Despite claiming to understand the “challenges” families are facing with skyrocketing mortgage payments, this newspaper can reveal he does not have a mortgage on any of his multi-million pound UK properties
Out of touch Rishi Sunak is mortgage free – and was handed a six-figure loan from his parents to help him buy his first flat.
Despite claiming to understand the “challenges” families are facing with skyrocketing mortgage payments, this newspaper can reveal he does not have a mortgage on any of his multi-million pound UK properties.
And in 2001, when he bought his first flat in London’s fancy South Kensington, his mum and dad helped him out by lending him the money for half of its’ £210,000 purchase price.
It’s understood he got a mortgage from Royal Bank of Scotland to pay for the remaining £105,000, which has now been paid off.
It comes after the Bank of England warned mortgage holders would see their monthly repayments spike by an eye-watering £220 a month by the end of the year.
But last month the PM urged families to “hold their nerve”, adding: “I get that this is challenging, but we’ve got to stick to the course.”
And he told ITV News: “I know the anxiety people will have about the mortgage rates, that is why the first priority I set out at the beginning of the year was to halve inflation because that is the best and most important way that we can keep costs and interest rates down for people.”
In June Mr Sunak ruled out directly intervening to help struggling borrowers. Instead, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt hammered out a deal with major banks to allow people to temporarily switch to interest-only payments and seek advice without affecting their credit score.
But Labour said as many as 2 million households could miss out unless the government made these measures mandatory for all lenders.
Official records show Mr Sunak now owns three properties in the UK – the Kensington flat, a £1.5 million manor house in his Yorkshire constituency and a £4.5 million house in London’s Earl’s Court.
Plus he lives rent-free in the flat above No10 Downing Street and Chequers, the Prime Minister’s official country mansion.
A Labour source said: “Tick, tick, tick goes the Tory Mortgage Bomb – and who is responsible for it? Rishi Sunak.
“But even after the dreadful election results last week, all he’s promising more of the same – out of touch, out of ideas and soon to be out of time.”
Downing Street has previously said Mr Sunak “had had” a mortgage, but refused to give any details.
Number 10 declined to comment.
