Property neo lender goes through the roof achieving £80million in home loans and aims to fund £1bn worth of homes in the future

And, in a transformational year for Proportunity, the lender also secured institutional debt funding of £100m, allowing the team to help fund £1bn worth of homes in the future.

But CEO Vadim Toader has warned that, despite the company’s success in helping thousands of househunters step onto the property ladder, many more aspiring buyers are finding it increasingly difficult to realise the dream of owning their own home.

And he says finance is going to remain a massive challenge for many first-time buyers this year as they face a squeeze on funds on multiple fronts – rises in National Insurance, energy bills and inflation.

Another exasperating factor is rising property prices, inflated in England by the Government’s Help to Buy scheme, according to a report by the House of Lords’ built environment committee – a worrying development, says Toader.

As a result, sources such as the Bank of Mum and Dad – if it is still open for business – and innovative solutions like equity loans, which should boost deposits and increase affordability, will become the most common way of getting onto, or stepping up, the housing ladder.

A staggering 65%* of UK first-time buyers can’t save a big enough down-payment and say affordability are the main roadblocks to getting on the property ladder. They are limited to 4.5 times their income but salaries are not usually high enough to take out a mortgage to cover soaring urban property prices – above 10 times the income in some of the most desirable areas.

“That can leave a gap of £100,000 to £200,000 between affordability and desirability,” says Toader, “So 2022 has got to be the year we empower buyers to think differently and help them invest in property.

“It’s clear that the traditional mortgage has become more and more outdated and cannot keep pace with the reality of the current market, making blended funding the only alternative.”

Proportunity addresses the problem by offering an equity loan of up to £150,000, to boost buyers’ deposit savings, which sits on top of the maximum mortgage secured from a mainstream lender. It is a combination of current wages and future equity earned from the property’s appreciation.

Unlike those available through the Government Help to Buy: Equity Loan scheme, Proportunity loans are available for all homes, not just new-builds and can help “second steppers” moving into bigger homes.

Toader says: “It’s been fantastic to see Proportunity fill the gap and help so many buyers achieve their goal of owning or moving to a bigger property. Reaching the £80million mark is confirmation that the market needs a forward-thinking, shift in attitude to the way we fund the property market.

“However we are concerned that the Lords believe that the value of homes in more expensive areas has been inflated and by the suggestion that housebuilders charged more for homes that were eligible for the Help to Buy scheme. We are working hard to make home-ownership a realistic prospect for all those who want to buy a house, whatever the location.

“Yes, it can be challenging for first-time buyers to identify affordable areas to live in, especially when it comes to big cities like London and Birmingham, where pockets in the same area can have such wildly differing prices. But affordable areas do exist and our Home Finder platform can identify property that is undervalued in areas in England and Wales, providing previously unseen possibilities.”

With Proportunity the loan matches the term of the main mortgage and is interest-only monthly repayments – on a fixed-rate for the first five years – with the principal equity loan being repaid when a home is sold or the mortgage ends or is re-financed.