The 'industry innovation award' winning 'Buy-for-Uni' product, first launched last year by the Bath Building Society, not only permits a student to apply for a one hundred per cent mortgage - but also allows offspring or parents to earn a rental income from the property purchased, writes Tony Booth.

This is the first 'buy-to-let' product of its kind to be specifically devised and targeted for the student market.

It is an efficient answer for parents who wish to release equity tied up in their own home to help their children and, in effect, covers the middle ground between a standard mortgage and the now widely familiar 'buy-to-let' loan.

Following the launch of the 'Buy-for-Uni' scheme, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), Gemma Tumelty, said:

'In a time of spiralling student debt and graduates finding it increasingly difficult to pay into pensions or buy their first home, it is great that mortgage lenders are diversifying their lending portfolio to make it easier for some students to get on the first rung of the property ladder'.