Patricia Ogunfeibo, founder of London-based tenant2owner, has claimed that thousands of renters are being refused mortgages they could comfortably afford because lenders place more weight on payslips than years of proven rent payments. She argued that while mortgage lenders scrutinise applicants' income, they often fail to properly recognise a long history of paying rent on time every month.
Ogunfeibo illustrated the problem with an example: a tenant who paid £1,600 in rent to her landlord for the 72nd consecutive month, through the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, could be told she cannot afford a mortgage of £1,475 a month. "Not because of her record. Because of her payslip," Ogunfeibo said.
Flaw in the mortgage market
Ogunfeibo believes this is one of the biggest flaws in the UK's mortgage market and is urging lenders and regulators to rethink how affordability is assessed. She noted that some lenders, such as Skipton Building Society, have introduced products like the Track Record mortgage that recognise rental payment histories, but argued the industry had only gone halfway.
"Pay, for years, a rent higher than the mortgage you are asking for and your reward is permission to be assessed as though those payments never happened. That is a half-finished revolution because the rent record should not merely excuse the deposit. It should carry the affordability decision itself," she added.
Technology enables verification
Ogunfeibo rejected suggestions that using rent history would represent a return to risky lending practices seen before the financial crisis. She said today's technology meant rental payments could be independently verified through open banking and rent reporting platforms, providing robust evidence of a borrower's financial behaviour. "This is the hardest data in any lending file: not what someone says they earn, but what they have demonstrably paid, for years," she said.
FCA review underway
Her intervention comes as the Financial Conduct Authority reviews mortgage affordability rules, with first-time buyer access among the issues under consideration. Ogunfeibo believes the regulator should allow verified rental payment records to become primary evidence of affordability, while income checks remain as a safeguard rather than the deciding factor.
"What I am arguing is that verification should stop doubling as the verdict. A lender could build tomorrow, within today's rules, a product in which a sustained, verified rent record covering the stressed mortgage payment drives the affordability decision, with income checked as the backstop rather than imposed as the gate," she said.
Ogunfeibo also argued that the benefits would extend beyond helping renters onto the property ladder. "Helping reliable tenants buy a home of their own doesn't just help them, it also helps the private rented sector by freeing up much-needed supply in a struggling market in line with the government's priority for housing," she added. She emphasised that after years of proving they can meet their housing costs, many renters feel frustrated that the same payment record still counts for so little when they try to buy their first home.
"The evidence exists. The data rails exist. The regulatory moment is open," Ogunfeibo said. "What every landlord already knows is overdue for saying out loud: the best predictor of whether someone will pay their mortgage is whether they have already proved, month after month, that they can pay for a roof over their heads."
