Inform 27th August 2021

Launching into Ex Pat Buy to Let

Tipton and Coseley with immediate effect we are able to consider Ex Pat Buy to Let applications from British Ex Pats residing in EU countries.

Self-employed incomes hit hardest by the pandemic

Eighty-five per cent of self-employed people in the UK say their income hasn’t yet bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, resulting in more abandoning their dreams of moving onto or the up the property ladder.

The research among 1,000 UK-based self-employed people, who either own their home or want to, was carried out by The Mortgage Lender in March.

The survey revealed 28 per cent of self-employed people have seen their income slashed by more than half over the last year because of the pandemic. A further 16 per cent said they had suffered income losses of between a quarter and 50 per cent.

Consequently, 51 per cent believe it is now more difficult for a self-employed borrower to get a mortgage. And a further 53 per cent claim that their self-employed status has deterred them from even applying for one.

But there were also self-employed people that bucked the trend when it came to income during the pandemic.

Eighteen per cent of our self-employed panel hadn’t experienced any change to their income and 14 per cent said it had increased.

Commenting on the research The Mortgage Lender sales and product director Steve Griffiths said: “When we launched our new residential range earlier in the year we did so with the self-employed, complex income borrowers and credit impairment front of mind, because these are the people who have been most affected by the pandemic.

“Even before the pandemic self-employed people felt let down by the mortgage market.  In 2018, as part of a special report called ‘The Self-Employed Economy’ we found that 1m (21 per cent) self-employed people had reconsidered their employment situation because of the uncertainty of securing a mortgage. Today, the statistics show even more pessimism, with over half believing their chances of being given a mortgage are so slim they don’t even think it’s worth applying.

“Now more than ever specialist lenders need to have criteria that caters for a wide range of customer circumstances and recognise that the last 12 months has been financially difficult for many people.”

Making more improvements

You’ll know many lenders like Accord had to make some difficult decisions as the impacts of COVID-19 unfolded, one of those was having to switch inbound phone lines off.

The good news is that as restrictions are lifted Accord has now switched the inbound BDA phones lines back on and started planning to get their BDMs back on the road.

Accord’s webchat will still be available for quick questions, and BDAs are now available able to take calls for new business enquiries only on 0345 1200866 Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm.

Making more improvements

In addition to switching the phonelines back on, and after some significant recruitment and investment in their teams, Accord have also launched a new dedicated variations team line to help support clients with Porting, Additional Loans and Product Transfers etc, meaning they can offer dedicated support in what can be a complex area.

Examples of how the new team will help:

• Process and policies for variations
• Existing account information
• Help if brokers are unable to carry out a PT via the portal
• Disclosure of Authority
• Product Transfer access/password resets

Brokers can contact the new team by calling 0345 1669267 Mon to Fri 9am to 5pm.

Full details of how to contact the Accord team are on their contact us page.

New Reliance Bank Ltd Mortgage Product Range – Launching Thursday 26^th August  2021

We will be making some key changes to our entire Product Range. These will also include some positive changes for our Key Worker Product Range as well as our Shared Ownership Product Range which will go live via our sourcing Partner Twenty7 Tec.

New Product Range Rate Sheets will be issued to all on the day of Launch on the 26^th August 2021 in a follow up communication. As we do appreciate not all your members use Twenty7 Tec as a sourcing partner.

Our current Product range will be withdrawn from Close of Business Wednesday 25^th August 2021 – as we are a manual underwriting operation with no formal originations platform, we will be allowing a Grace Period to allow cases where one of your members has got an AIP on one of these withdrawn products to enable to application to be converted to FMA and therefore secure the rate. The deadline has been set as Wednesday 8^th September 2021.

These changes will help improve the Bank’s overall product offering to the UK mortgage market and in particular our 2 key sectors, where we as a Bank want to stand out more to your members.

Once again, on behalf of the rest of the team at Reliance Bank, we thank you for your ongoing and continued support for our small ethical bank, which is looking to provide a positive social impact to the UK Mortgage Market.

Our approach to top slicing… and how your landlord customers could benefit

Top slicing could provide landlords with greater flexibility when looking to secure the loan they need for a buy to let property.

But when exactly are we able to consider it?

• The property must achieve a minimum ICR of 110% when calculated at the pay rate of the selected product.
• Surplus rental income from the landlord’s property portfolio, earned income, or a combination of the two can then be used to demonstrate that they could meet any financial stresses.
• Top slicing is integrated into our broker portal and will automatically give you an option if it’s available to your customer.

Download our top slicing guide and see if it could be the solution for your next case.

Download our top slicing guide here.

A guide to limited company buy-to-let

There has been a growing interest in limited company buy-to-let since the government completely phased out mortgage interest tax relief for buy-to-let properties in April 2020.

We have created a free guide for you and your landlord clients who are interested in finding out more about the possibilities of using a limited company for their buy-to-let businesses.

Download the guide