As we start to finally see the game-changing impact of vaccinations becoming more real, this is a good time to reflect on the challenges we have faced in the last year and look forward to hopefully a very different 12 months to come.

The government initiatives introduced to help support mortgage borrowers and the housing market generally, including the temporary reduction of stamp duty rates and the option to take a mortgage repayment holiday for up to six months for those whose income had been affected by the pandemic, have undoubtedly had a major impact.

The stamp duty initiative was largely aimed at first-time buyers and it helped to inject life into the property market following the initial lockdown.

Through the Family Assist products (including Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor options) Buckinghamshire Building Society has a particularly strong mortgage offering for first-time buyers.

We were delighted to support this demographic during such a uniquely difficult time, enabling those first-time buyers who can afford a mortgage, but have not been able to accumulate a large deposit, to get on the property ladder with the support of their family, even where that support is not in the form of cash.

The introduction of the mortgage holiday for those financially impacted by the pandemic gave many borrowers some much needed breathing space when job uncertainty was at an all-time high and to date, over 2.5 million people throughout the UK have taken advantage of this.

We have found that the vast majority of borrowers who availed of a payment holiday have returned to their normal repayment schedules, with many having capitalised the “skipped” repayments.

A small number have required some ongoing help with their repayments and we have worked very successfully with those borrowers to design an individual solution that works best for their particular circumstances.

Thanking NHS and emergency workers

2020 was a year which taught us a lot about our resilience as a nation and in particular to appreciate the debt we all owe to our emergency workers and NHS frontline staff.

We are delighted to recognise this in our own way through our CARE products, offering all NHS workers and emergency services staff across England and Wales the option of up to 90% LTV when this is not widely available.

As a building society, we are here to provide products of real value for the long term, not to make profits for external shareholders .

We are specialists in a range of mortgage niches, providing an exceptionally broad range of products from first-time buyer deals right through to retirement mortgages and all points in between – such as buy-to-let, shared ownership and movers.

Our ‘human’ underwriting approach gives our underwriters the discretion to solve even the most complicated cases in cooperation with our brokers to reach a positive outcome.

What’s more, our mortgage business is spread pretty evenly around the entire country, although we do like to offer special rates to our local members in Buckinghamshire and their families.

New builds

It was encouraging to see construction throughout the UK largely continuing during the last 12 months, with the completion of over 100,000 new builds throughout the year, and we are optimistic as we head into 2021.

Though the economic impact of the pandemic will be long lasting for many people and businesses, we expect increasing confidence as the year develops.

We see our role as being to contribute meaningfully to the recovery of our communities by helping those who have difficulties in meeting their mortgage repayments and by continuing to invest to ensure that we can increase our lending substantially (hopefully to record levels in our case) to meet the demand in the recovering economy.

Gerard O’Keeffe is CEO of Buckinghamshire Building Society