022.
Jen Lloyd, head of mortgage products and proposition at Skipton Building Society, said: “It’s been great to see the growing popularity of our Income Booster product.
“The intention behind the name change was to help increase awareness and accessibility amongst first-time buyers when it comes to the different solutions available to them, by cutting through the jargon and using plain English.
“It was worrying to see in our initial research that over half of FTBs are unsure of the products available meaning they could be missing out on one that’s a perfect fit for their situation.
“I hope that through this change, we’ve encouraged more FTBs to research their options and find the product that could potentially help them to step onto the property ladder sooner rather than later.”
Gen H, which also has an income booster product, revealed that since November, 72.9% of its income booster applications were from first-time buyers and 24.7% were remortgage, representing a 50% uplift in remortgage cases over the previous five months.
In terms of age demographics, Gen H revealed that while 62.4% of its income booster customers are under the age of 40, a significant proportion (37.6%) are over 40, with 16.4% over 50.
This data shows that people are not only understanding the income booster product but understanding that it can be adapted to suit all kinds of owners and buyers at any stage of the homeownership journey.
Will Rice, CEO of Gen H, said: “When we launched the income booster in 2020, it was envisioned as a product designed to support first-time buyers as there was a clear need for this type of product in the market.
“Since then, we’ve seen the income booster benefit thousands of people – first-time buyers and remortgagers alike – showing that demand for smarter mortgages spans every stage of homeownership.
“We are delighted to work shoulder-to-shoulder with Skipton as we both work to create simple, innovative products that lead to better outcomes for real people.
“In this challenging environment, this work is more important than ever.”
