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August 11, 2026
A family springboard mortgage can let a first-time buyer purchase a home with little or no deposit by using a family member’s savings as security instead.
KEY INFORMATION
Jump to: How family springboard mortgages work | Benefits | Risks | No-deposit alternatives
Family springboard mortgages are designed to help buyers with little or no deposit. A family member or friend puts savings into an account linked to the mortgage, which are used as security by the lender.
Depending on the lender and your circumstances, this can allow you to borrow up to 100% of the property’s value. The savings are usually returned with interest after a fixed period, provided the mortgage repayments are kept up to date.
With Barclays’ Family Springboard Mortgage, you can borrow up to £500,000 on a 5 year fixed rate mortgage over a term of up to 35 years, depending on your circumstances.
Instead of gifting the money to the first-time buyer, the friend or relative opens a Barclays ‘Helpful Start’ savings account which is linked to the buyer’s mortgage. The guarantor must deposit savings equal to 10% of the price of the house.
This money is then locked away for five years. Assuming the mortgage-holder has made all their repayments, the cash will be returned to the relative or friend at the end of the term with interest.
The idea is that the homeowner will have paid off enough of their mortgage to be able to remortgage to a lower loan-to-value mortgage after the five years.
To see how these rates compare with other mortgages available on the market, read our first time buyer mortgage rates guide which is updated regularly.
Want advice on whether a Barclays Springboard Mortgage works for you? The award-winning expert advisers at Mortgage Advice Bureau can do just that.
Get fee-free mortgage advice from the award-winning expert advisers at Mortgage Advice Bureau.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Please note some branches of Mortgage Advice Bureau may charge a fee for mortgage advice if you go direct. The fee is up to 1% but a typical fee is 0.3% of the amount borrowed. So make sure you use this site, this form or phone number for fee-free advice.
Other lenders offering family-orientated deals include Lloyds Bank. It offers a ‘Lend a Hand mortgage’ which allows a first time buyer to borrow up to 100% of the value of a property providing a family member puts down 10% of the purchase price of the property into a 3 year fixed term savings account. Again, this will be returned with interest after 3 years, as long as payments are up to date.
Similarly, with the Halifax Family Boost Mortgage, you can take out a 100% LTV mortgage when a family member puts 10% of the property purchase price into a 3 year fixed term savings account. For more ways to help your child buy a property read our guide The Bank of Mum and Dad – How to help your child buy a home.
To get the latest mortgage rates on Lloyds’ Lend a Hand mortgage and Halifax’s Family Boost mortgage, speak to our partners at fee-free mortgage brokers Mortgage Advice Bureau.
If you’re a first time buyer there can be huge benefits of using a family springboard mortgage. The biggest is obvious: you don’t need to save for a deposit, which means you can get on the property ladder sooner.
There can be benefits to the guarantor as well. For example, it means you can help your loved one without needing to actually give them the cash. You’ll get your money back with interest in a fixed time-frame – as long as all the repayments have been made.
The bank warns on its website: “If the homebuyer can no longer make their mortgage payments, we’ll keep your deposit in the Helpful Start Account for slightly longer than the agreed term. If we need to repossess the property, you could lose some or all of the money in the Helpful Start account if there is a shortfall between what we’re owed and the amount we sell the property for.”
There are other ways to take out a mortgage without a deposit, such as Skipton Building Society’s 100% mortgage. Read our guide How to get a mortgage with no deposit.
Even if you can get a 100% mortgage, there are costs of buying a house that you’ll need to budget for including:
Read more in our guide on the costs of buying a house
It’s important to get yourself in the best possible position to buy a home by saving as much money as possible.
Setting a budget and sticking to it is still one of the best ways to make sure you’re not spending more than you earn and identify possible savings. Take the time to sit down and work out where your money is going.
And make the most of any savings you do have. Read our guide on How to save for a deposit and make sure to investigate whether you want to take advantage of the government Lifetime ISA to boost your deposit.
Get fee-free mortgage advice from the award-winning expert advisers at Mortgage Advice Bureau.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
Please note some branches of Mortgage Advice Bureau may charge a fee for mortgage advice if you go direct. The fee is up to 1% but a typical fee is 0.3% of the amount borrowed. So make sure you use this site, this form or phone number for fee-free advice.
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