The Intermediary – January 2026 - Flipbook - Page 82
L O C A L FO C U S
Hull
Buyer adjustments
Demographic trends
JAMES GREEN,
managing director at Green & Green Mortgage
and Protection
e have seen a steady increase in first-time buyers and
home movers over the last 18 months as the people of Hull
and surrounding areas have adjusted to the cost-of-living
increase but also adapted to the current interest rates. e
end Autumn Budget of 2022 brought about a huge spike in interest rates
overnight which scared off a lot of first-time buyers, leaving them
waiting on the sidelines for the rates we enjoyed in COVID to return.
As would-be buyers adjusted to these higher rates and learned that
the days of 1% interest rates weren’t coming back, they began to return
to the market. e numerous drops in the base rate and the positivity
this has brought have encouraged buyers to take that first step. is year
has been our busiest yet since we started back in 2020 due to these
first-time buyers and people upsizing.
We have seen people now more than we’ve seen since COVID stretch
themselves mortgage-wise to buy a bigger home or to remortgage to
release equity to extend and improve their homes. Many of our clients
are first-time buyers or buyers we initially helped buy their first home
move onto a bigger home, so we are seeing more of them increase their
borrowing to upsize or improve their current home to accommodate
their growing needs.
As our main demographic is first-time buyers, we have a lot of our
cases go with the high street big names like Nationwide due to their
helping hand scheme but also their cashback for first-time buyers which
helps them offset solicitor costs on completion. As most of our client
work is fairly ‘vanilla’, i.e. first-time buyers with savings as a deposit and
working a full-time job, most of our work is done purely on sourcing. So,
the lenders who sit top of the sourcing list. Barclays have repriced in
recent weeks and have sat at the top of the list for a while now, along
with Halifax. Due to my background in professional sport, we get a lot of
professional rugby league players, and we use Halifax a lot with them
due to their criteria around fixed-term contracts.
Alot of our clients are professional rugby league players and rugby
fans in general. We get a lead from our rugby league player clients when
they post on social media about our service.
Buy-to-let has always remained strong in Hull due to the high yields
investors can secure here. With a typical two-bed terraced house selling
for circa £80,000 and achieving a rental income of £600 per calendar
month (pcm), the returns are strong. During the periods of high interest
during 2022/2023 we did see a dip in local investors as they waited for
the dust to settle on interest rates. But in this time, we saw an increase
in out of town investors who were still happy to invest in high yielding
areas away from home as putting their money into a property with a
lower yield than normal was more beneficial than letting it erode in the
bank with inflation in double digits.
W
movers. He notes that many who
stepped back aer the 2022 Autumn
Budget – when interest rates “spiked
overnight,” – are now returning with
renewed confidence.
Indeed, he says many borrowers are
now stretching their limits in order to
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The Intermediary | January 2026
of them increase their borrowing to
upsize or improve their current home
to accommodate their growing needs.”
“buy a bigger home or to remortgage to
release equity to extend and improve
their homes.”
He adds: “Many of our clients are
first-time buyers or buyers we initially
helped buy their first home move onto
a bigger home, so we are seeing more
In response to shiing sentiment,
Hull’s buyer pool is broadening in
distinctive ways. With a postcode
population of 467,000 and an average
age of 41.5, the region has grown
steadily over the past two decades.
According to Green, one of the most
striking trends this year has been a
wave of intergenerational support.
He says: “We have seen a surge
of gied deposits coming from
grandparents. Typically, it is the
parents that gi the deposit to
their children to help them on the
ladder but since the Inheritance Tax
changes, we have seen more and more
grandparents giing money to their
grandchildren to help them now.”
In addition, Hull’s strong sporting
identity has also had a surprising
influence on buyer profiles. As Green
explains: “A lot of our clients are
professional rugby league players and
rugby fans in general,” with referrals
oen arriving via players’ social media
posts.
However, Cunningham has
observed alternative demographic
shis. She cites “a noticeable rise”
in borrowers in their 50s and 60s
applying for later-life or interest-only
retirement mortgages.
Cunningham explains: “Many
clients we speak to feel that retiring
before the age of 70 is no longer
realistic.
“In response, lenders are adopting a
more flexible approach to retirement
ages, offering longer mortgage terms
to help keep monthly payments more
affordable.”
She adds: “We’ve also seen lenders
increase their income multipliers,
enabling some borrowers to access
higher loan amounts. However, there
are concerning signs in the market –
unsecured debt levels are rising, and
there has been an upli in adverse
credit cases, both of which suggest that
more individuals are facing financial
strain.”
Popular lenders
When it comes to lender choice in the
area, the picture is shaped as much
by borrower profiles as by product
criteria. Cunningham notes that on
the residential side, several major
