Yahoo Finance The stress of taking out a mortgage is worse than being trapped in a broken lift, say applicants
The stress of applying for a mortgage is so intense that a quarter of young buyers admit to comfort eating to cope with the anxiety, a new survey finds today.
Applicants also confess to crying more, including at work, and drinking more alcohol as a result of the pressure of trying to land a home loan.
One in eight are so freaked out by the process that they say they would rather endure being stuck in a lift for 12 hours that go through it again, according to the research from banking tech company Ohpen.
The levels of stress were highest among the youngest buyers with 22% of these aged 24 or younger admitting to calling in sick to work due to stress triggered by their mortgage application.
This is creating feelings of regret, with 38% of homeowning 24–35-year-olds wishing they had chosen to rent for longer instead of going through the mortgage application process. Half of people that have applied for a mortgage reveal the feeling they most associate with the process is “anxiety.”
These findings are a damning indictment of the inefficient mortgage application processes delivered by banks’ archaic legacy systems
Jerry Mulle, UK managing director at Ohpen
Although all age groups had some level of stress when they take out a mortgage, there is a stark generational divide with Gen Z suffering far more than Baby Boomers. .
A quarter of 25–34-year-olds surveyed admitted to comfort eating due to stress triggered by their mortgage applications, while a further 26% started forgetting things they would normally remember, such as food shopping or texting a friend on their birthday.
While almost seven in ten over 55s did not have to give up any lifestyle habits while applying for a mortgage, the vast majority (89%) of Gen Zs said they did, with more than a fifth cutting back on exercising or even spending time with friends and family (22%).
People also confessed to crying more, including at work, and drinking more alcohol due to stress triggered by the application process.
Jerry Mulle, UK managing director at Ohpen, says: “These findings are a damning indictment of the inefficient mortgage application processes delivered by banks’ archaic legacy systems. Hundreds of thousands of Brits apply for a mortgage every year, and so the total impact on mental health and wellbeing, consumer spending and productivity is significant. The generational gap in the impact of mortgage applications on wellbeing and consumer spending makes it clear that banks’ processes have not modernised – what was cutting edge 40 years ago is no longer fit for purpose.
“We need to see a coordinated effort to make the process more transparent and inclusive from the outset, and speed up the application process by taking complex legacy technology out of the equation and enabling better real-time data sharing between all the stakeholders involved in the home-buying journey.”
