Almost four in five UK first-time buyers believe their education failed to prepare them for mortgages, interest rates and home ownership, according to research commissioned by Mojo Mortgages.
The online mortgage broker’s survey of 1,000 first-time buyers found that 79% felt inadequately prepared by the education system for the financial demands of buying a home.
Younger buyers were particularly dissatisfied. Among respondents aged 18 to 24, 86.3% said their schooling had left them ill-prepared, while 49% strongly agreed that the education system had failed them. The proportion strongly agreeing fell to 35% among those aged 55 and over.
There was also a difference between men and women, with almost 45% of women strongly agreeing that home-buying education was lacking, compared with 37% of men.
The survey identified the strongest dissatisfaction in Wales, where 87% of respondents said their education had not prepared them for mortgages, interest rates and home ownership. The figure was 86% in both south-west England and Scotland.
Among the city samples, 100% of first-time buyers surveyed in Plymouth strongly agreed that the school system had left them unprepared. The equivalent figures were 96% in Liverpool and 90% in Edinburgh.
The findings have been released ahead of National Financial Awareness Day on August 14. Mojo Mortgages said it was expanding its free online material about interest rates, affordability assessments and mortgage applications.
Kayleigh Jackson, mortgage sales manager at Mojo Mortgages, said: “Buying a home and securing your first mortgage is one of the most significant financial milestones in a person’s life, yet our data shows that the vast majority of the UK population feels completely unequipped by their formal education.
“Financial literacy shouldn’t just be learned through trial and error when you’re already in the middle of house hunting.
“We have clearly seen that the school system isn’t getting through to the younger generation, which means more needs to be done to give them the tools to get on the property ladder confidently.
“At Mojo Mortgages, our ultimate aim is to remove the stress and unnecessary complexity from the home-buying process.
“We want to bridge this educational gap.”
