The ‘My First Mortgage’ product will launch with a rate of 5.19% with no fee and comes with £250 cashback. It also requires a minimum £10,000 deposit, with maximum lending up to £500,000 repayable over a term of between five and 40 years.

Lending above 95% and up to 98% is available on existing houses only after Santander’s data shows that two thirds of first-time buyers purchased a house in 2025.

The new product is available via a mortgage broker of Santander mortgage adviser.

Santander UK head of homes David Morris says: “We know that saving for a deposit remains one of the biggest hurdles to homeownership. ”

“Last year, the average first-time buyer with Santander put down a deposit of more than £85,000, a figure that can feel unattainable for today’s aspiring homeowners, whether that’s a result of more modest income, limited family financial support, rising rental costs, and in some cases childcare expenses.”

“We want to help more people benefit from the stability and sense of pride that owning a home brings, while maintaining our position as a responsible lender. My First Mortgage does just that, offering the chance to speed up the time to ownership with the reassurance that the buyer has received specialist mortgage advice and will have certainty of what they are expected to pay, every month, for the next five years.”

Also commenting, John Charcol mortgage technical manager Nicholas Mendes states: “Santander are the latest lender to help first time buyers with less than a five per cent deposit, and they are the first mainstream high street name to go beyond 95 per cent LTV and push to 98 per cent.”

“That is a big psychological shift for this part of the market, because for many renters the monthly payment has not been the issue, it has been building the deposit while rent, bills and childcare costs keep moving up.”

“On the numbers, it will not suit everyone and it is not trying to. A 5.19% five year fix with no fee, plus a valuation and cashback, gives a simple route for buyers who want payment certainty and have a smaller deposit, particularly where a gifted deposit bridges the gap.”

“It also feels like another sign the market is steadily improving, with lender appetite at the higher LTV end widening again after a long period where options were limited.”

“The main consideration is the lack of headroom. At 98% LTV, even a modest fall in property values can leave a borrower more exposed to negative equity, which can reduce flexibility when it comes to remortgaging or moving.”

“That is why borrowers should treat it as a longer term plan, keep a buffer, and where possible use overpayments to bring the loan to value down towards 95% or 90% over time, which is where pricing typically gets more competitive.”

“This is also where a broker adds real value. Not just in accessing the deal, but in stress testing affordability, checking the criteria, and setting a strategy for what happens at the end of the fixed rate so the borrower is not boxed in later.”

Meanwhile, L&C Mortgages associate director David Hollingworth adds: “This is an important addition from a major lender, adding to the growing ranks of mortgages designed to ease the struggles of first time buyers. There’s an increasingly healthy range of mortgages for those with little or no deposit.”

“These products do carry eligibility requirements so won’t fit everyone’s requirements and a bigger deposit will still offer a wider choice with lower rates. However, the new Santander deal should help more to access homeownership sooner than they may have thought possible.”