Interest-only mortgages 'can help young professionals'

Interest-only mortgage payments can be helpful for young professionals, according to the mortgage broker Alexander Hall.

The firm has said that while it is not something that a good adviser would recommend, it does depend on the circumstances in which people opt for interest-only mortgage payments.

Andy Pratt, chief operations manager of Alexander Hall, said: "Instead of relying upon the lender to control the amount that they pay off on the loan, some feel quite knowledgeable and confident enough to pay the interest and control for themselves how much of the loan they pay off by doing it in lump sums every two or three years."

He added that doing this does not mean that they will be beating the interest rates but they will feel a "little more in control" as they know they can "do it whenever they want".

According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) the proportion of first-time buyers who had an interest-only mortgage and did not specify how they were planned to repay the mortgage rose to 20 per cent last year.

back