Mortgages that will never be repaid. Is this a return to the bad old days?

When I was first getting on the housing ladder in the late nineties, the idea of taking out a mortgage you never intended to pay back was pretty normal. Interest-only mortgages were widely available to first-time buyers like me. It was a good way to get us onto their books. Over time, as I did, we’d convert to a repayment version, and everyone’s happy.

In the post-financial crisis world, though, borrowing or lending debt never intended to be repaid is frowned upon. The self righteously prudent (or just plain rich) are dying to crow to those left stranded with a decreasing choice of interest-only mortgages that ‘it’s people like you who helped bring the whole house of cards down’.

They might have something else to choke on now, because the idea of a mortgage that might never be repaid is making a bit of a comeback. But in a different guise.