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DIRECT MAGAZINE
UPCOMING EVENTS
ROYAL LONDON
What’s on the menu?
FLEET MORTGAGES
Who are Fleet Mortgages? BTL case studies
JUST
Making it personal
CLYDESDALE BANK
In the spotlight
ISSUE 6
NEW YEAR, NEW OPORTUNITIES
Read the latest Direct Magazine now!
Virtual Workshop
Date: 4th March at 10am -12:30pm
CPD: 2.5 hours
Click here to register.
Virtual Protection Workshop
Date: Friday 18th March at 10am -12:30pm
CPD: 2.5 hours
Click here to register.
Suffolk Building Society
Updates from the Suffolk Building Society
There’s no stopping us this year! Hot on the heels of our recent product and criteria improvements we’re now bringing you two new deals available up to 95% LTV plus two new self build and renovation products, including a large loan option.
Let’s skip to the good bits…
95% LTV is back!
Three bits of good news:
- Self employed applicants welcome.
- New build houses accepted.
- Gifted deposits accepted if the applicant can provide 12 month rental history.
Self build: two new deals.
For purchase and remortgage of your clients’ new projects, conversions, renovations and knock down and rebuilds, we now offer fixed and discount deals plus an option for £1m – £2m loans.
Why choose the Suffolk for self build:
- Available directly to brokers – give us a call to discuss your case.
- Upon build completion your client can switch penalty free to one of our standard products.
- Interest only available during the build.
- Flexible stage releases.
Reliance Bank
New approach confirming Product Transfers
I am pleased to share with you that as from Tuesday 1st March, Reliance Bank will look to pay a Procuration Fee for any Product Transfers that is submitted to the Bank by an Adviser in line with our new updated agreement (this is attached for reference).
Our Product Transfer (PT) Range will be available on the following locations:
Our updated Procuration Fee Approach
Please see below which confirms the Bank’s new approach when it comes to new lending as well as product transfers;
This is a further example as to how the Bank have listened to your valuable feedback, and have taken measures to further evolve our proposition to ensure that your members are indeed able to provide a PT service through Reliance Bank.
Next Steps
We will provide a further communication outlining how an Adviser would look to process a Product Transfer with ourselves, this will also include sharing with you our Product Transfer Application form which an adviser will need to complete, get the customer(s) to sign and return into the mortgage department to process the Product Transfer through the intermediary Channel.
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.
Key Partnerships
The Adviser – Your round-up of Equity Release news
Key Partnerships have recently released their February Equity Release round-up news.
Find out more about:
- Equity Release market grows by 24% in 2021
- Advisers say the pandemic has made it harder to spot vulnerable clients
- Equity Release customers borrowed £12m a day in 2021
- And more!
TBMC
Let TBMC Help you with your Portfolio Ltd Co BTL clients…
Case study: Portfolio Limited Company Buy-to-Let
Property value: £1,000,000
Loan required: £750,000
Rental income: £2,765 pcm
Loan-to-value: 75%
Case outline
Our Broker had a client who was looking to remortgage one of their properties to raise funds in order to purchase another buy-to-let. The property is a 4 bed licensed HMO, and the client has a portfolio of 15 properties which are held within an SPV Limited Company. The HMO has 4 bedrooms and is held on one assured shorthold tenancy agreement. The broker’s client also has experience owning investment properties and own their own residential property.
The challenges the broker faced were:
- Their client’s age – their client wanted a longer term and many lenders will have a maximum age at the end of the term
- The background portfolio – many lenders will have a maximum number of properties in the background they will consider. Some lenders will also do a ‘stress test’ on the overall borrowing of the background portfolio which can be challenging for those with large portfolios
- Rental Income – the loan amount was high and we needed a lender who would calculate the required rent based on the actual interest rate, not a notional higher rate of interest
Our Brokers client also wanted a solution where they wouldn’t have very high valuation fees, which are linked to the value of the property. As the value of this property was £1m, it could have meant very high valuation fees from the lender.
We were happy to provide a suitable solution with free valuation and £250 cashback towards legal fees.
Furness For Intermediaries
Are you ready for the rise of the Mega-Mortgage?
House prices skyrocketed in 2021. The pandemic certainly has a lot to answer for and accelerating the rise in demand for property was one of the outcomes borne out of Covid-19. We all began to scrutinise the limitations of our living environments after being confined to the home and when the tax holiday on stamp duty was introduced, many of us jumped at the chance to make a change.
The property market has now begun to cool and we’re seeing far less property put up for sale than is typical for this time of year. Demand, however, has declined to a lesser extent and the ratio of buyers per property is a remarkable 18 to 1 in some areas.
This means the increase we saw in property prices last year is likely to continue into 2022. But as house prices soar, the size of the loans that lenders are prepared to offer will also have to grow.
Crystal Specialist Finance
Bridging offers chain-break to compete in challenging market
Unless you spent the past 18 months on a desert island then you should have been an extremely busy mortgage broker during that time. The high levels of demand in the property market that were enjoyed in late-2020 and 2021 were fuelled by the stamp duty holiday, the race for space and changing buyer priorities.
However, with that surge having now subsided, a re-calibration of the supply and demand of property in the UK is anticipated for 2022; shifts which will undoubtedly present challenges to both mortgage brokers and prospective purchasers who want to secure their dream properties.
PAYMENTSHIELD
FALL IN LOVE WITH GI ACADEMY
Last year Paymentshield created GI Academy. A new learning platform filled with modules to help advisers grab their client’s attention and convert them into GI customers.
Since launching, GI Academy has helped over 1,000 advisers refine their GI expertise covering a wide variety of topics such as why sell GI and the benefits it provides, to the wider Paymentshield proposition including Home Insurance and Landlords Insurance.
New chapters in the love story
Paymentshield have updated GI Academy with 2 new modules. In the Adviser Hub module, you can know refine your knowledge on ‘Quoting and Quote Results’ with chapters looking at Quick Quote, full quote and any quoting tips.
Delve into ‘My GI Book’ and all its features, such as the personalised dashboard and how best to utilise it.
The ‘Potential Earnings Calculator’ module explores how to find and use the calculator as well as any additional ways you can help maximise your earnings.
Whilst the regulatory changes module currently focusses on the recent changes to the GI pricing practices, with plans to add more in the future.
Test your relationship
In addition to the expertly crafted modules, there are new ways to test your knowledge. The new tests focus on Landlord’s Insurance, Mortgage Protection and Tenant’s Contents.
To be continued…
In the coming months, Paymentshield will be releasing further modules on the sales processes and how and where you can add GI into yours to be more effective. There will also be chapters covering soft skills such as making a connection with your client and how to deal with any objections
Skipton For Intermediaries
Fewer hurdles for your clients
Here are two of the latest ways we’re making things easier for you and your clients:
- Your clients can now use 100% of their rental income towards affordability for Residential and standard Buy to Let mortgages (previously 50%).
- The maximum LTV for Let to Buy lending has increased to 95% for onward Residential purchases (previously 90%).
View our latest lending criteria
“We know how house price and base rate increases have squeezed many of your clients, making it more difficult to meet the affordability hurdles of lenders. And we recognise the value of a Buy to Let income, so we’re pleased to tell you that we now accept 100% of rental income, and we’ve removed the LTV cap on a background Buy to Let where the onward residential is coming to Skipton.”
Karen Appleton, Head of New Lending at Skipton Building Society
LV=
More affordable Critical Illness cover from LV=; providing the cover your clients need
Sometimes it can be challenging to find the right products for your client, especially when they are budget conscious like a first time buyer or single income household.
Our new Life and Critical Illness cover is a more affordable option, and covers your clients for the illnesses they are more likely to be affected by. Unlike our comprehensive plan, this doesn’t include children’s cover as standard, but Enhanced Children’s Cover is an optional extra for an additional cost – offering more flexibility for different client circumstances.
To find out more about our new LV= Life and Critical Illness Cover, contact your LV= Account Manager, visit LVadviser.com or call 0800 032 4219.
Legal & General
Keeping a business healthy
If a key person needs time off work due to illness or injury, we’ve launched a product that’s here to help. By providing protection to the business and support to the employee, our new Key Person Income Protection could provide a regular monthly benefit to a business in the event of the illness or injury of a key employee at what would otherwise be a time of financial uncertainty.
It could be used for one of the following business needs;
- Helping to protect lost profits attributed to the contribution of the key employee
- Meeting the cost of a temporary replacement employee
- Supporting ongoing loan repayment related to the contribution of the key employee
Vantage Finance
Bridging Finance, more uses than you might expect!
When we talk about bridging finance, people often think that it can only be used for an auction purchase or property chain break. However, there are many more uses for bridging finance.
Bridging finance can also be used in the following scenarios:
- Property chain breaks
- Commercial short term cash flow
- Auction purchase
- Property conversion
- Refurbishment finance
- Japanese knotweed
- Unexpected tax bills
- Development exit
- Repossession prevention
With bridging rates from as low as 0.45%, super-fast completion times and loans up to 85% LTV, Vantage Finance can help with any of your clients’ short-term finance requirements.
Take advantage of the team’s knowledge and experience to save both you and your client time. Find out more about bridging finance with Vantage here.
If you would like more information on the above or to discuss a case, please do not hesitate to contact the team at Vantage!
T: 01753 883195
E: enquiries@vantagefinance.co.uk
Foundation Home Loans
Expat mortgages from Foundation now for individuals as well as Limited Companies
Foundation’s expat proposition is now available to landlord individuals who are UK nationals living as expats worldwide as well as to Limited Companies.
- New range of Expat specific products including options for Green, Short Term Lets, HMO all up to 75% LTV
- ICR calculated same as the core range: Stress tested at 125% for basic rate tax payers and Limited Companies, and 145% for others
- Reduced fee across the Expat range
- Accepting individual applications from over 60 countries, including EU/EEA/Switzerland subject to conditions
As of 24th February 2022, Foundation Home Loan’s Expat mortgages are available to non-SPV landlord individual expatriates as well as limited companies.
As well as broadening their lending criteria, Foundation Home Loans have introduced a new range of specific products for Expats looking to purchase or remortgage a buy to let property including options for Green, Short Term Lets, HMOs all up to 75% LTV, and with a reduced fee of 1.25% across the Expat range, except for the Green option which continues to benefit from the 0.75% fee of the Green range.
Hodge
Always working with you
Are you interested in who we lend to and what makes the case work?
We like to say yes! Find out how our mortgages have helped people in our latest case studies.
Improve not move
Pete, a 56-year-old who has always worked from home lives with 48-year-old Vicki, a HR partner for a large bank. Vicki used to commute 40 miles-a-day to work but now works from home most days and will continue to do so. Pete has a small home office and Vicki works from the kitchen table, something they want to change.
They wanted to create a second home office, planning to extend their kitchen to include a permanent working space at a cost of around £60,000.
Their home is worth £350,000 with a current mortgage of £230,500, or 65% LTV. They were desperate to do the extension but didn’t want to over stretch themselves. Ideally Pete and Vicky wanted a repayment mortgage as this is their forever home so they had no plans to downsize – find out how we helped make their dreams reality.
Pete & Vicki – read the full case study.
Mortgage prisoners
Jane, a 60-year-old retired police officer and Steve, 61 and a self-employed IT developer and company director took out an interest only mortgage in 2003 with a 20-year-term. Their current lender wrote to them highlighting their mortgage would be ending in 12 months and they’d need to repay.
After contacting their existing lender they found themselves unable to do what they’d planned. They’d hoped to convert their mortgage to repayment and increase their borrowing over 19 years, but their lender wouldn’t consider a term or income to age 80.
They’ve lived in the home for many years, having cashed in their endowment at a time in their life when they needed the money. They carried on making payments without really thinking about needing to repay the mortgage at the end of the term, it was a big shock to them when they received the letter from their lender – find out how we helped them when other lenders couldn’t.
Mansfield Building Society
A refreshingly flexible approach to Buy to Let
From FCA Regulated Family Buy to Let to Holiday Lets, Limited Companies and our Expat Buy to Let – which includes Consumer Buy to Let – we have a refreshingly flexible approach.
Product availability can be found on the mortgages page of our intermediaries website and you can check affordability with our buy to let calculator.
For more information about our approach and applying through our online portal, visit our website at mansfieldbs.co.uk/intermediaries.
LiveMore
We have just made it even easier for your clients to get a mortgage!
If your 50+ customers are looking to raise capital from their property to fund home improvements, lifestyle or even to help their children onto the housing ladder – look no further…
- Up to 65% LTV
- Open to borrowers 50 – 80 years old
- Short term solutions for customers hoping to downsize
- Common sense approach to income multiples
Affirmative
So many complications, so little time
The Person:
William* was building a new home, which was almost complete. He was looking for funds to pay his builder and planned on raising a mortgage on his current home to do so. His residence, on a lovely street in Edinburgh, was then to be sold to repay the mortgage.
The Problem:
William’s financial intermediary had applied to a mortgage company on his behalf but they were not prepared to lend because his residence was given a nil value due to the non-standard construction technique used to build it.
The Solution:
Unsure what to do, William’s financial intermediary called Affirmative. Would we be able to help? With a regulated loan? In Scotland? Secured against a non-standard construction property? With time quickly running out?
Within hours indicative terms were issued, which included a free, pre-approved AVM valuation. Fast-forward to today and the loan has completed and William is looking forward to moving in to his new home.
Real People. Real Problems. Real Solutions. Affirmative.
Whatever problems your clients are facing, call our office on 08000 44 84 84 and let Affirmative try and find the solutions.
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are able to offer both regulated and unregulated loans.
* Not his real name.
Hinckley & Rugby For Intermediaries
Top slice LinkedIn poll – the results are in!
Last week, as part of this month’s top slicing focus, we ran a poll asking intermediaries how many of their Buy to Let cases were self-supporting. The results showed that, for the majority who voted, over 75% of your Buy to Let cases are self-supporting. But a quarter of brokers said self-supporting cases make up less than 50% of their cases. Is this a surprising result for our brokers?
Our Business Development Team Leader, Jen Hingley, gave her thoughts on the results:
“As a lender, the results are not too surprising to us, however, though the majority of Buy to Let cases we receive tend to be self-supporting, we still have a fair amount of applications which require top slicing in order to meet affordability. Our flexibility and manual lending allows us to find solutions for the clients, and our top slicing facility is one of the options we have in our arsenal to create the right product for our borrowers. Thank you to all those who took part in our poll.”
If you have a Buy to Let case you would like to discuss which may requiring top slicing, contact our Business Development team on: 01455 894084 or via the chat facility on our website.
