Gen Z and the future of UK mortgages: Key takeaways from BSA conference 2026

In the 1990s and early 2000s, first-time buyers accounted for around 25% of all UK property purchases. Today, the figure is just 6%.

That is not a gradual drift. It's a structural collapse in the entry point to homeownership. And, at the Building Societies Association (BSA) Annual Conference 2026 in Edinburgh, two themes dominated: the mortgage market's generational reckoning, and the operational transformation pressure building societies face as margins shrink.

The two are far more connected than most organisations currently recognise.

The Numbers Behind the Gen Z Mortgage Crisis

One conference breakout panel explored how Gen Z will reshape mortgage demand over the next decade. The insights came primarily from Max Shepherd, Chief Economist at Yorkshire Building Society, and they deserve closer attention:

• First-time buyers have fallen from ~25% of purchases in the 1990s to closer to 6% today.
• Solo first-time buyers are increasingly rare, with joint purchasing among partners, friends, or family becoming the norm.
• Elevated prices, sustained affordability pressure and chronic housing supply shortages are driving the shift away from first-time buying.

For building societies founded to help ordinary people own homes, the question is urgent. How must mortgages, savings products and the entire customer experience (CX) evolve for a generation facing a fundamentally different path to ownership?

What Gen Z Actually Wants

Gen Z are the most digitally native borrowers yet. Still, for one of the highest-stakes decisions of their lives, they want a human in the loop.

Digital capability matters, but it is not a substitute for empathy, guidance and reassurance from someone who knows what they are doing.

What Gen Z won't tolerate is friction: slow processes, opaque decisions, having to repeat themselves across touchpoints or being left in the dark on application status.

Over the next decade, expectations around speed, simplicity and transparency will only rise. Building societies that combine real human connection with smooth, intelligent digital delivery can own this relationship. Those that don't will find loyalty far harder to earn.

Strategy Isn't the Problem. Execution Is.

Most building societies are not short of ideas. They know AI can transform affordability decisioning, personalisation, customer communications and end-to-end origination.

The vision is clear. Execution is harder.

• How do you embed change without destabilising operations or stretching your risk and compliance function?
• How do you implement AI in a way regulators and borrowers alike can trust, where automation supports human judgement rather than replacing it?

That question ran through almost every exchange we had at Firstsource's BSA Conference booth.

There is a real cultural balance required: bringing colleagues along while designing processes for the new world, all against the backdrop of existing operating models. In practice, this comes down to running business as usual (BAU) with confidence while delivering transformation projects at pace.

The building societies that solve this tension first will have built the platform that makes the Gen Z mortgage and savings experience possible because frictionless CX journeys are the result of transformation that runs deep into operations, not just across the surface.

The Opportunity Hiding in Plain Sight

Building societies hold something the big banks find difficult to replicate: trust, community values and a sense of purpose beyond shareholder returns. Gen Z cares about that. They want to borrow from organisations that reflect their values as well as their needs. That's a notable advantage, but only if the operational experience matches the promise.

The future of mortgages will be intelligent, human-centred and frictionless by design. Organisations that are building toward that future now will be the ones that earn the next generation of borrowers.