The increase will be effective from 21 January.
Analysis from Nationwide shows that in 2020, around 70% of first-time buyers took out a mortgage with an initial term of over 25 years, up from 45% in 2010.
Henry Jordan, director of mortgages at Nationwide Building Society, said: “As a responsible lender we initially made a cautious re-entry back into the higher LTV market.
“However, as we become more comfortable lending in the current market, we are now in a position to revert to offering 90% LTV mortgages available with a maximum term of 40 years.
“We know that many borrowers, particularly first-time buyers, will opt for a longer term mortgage in order to help make their monthly mortgage repayments more manageable.
“The changes we made at the end of last year continue to have a positive impact our service levels with the time from application to offer halving in recent weeks.
“However, with the stamp duty holiday ending in March, we are likely to enter a peak period.
“We are grateful to all brokers who continue to submit new cases while, at the same time, managing their clients’ expectations on the likelihood of their application completing before the deadline.”
