With an interest-only mortgage, why is the sale of the house not considered a repayment vehicle?

Question

I am looking into interest-only mortgages. Why is the property which you are buying with the mortgage not considered a repayment vehicle? Selling the property would be enough to pay back the mortgage. Is it because the property value could decrease?
I was looking at this article, ways-of-repaying-an-interest-only-mortgage

Examples of repayment vehicles:

Cash saved in a savings account or ISA (although some lenders are no longer accepting this as a repayment vehicle)
Stocks and shares ISAs
Pensions
Investment bonds
Shares
Unit trusts
Regular savings plans (endowment policies)
Other properties or assets

DJClayworth · Accepted Answer

The lender wants their money back. And they want to be certain they get their money back on a fixed schedule.
Having you repay the loan "when you sell it" is not good enough. They need to know that in some fixed time you will definitely be able to pay the loan back. Theoretically they could make you a loan in which you are forced to sell the home after 25 years, but probably nobody would take such a loan, and there might be legal difficulties in enforcing it.

JTP - Apologise to Monica · Answer

The examples are aimed at someone who wished to stay in their home. That would be the case whether it was a standard mortgage or interest-only. The home's value can't be used to pay off the mortgage without being sold, so the article is just listing how one would raise money to pay it off but stay in the house.

Answered by JTP - Apologise to Monica on January 26, 2021

With an interest-only mortgage, why is the sale of the house not considered a repayment vehicle?

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