London FTBs can get on ladder six years earlier using income booster

First-time buyers in London who use an income booster proposition typically buy their home at 29, six years before the average, a report says.

According to Gen H, which offers income booster deals, first-time buyers then have an extra six years to build up equity rather than paying rent.

Based on average house prices, mortgage rates and rents over that period, a first-time buyer could build £37,427 in equity repayments and gain £62,401 via house price appreciation, creating £99,828 in total equity.

A first-time buyer would have spent around £101,697 in monthly mortgage payments, compared to an equivalent of £132,464 that renters would have spent.

Gen H first brought its income booster proposition – which allows friends or family members to go on the application to boost the amount of borrowing available – to market in 2020. In 2025, a third of the lender’s applications have had at least one income booster.

The average owner without an income booster would need to borrow eight times their income to afford to buy, whereas with an income booster, this falls to just 2.7 times the group’s income, so the home becomes more affordable sooner with no extra cash upfront.

Pete Dockar, chief commercial officer at Gen H, said: “Owning a home brings so many intangible benefits that dramatically increase the quality of a person’s life – investment in a community, a sense of security and safety – but we can’t overlook the financial benefit it can bring, too.

“A £130,000 leg-up is huge in your mid-30s – but imagine how this advantage could grow over the decades. And there is no extra cost to adding an income booster – this is simply homeownership, sooner, and that benefit could literally last a lifetime.”