Yorkshire Building Society: New mortgage plan helps 2,000 get first home
Yorkshire Building Society’s £5,000 deposit mortgage has helped more than 2,000 people into their first home, according to the mutual’s chief executive Susan Allen.
Ms Allen also revealed that the mortgage has now been extended to flats as part of the society’s efforts to encourage home ownership.
She added: "That helps people get into a home who would otherwise not be able to do so. We're advocating for our saver members and advocating for those who are trying to get into a home.”
She said the mutual was campaigning for change in the housing system to fix challenges like affordability and supply. The society wants to see support for responsible landlords and help for customers to understand how to make their homes more energy efficient to save on bills.
Ms Allen made the comment as Yorkshire Building Society published its “solid” financial results for 2025, in which it opened nearly 480,000 savings accounts and provided more than 38,000 new residential mortgages.
"We have been delivering better-than-market-average interest rates for over a decade,’’ Ms Allen said.
"So we hope our members see this as us providing great service and persistently great rates, and that they know when they save with us that money helps people get into homes.
"That's the building society model of which we are really proud. We deliver that with care, empathy, and a real personal touch.”
Looking ahead, she said this year will bring challenges, for the economy and for the society’s customers, and the cost of living is likely to stay high.
She told The Yorkshire Post: "Inflation is improving; we're seeing the potential for interest rates to come down further, which will help families.
"So, there are some positive signs there. House prices are holding up reasonably well, apart from some parts of London and the South East where we're not seeing the same levels of growth.
"Families have been very resilient. When you look at them, our arrears levels are much lower than the market average. That shows the very thoughtful way we under-write our lending.
Ms Allen continued: "When we talk about the challenging year ahead, we must reflect on what our members tell us.
"We have to adapt to whatever the year brings and make sure we support our members as best we can,’’ she added.
"There are some positive signs, but we are really mindful that there are people struggling with cost of living challenges."
She said that Yorkshire Building Society played a key role in strengthening financial resilience in the wider community through programmes and partnerships that support people to find work and improve their financial education and wellbeing.
“Our partnership with FareShare has raised almost £900,000 so far and equipped more than 2,000 people with skills to find work.
“Citizens Advice advisers are in 40 per cent of our branches and helped 5,600 people – customers and non- customers alike – in 2025 alone, unlocking an estimated £3.8m in potential additional income.”
“And four Bradford charities that support skills and employment are sharing £1m from the Yorkshire Building Society Charitable Foundation."