Inform 22nd November 2024

We’ve teamed up with 4most Economic Consultants to provide you with a monthly economic update. The update for November is now available to download.

The update covers:

• Inflation and interest rates
• Labour market
• Housing market
• Rental market
• Mortgage market activity
• Rate analysis

Read the update

Nottingham Building Society

Providing even greater flexibility for foreign national borrowers

At Nottingham Building Society, we’re on a mission to create innovative propositions that unlock homeownership for people struggling to buy their dream home.

And one great example of how we’re designing products to meet the diverse needs of borrowers, is our foreign nationals proposition, which launched in May.

While building the range, we put borrowers at the centre of the proposition and carefully designed our criteria to break down the barriers that were excluding so many people.

The result? A mortgage range that ‘fills a gap in the market’ by requiring:
• No minimum time of residency in the UK
• No minimum time remaining on visa
• No minimum income needed
• No UK credit history needed
• And up to 90% LTV

We know, however, that to help as many borrowers as possible, we need to continually innovate. So, we’ve broadened the range of visas we accept, to open up our foreign nationals mortgages to even more borrowers.

We now accept all the following visa types:
• Global Talent
• Pre-settlement
• UK Ancestry
• British National Overseas (BNO)
• Health & Care Worker
• Skilled Worker
• Tier 2 (if granted before 1st Dec 2020)
• Dependant visas (for joint applicants)

Commenting on the change, Sales Director Alison Pallett said:
“Our goal is to ensure that we offer attractive and flexible products to meet the unique needs of our customers – from skilled foreign nationals and returning expats, to those looking for specific options like Retirement Interest Only or Buy-to-Let.

“Expanding our visa acceptance criteria is an important step in continuing our commitment to making homeownership accessible for individuals with wide-ranging residency backgrounds, ensuring we can support anyone who aspires to own their own home.”

For further details, please visit our website

Foundation Home Loans

FOUNDATION HOME LOANS LAUNCHES NEW BUY TO LET AND RESIDENTIAL PRODUCTS

Foundation Home Loans is excited to announce new rates across their Buy to Let and Residential ranges. Effective on Wednesday, November 20th, they have introduced new products across their Buy to Let and Residential product ranges. The updated rates provide your clients with options that address a variety of needs and circumstances.

Buy to Let Product:

• F2 Limited Edition Holiday Let 5 Year Fixed product with a rate of 6.24% and a fee of 2.25% up to 75% LTV

Residential Product:

• F1 2- and 5- Year Fixed fee-assisted Limited Edition Remortgage Only products with rates starting from 5.99% and a £595 fee

For full details, please check our latest product guide.

The unique opportunities on offer in an evolving BTL landscape

The Q3 2024 Landlord Trends report by Pegasus Insight for Foundation Home Loans presents several challenges for the buy-to-let (BTL) sector, yet these also offer unique opportunities for mortgage intermediaries to engage with and support landlords through an evolving landscape. As landlords face increased pressures, such as stamp duty increases, potential rental reforms, and proposed changes in EPC regulations, many are revaluating their portfolios. The report shows a notable increase in planned divestment among larger landlords, particularly those with over 20 properties (59%), and among leveraged landlords (46%) compared to outright owners (34%).

Click here for the full story

Zurich

Getting the most out of our online trust journey

Placing a policy in trust at outset offers lots of benefits for customers but it’s one of the areas you often tell us you need a bit more help and guidance on when it comes to navigating these steps on the adviser portal.

To help make things a little easier, follow these straightforward steps and make placing your customer’s policy in trust a breeze.

1. If your application generates a referral it’s best practice to wait until after an underwriting decision is made before attempting to complete the trust. If you retrieve an application while it is ‘referred’, the screen will show online trust is not available. This will reappear once a decision has been made.
2. This is especially important on joint life applications because if one of the lives assured is subsequently declined, this could change the trust arrangements, so getting that certainty is key.
3. Once a decision is made, we’ll let you know via an update in your portal. You can then retrieve the application and progress it through to issue and place the policy in trust.

Continue reading.

Legal and General

Leeds Building Society

Mortgage Product Updates

• Selected Residential fixed rates withdrawn.

View products

Products will be withdrawn from the system at midnight on Friday 15 November 2024 – see our latest updates for details. You’ll be able to apply for any new products from the stated launch date.

Do you need some help?

We are on hand with any support you need on these product updates so please feel free to get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Dudley Building Society

Buy to Let case studies

BTL Purchase

First Time Buyer & First Time Landlord wanting to buy a new build flat to get on the property ladder.

• Originally from Sheffield, applicant currently works and rents in London.
• Looking for a mortgage of £112,000 on a property worth £140,000.
• As too expensive to buy in London but wanting to get on to property ladder, client seeking to buy a new build flat in hometown, with their own savings for the deposit.

What did Dudley do?

• Our underwriter assessed the case on full affordability as applicant was a FTB/FTL.
• With the salary the client earned, and taking into account the rental shortfall with other expenditure, this was one we were happy to consider at 80% LTV.

Case study 2;

Regulated BTL

First Time Buyer looking to purchase a property from her mother while her mother continued to live there.

• Applicant looking for a mortgage of £150,000 to buy her mothers home for £200,000.
• She is not a homeowner but instead rents her home with her partner and has done so for 5 years.
• To add to the complexity of the case, the mother wanted to gift £50k equity to her daughter and the applicant had no cash deposit of her own.

What did Dudley do?

• We were happy with this scenario as affordability was based on a full assessment and not rental income.
• We assessed their case and comfortably provided the Regulated BTL mortgage at 75% LTV.

Case study 3;

BTL Purchase

First Time Landlord wants to purchase her parents property as a BTL for full market value. Her brother is also gifting the deposit.

• The applicant owns her own home but is a First Time Landlord.
• BTL affordability did not fit on our normal ICR calculations.
• Applicant receives child benefit and Universal Credits in addition to her employed income.
• A default was registered against the applicant in 2020 that had not been satisfied.

What did Dudley do?

• We were able to do a full affordability assessment based on the applicants income and expenditure and as the children were under 13 years of age, we were able to accept the benefits received towards affordability.
• As the default was under £1,000, we were able to assist and provide the mortgage at 80% LTV.

Find out more on the website here.

Aviva

Enhancements to our critical illness and fracture cover benefits

CI Enhancement

We are making changes to our Life Insurance+ with critical illness and Critical Illness+ products. These changes affect both our upgraded critical illness benefit (upgraded adult cover) and upgraded children’s benefit (upgraded children’s cover). These changes will go live Sunday November 17^th 2024. Policies with a new business quote with a rate date of 17^th November 2024 onwards will get these new terms, pipeline cases are unaffected.

They represent the first step of bringing elements of the AIG proposition to Aviva. Fran Bruce, Aviva Protection MD notes “These changes not only represent a valuable addition to the cover we offer our customers and their children, but it is also an important first step in bringing the propositions of Aviva and AIG closer together.”

See the critical illness enhancement here.

Fracture Cover Changes

We are making changes to our Fracture Cover which is an optional bolt-on benefit which can be attached to Life Insurance+, Critical Illness+ and Income Protection+. These changes will go live Sunday November 17^th 2024. Policies with a new business quote with a rate date of 17^th November 2024 onwards will get these new terms, pipeline cases are unaffected.

11 of the 18 bone fractures covered under the product will see increased payouts (these are highlighted in green below), with seven fractures now eligible for the highest payout amount of £6,000. This development means that the value of payouts is increasing by an average of 38%.

See fracture cover changes here.

Mansfield Building Society

Case Study: purchasing a rental home with historic defaults and missed payments

Our versatile criteria can help clients that don’t meet the conventional customer profile. In this case study, we were able to accept:

• A young family purchasing their rental home from their landlord (76% LTV)
• Historic defaults and missed payments due to reduced income from ill-health
• Main applicant successfully completes probationary period before completion
• Gifted deposit from a family member

Given the circumstances, the broker initially considered a specialist sub-prime lender and was delighted to hear that we could help their clients with a more affordable rate. Take a look at our criteria guide to see what we can do for your clients.

Versatility Criteria Guide

More2Life

Discover Tailored

At more2life, we’re proud of how we tailor our products to meet your and your clients’ needs. Tailored is one of our most diverse products, with LTVs and cashback plans suitable for a range of clients.

How could Tailored help you deliver better customer outcomes?

• Unlock an LTV enhancement of up to 20% with Tailored Enhanced by answering just 13 simple questions
• The cashback available on Tailored Lifetime and Enhanced plans now goes up to 5%
• The minimum amount that can be released from a drawdown facility has been reduced from £2,000 to £500 on Tailored Lifetime, giving your clients more flexibility and control over their borrowing costs

Discover Tailored

Darlington Building Society

NEW products effective from 8am Tuesday 19th November

Product fees have been removed from our Skilled Worker products with the following criteria and enhancements:

• Up to 95% LTV available
• No minimum time in the UK
• Credit Search Not Credit Score

For Tier 2 – Skilled workers, our VISA products have been repriced as below:

• 2 year 80% Fixed 5.09% until 31/01/2027
• 2 year 90% Fixed 5.59% until 31/01/2027
• 2 year 95% Fixed 5.89% until 31/01/2027

AND

New rates and brand-new incentives on our ‘Own New’ products which include both 3% and 5% incentives making them a possible option to help First Time Buyer clients finally begin their home ownership journey.

• Standard Residential 2 Year 80% Fixed 4.79% until 31/01/2027
• Specialist Residential 2 year 80% Fixed 5.09% until 31/01/2027
• Product Transfers 2 Year 80% Fixed 4.99% until 31/01/2027
• Shared Ownership 2 year 95% LTS Fixed 5.59% until 31/01/2027
• Own New (New Builds) 2 Year 95% Fixed 3% Builder Incentive 3.99% until 31/01/2027
• Own New (New Builds) 2 year 95% Fixed 5% Builder Incentive 2.89% until 31/01/2027

Call our intermediaries support team on 01325 741 004 or email intermediaries@darlington.co.uk for more information

https://www.darlington.co.uk/darlington-intermediaries/

Pepper Money

Interest Only

In today’s market it’s great to see that 90% of mortgages are written through intermediaries. This demonstrates that customers really recognise the value of specific advice based on their own circumstances.

Pepper Money also believes that every customer and their own set of circumstances are unique, and as part of such, we are increasingly seeing an uplift in interest-only mortgages.

There are multiple reasons why Interest Only may be right for your customers.

Your customer may be intending to downsize property in the future whilst being self-employed and looking to minimise current contractual payments… or they may be already drawing down their pension and looking to extend their current mortgage term?

We have found that our customer’s income, when applying for an interest only mortgage, is typically higher than average, with 46% of customers earning £50k p/a- £99k p/a.

Interest only remains a smaller proportion of our consumer base as you would expect, but we have seen a 37% increase in completed cases from January to October 2023 vs 2024.

If one of your customers could benefit from Interest Only or they just do not quite fit the High Street, please do not hesitate to contact us

Our key criteria uses a common sense approach looking to assist a variety of customer types

• Maximum LTV 60%
• £18,000 minimum income level (per application)
• Downsize of Existing Residential Home accepted as repayment vehicle with no statutory minimum equity requirement
• Available up to age 75 with earned income and 80 with non-earned income (e.g pension)
• Affordability calculated on an Interest Only basis rather than Capital & Interest.

Market Harborough Building Society

Let Market Opportunities

Following a period of significant change and regulatory upheaval, the let market is a hot topic. But there are still plenty of opportunities out there to help your clients – it might just need a keener eye to spot them and some creative thinking to make the most of them.

In our latest article, we explore the opportunities available in the market and what help is available from specialist lenders to maximise your clients’ affordability, such as:

• Joint borrower sole proprietor, with no family connection required
• Top-slicing, which can be combined with JBSP for BTL cases
• A variety of non-standard income accepted, including pensions, investment and foreign currency

Plus, hear from our Head of Sales, Chris Thompson, as he shares how our approach to ICR means we can say yes to cases that others can’t. Read more here – https://mhbs.co.uk/intermediaries/latest-news/let-opportunities/

Whether you’ve got a let case needing a flexible approach to affordability, one involving a quirky property, or an unusual scenario, we’ve got you covered. Our tiered pricing is based on case complexity, so you know exactly where your scenario fits.

If your clients are looking to purchase a let property in their personal name, give your nearest BDM a call to see how we can help you – https://mhbs.co.uk/intermediaries/contact-us/