AN innovative mortgage which enables first-time buyers and their parents to take out a joint loan has been relaunched to lend 100 per cent of a property's value, it has emerged.

Bank of Ireland has relaunched its First Start mortgage to allow people to borrow the total value of their property so they do not need to find a deposit.

The loan, which is available through mortgage broker Mortgages Direct, will lend young people the equivalent of their own salary plus four times the salary of their highest-earning parent, minus their parents' mortgage repayments and other debt commitments.

For example, a young person earning '20,000 with a parent who earns '40,000 but has annual mortgage commitments of '3,000 could borrow up to '168,000.

The group said it had decided to introduce a 100pc version of the loan following feedback that people were struggling to find deposits.

But it dismissed reports that it was being irresponsible by lending people large multiples of their salary and leaving parents responsible for footing the bill if their offspring defaulted on repayments.

Kevin Purvey, head of sales at Bank of Ireland, said: "It is underwritten on a joint mortgage basis and is sold through intermediaries, so people are given advice on what they are getting into.

"Parents also have to take independent legal advice so they know exactly what is going on."

He said the mortgage was very popular and had won a number of awards for innovation from intermediaries.

He said some parents preferred to help their children out by making a monthly contribution to their mortgage repayments rather than giving them a large lump sum to help them get on to the property ladder.

He added that in some cases, because of low interest rates, repayments were around the same as young people were already paying in rent. Tweet