You could lose your home if you don’t keep up your mortgage repayments.
24 June 2026
When Andrew and Justine moved their family back to the UK, they were hoping to find a forever home.
Instead, they found themselves living between a rock and a hard place.
They both had good jobs. Affording a mortgage wasn’t the problem. Finding a lender who’d offer one was.
Without savings for a deposit, they were turned away time after time. Renting became the only option, but renting made it impossible to save.
They were trapped in a cycle. And it went on for 12 years.
Then one day, the radio was on.
And their prospects changed.
Turning rental history into buying power
Skipton Building Society’s Track Record mortgage starts with a simple question: if you’ve been paying your rent on time, month after month, why wouldn’t you be able to pay a mortgage?
If you can show you’ve paid all your rent on time for 12 months in a row (within the last 18 months), Track Record could help you buy a home. Even if you don’t have a deposit.
For Andrew and Justine, in their mid‑50s, it was the answer they’d stopped expecting.
“We’ve been together since we were 21 and we have three boys,” explains Justine. “We were born and bred in Hemel Hempstead and moved to Costa del Sol in 2007. We loved it. But decided to move back for education reasons. Our eldest was then A-Level stage.”
They’d only been away for six years. But when they returned in 2013, the mortgage landscape felt completely different.
“Things had really changed with regards to mortgages,” continues Justine. “Andrew is self-employed. Before we’d always had self-certified mortgages. But now that just wasn’t an option. So we were renting. All our money had gone into the move and being able to stay in Spain.”
At first they thought it would be temporary.
It wasn’t.
“As time went on, we felt we’d never own a home again,” admits Andrew. “With three children, life as it is, expenses as it is, we just didn’t have the means to get the deposit together.
“We couldn’t see any way forward.”
Paying more than enough, but still not enough
Rising rent only made things harder. Their first rental home in 2007 was around £900 a month. By 2025, they were paying £2,300 rent for a four-bed house in Milton Keynes.
Andrew reflects, “The cost was stressful. There was also the fear that the landlord could pull the rug from under your feet, which did happen in one of the properties.”
Stuck in this uncertain situation, saving for a deposit simply wasn’t realistic.
“It was so frustrating,” says Justine. “The rent we were paying showed we could easily afford a mortgage. And that was always on my mind. Other people earned less than we did and still got mortgages – because they had that lump sum. We couldn’t move forward.”
Andrew agrees, “We spoke to various mortgage consultants, and it was just a flat no. They’d ask, ‘Have you got a deposit?’ ‘No.’ ‘Have you got means to find a deposit of this amount of money?’ ‘No.’ We needed a certain size house, so we had to carry on renting.”
“You never really have security when you rent,” adds Justine. “You can’t make it your own.”
It felt hopeless.
Until the radio gave them hope.
The moment everything clicked
Justine had already looked into Track Record when it first launched. At the time, it was only for first‑time buyers. “So I put it out of my head,” she says.
Then, in 2024, Skipton changed the criteria.
Track record was opened up to include people in situations like Andrew and Justine’s.
Justine heard about the change on the radio.
“I honestly thought I’d misheard,” Justine laughs. “They said If you’ve rented a property for a year and can prove your rent track record, you should speak to Skipton.”
So she did.
“I spoke to Rebecca at Skipton. Everything was amazing from then – and we haven’t looked back.”
A mortgage that looks at real life
Track Record is designed around real renting experiences.
Skipton looks at your recent rent payments. If you’ve paid on time for 12 months in a row, within the last 18 months, you could be eligible.
- You don’t even have to be renting right now.
- You could be living in shared accommodation.
- You could put down a small deposit – 5% or less – or none at all.
For Andrew and Justine, it felt almost too good to be true.
“We were waiting at every step for Skipton to say, ‘Oh, well, no, you can’t have it,’” Justine admits. “Like when Rebecca asked us our ages, I looked at Andrew and went, ‘This is it, this is where they’re going to say no.’ And they didn’t.”
They had contacted Skipton in October 2024. Within weeks, their mortgage was approved. By February 2025 they owned a four-bedroom home in a village just outside Milton Keynes.
“The whole application was really straightforward,” says Andrew. “I can’t commend Skipton enough on how easy it was. I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult.”
“I personally felt that Skipton really wanted us to get this mortgage,” adds Justine. “They were invested in us. They wanted us to succeed.”
A home to call their own
One year on, the difference is life‑changing.
“At our age, being able to say, ‘This is our home’ is a massive relief,” says Andrew. “All the pressures that we had before, to now have that little bit more security for Justine and my children – you can’t measure it.”
For Justine, it’s about control.
“We’re in charge now. We don’t have to move next year. We don’t have to move next month. We’re not going to get notices. We can plan. We can do things to our own home. And we can actually make it our own.”
She pauses.
“Sometimes we just look at each other and say, ‘This is ours.’ And that’s still a really lovely feeling.”
Find out if Track Record fits your needs
Track Record could help you take your next step. It might be right for you if:
- You’re 21 or over.
- You haven’t owned a property in the UK in the last three years.
- You’ve paid all your rent on time for 12 months in a row in the last 18 months.
- Are currently in a shared housing arrangement, and can demonstrate you've 12 months of rental payment history.
See if Track Record mortgages could work for you.
Products subject to eligibility and lending criteria.