Is it easier to get a 95% mortgage in 2026?

Not particularly, and it got slightly harder in July 2026. Moneyfacts recorded 450 deals available at 95% loan-to-value on 1 July 2026, down from 466 a month earlier, even as the overall mortgage market grew to 7,177 products (Moneyfacts UK Mortgage Trends Treasury Report, 13 July 2026). Choice at 90% LTV and 60% LTV both grew over the same month. So while headlines about mortgage choice hitting multi-year highs are accurate for the market overall, the specific tier a 5% deposit buyer needs went the other way. If you're relying on a 95% LTV deal, budget on there being fewer options and higher rates than the general market headlines suggest, and get a broker to check whole-of-market availability rather than assuming choice has genuinely opened up for you specifically.

Why did 95% LTV mortgage deals fall in July 2026?

Moneyfacts hasn't given a single cause, but the pattern fits how lenders manage risk at the edges of the market. Regulatory expectations still limit how much of a lender's new lending can go to borrowers at loan-to-income ratios of 4.5 or more, which disproportionately affects low-deposit borrowers who are usually also stretching their income multiple. When lenders trim their higher-risk books to stay inside that limit, 95% LTV products are often the first to be pulled or repriced, even while the same lender is adding cheaper, lower-risk 60% and 90% LTV deals elsewhere. That's consistent with what happened in the month to 1 July 2026: 95% LTV choice fell by 16 deals while 90% LTV rose by 22 and 60% LTV rose by 25 (Moneyfacts, 13 July 2026). If you're planning around a 95% mortgage, treat product availability as changeable month to month rather than a fixed feature of the market.

Is a 5% deposit mortgage a good idea in 2026?

It depends entirely on whether you have a realistic route to a 10% deposit within a reasonable timeframe, and the maths says it usually is worth waiting if you do. On a £250,000 purchase, the average 95% LTV five-year fixed rate of 5.92% costs around £1,519 a month, against roughly £1,395 a month at the average 90% LTV rate of 5.60% (Moneyfacts, 13 July 2026), a £124 monthly gap for finding an extra £12,500 deposit. If getting from 5% to 10% would take you more than about two years of saving, the ground you'd lose to further house price growth in that time is likely to outweigh the rate saving, so a 5% deposit deal now can still be the right call. If you can realistically get there within a year or so, the 90% LTV rate is worth the wait. Either way, a 5% deposit mortgage isn't a bad idea by default, it's a trade-off you should run the numbers on rather than assume.

How much more does a 5% deposit mortgage cost than a 10% deposit mortgage?

On a £250,000 first home, a 5% deposit means a £237,500 loan at the average 95% LTV five-year fixed rate of 5.92%, working out at roughly £1,519 a month over a 25-year term. A 10% deposit means a smaller £225,000 loan at the average 90% LTV rate of 5.60%, working out at roughly £1,395 a month, a difference of £124 a month, or about £1,481 a year (Moneyfacts, 13 July 2026, both calculated on a standard 25-year repayment mortgage). Over a five-year fixed term, that's £7,407 in extra payments for the 5% deposit route, against needing to find an additional £12,500 in deposit to access the 10% deposit rate. Whether that trade-off favours you depends on how quickly you can realistically save the extra £12,500 versus how much house prices are likely to move in the meantime.

5% deposit mortgages: 16 fewer deals and a £124/month catch

You've seen the headlines: mortgage choice at its highest level in years, lenders competing again, first-time buyers finally getting a break. So you've been telling yourself that scraping together just 5% is fine, because the market's clearly opening up for people in your position. You've got £12,500 saved on a £250,000 first home, you're eyeing a 95% mortgage, and you've assumed that "more choice" means your choice too. It doesn't, and the data from this month proves it.

In the month to 1 July 2026, the number of mortgage deals available at 95% loan-to-value actually fell, from 466 to 450, even as the overall market grew and choice improved at every other deposit level (Moneyfacts UK Mortgage Trends Treasury Report, 13 July 2026). The growth everyone's reading about is real. It just isn't happening in your tier.

The headline you've read isn't wrong, it's just not about you

Total mortgage product choice hit 7,158 in January 2026, its highest level since October 2007, and kept climbing to 7,177 by 1 July 2026 (Moneyfacts Treasury Reports, 12 January 2026 and 13 July 2026). That's a genuinely striking recovery, and it's the number that's been driving "mortgage market booms" coverage across the personal finance press all year. Reasonably, if you've seen that headline, you'd assume it means more options at every deposit size, including yours.

It doesn't work that way. Growth in the headline total has come almost entirely from the 60% and 90% loan-to-value tiers, both of which grew again in the month to 1 July 2026, up 25 and 22 deals respectively. The 95% LTV tier, the one that matters if you've only got a 5% deposit, moved in the opposite direction over the same month (Moneyfacts, 13 July 2026).

So if you're weighing up a 5% deposit purchase because you read that mortgage choice is booming, check which tier that boom is actually in before you rely on it. It isn't yours.

What actually happened to 5% deposit deals in July

The numbers are specific and recent. As at 1 July 2026, Moneyfacts recorded 450 mortgage products at 95% LTV, down from 466 the previous month. Over the same period, 90% LTV choice rose from 891 to 913 deals, and 60% LTV choice rose from 810 to 835 (Moneyfacts UK Mortgage Trends Treasury Report, 13 July 2026). Deals for borrowers with a 5% deposit now make up just 8% of the core mortgage market of 5,848 products, Moneyfacts' own words for describing how thin this end of the market still is.

There is better news buried in the same report: the average five-year fixed rate at 95% LTV dropped below 6% for the first time since March 2026, easing to 5.92% from 6.02% the month before, and the average two-year fixed rate at 95% LTV fell to 6.13% from 6.23% (Moneyfacts, 13 July 2026). Pricing is genuinely improving for 5% deposit borrowers even as the number of deals shrinks, so this isn't a story of the market abandoning low-deposit buyers, but it is a story of a smaller, pricier corner of the market than the headline growth figure implies.

So if you're depending on a 95% mortgage being widely available and getting cheaper by the month, plan on fewer live options than the general market coverage suggests, and get quotes from a whole-of-market broker rather than assuming your bank's rate is representative.

The real cost gap: 95% versus 90% LTV

Here's the number that actually matters for your monthly budget. Take a typical £250,000 first home. With a 5% deposit of £12,500, you'd borrow £237,500 at the average 95% LTV five-year fixed rate of 5.92%, which comes to roughly £1,519 a month on a standard 25-year repayment mortgage. Find another £12,500, taking your deposit to 10% (£25,000), and you'd borrow £225,000 at the average 90% LTV rate of 5.60% instead, roughly £1,395 a month (Moneyfacts, 13 July 2026, both average rates, not best-buy).

That's a gap of £124 a month, or £1,481 a year, purely from crossing the 5%-to-10% deposit line. Over a five-year fixed term, staying at 5% deposit costs £7,407 more in total repayments than finding the extra £12,500 up front. If you've read our piece on the no-deposit mortgage myth, this is the same pattern one rung up the ladder: the smaller your deposit, the more the rate itself works against you, on top of the bigger loan.

The maths, in one place:

£250,000 purchase, 25-year repayment mortgage, average rates (Moneyfacts, 13 July 2026) · 5% deposit (£12,500): £237,500 loan at 5.92% five-year fix = approximately £1,519/month · 10% deposit (£25,000): £225,000 loan at 5.60% five-year fix = approximately £1,395/month · monthly difference = £124 · annual difference = £1,481 · five-year total difference = £7,407 · extra deposit needed to move from 5% to 10% = £12,500.

So work out how long it would realistically take you to save that extra £12,500. If it's a year or less, the 90% LTV rate is very likely worth waiting for.

Why this hits harder if you're stretching your income too

The deposit size isn't the only thing working against you at 95% LTV. Lenders typically apply a tighter affordability stress test the higher the loan-to-value, on top of the higher headline rate, because a 5% deposit borrower has almost no equity cushion if prices fall or their circumstances change. In practice that means someone borrowing close to the standard 4.5 times income cap is more likely to be squeezed out of the 95% LTV tier specifically than out of the market altogether, since the same lender may happily offer them a 90% LTV deal on a slightly smaller loan.

That's worth knowing if a lender has quoted you a smaller maximum loan at 95% LTV than you expected from your income alone. It usually isn't a sign you can't afford to buy, it's a sign the specific deposit tier you're asking for comes with a stricter test attached. A mortgage broker can often show you the difference in maximum borrowing across LTV bands from the same lender, which is a more useful comparison than reading a single advertised rate.

So if your mortgage offer at 95% LTV looks smaller than you budgeted for, don't assume you've been rejected on affordability generally. Ask specifically whether a 90% LTV deal on a smaller loan changes the answer.

Why waiting isn't automatically the right answer either

This is where the myth cuts both ways. It's tempting to read the £124-a-month gap and conclude that everyone should hold out for a 10% deposit, but that ignores what happens to house prices while you save. Nationwide recorded UK annual house price growth of 2.2% in June 2026 (Nationwide House Price Index, June 2026), so a £250,000 home today is likely to cost more by the time you've found another £12,500. We ran a similar comparison recently in the maths on buying now versus waiting a year, and the same principle applies here: the deposit saving has to be weighed against the price you're chasing, not looked at in isolation.

If getting from a 5% to a 10% deposit would take you more than roughly two years on your current savings rate, the ground lost to house price growth is likely to outweigh the £124-a-month rate saving. Run your own numbers through our mortgage calculator and affordability calculator before deciding either way, because the right answer depends on your own savings rate and local price trends, not a rule of thumb.

So don't treat "wait and save more" as automatically correct either. It's only the right call if you can genuinely close the deposit gap faster than prices move away from you.

What this means for you

If you're sitting on a 5% deposit and reading headlines about a booming mortgage market, the maths points toward checking the 95% LTV tier specifically rather than assuming the overall recovery applies to you: it currently doesn't, with deals down 16 in a single month even as the wider market grew. Frankly, if you can realistically find the extra deposit to reach 90% LTV within about a year, that route now saves you £124 a month and £7,407 over a five-year fix, and it's worth the short delay. Most people who run these numbers end up deciding based on their own savings rate rather than the headline stat, so treat "mortgage choice hit a multi-year high" as true, but not as advice about your specific deposit tier.