Inform 6th September 2024

Skipton Building Society

Exciting news about Track Record!

Skipton Building Society are excited to announce that as of, Monday 2nd September, we’re making changes to our Track Record Mortgage, with a collection of policy enhancements and expansions.

Key Changes

Maximum mortgage term increase from 35 to 40 years.
Now available on New Build flats.
Now acceptable in conjunction with a Shared Ownership mortgage.
New flexible underwriting approach to the “household to household” criteria, where policy allows, meaning we may accept applicants without rental experience as long as an accompanying applicant meets all eligibility criteria.
Relaxed rent to monthly mortgage payment criteria – After 1 year of helping renters into their homes we have made various improvements to the way we calculate affordability which should help more customers step up on to the property ladder. This means in some circumstances we will lend loans which have monthly payments up to 120% of the rent the customer is currently paying.

View our Track Record Mortgage – https://www.skipton-intermediaries.co.uk/criteria/track-record

Please note – We’ve removed the Track Record calculator from the website as all rental calculations have now been incorporated into our standard Affordability Calculator. Please use our Affordability Calculator to determine how much we could potentially lend based on average rental payments and current income and outgoings.

Metro Bank

Joint Borrower, Sole Proprietor Solutions & SVR Update

Our Joint Borrower, Sole Proprietor mortgage is the perfect solution for family or friends looking to support loved ones onto the first or next rung of the property ladder.

Residential Core Range JBSP highlights

Spouses and non-relatives are accepted as joint borrowers
Joint borrowers can reside in the subject property
Up to 95% LTV on houses and flats, purchase only (90% LTV for new build)
Up to four applicants on the mortgage, with a minimum of one applicant on the property deeds
Income can be accepted from up to 4 applicants, at full income multiples, subject to affordability
Maximum age 80 considered (mortgage term based on the oldest applicant at the end of the term)
Repayment, interest only and part and part options available (maximum LTVs apply)
Gifted deposits accepted – Gifted Deposit Form to be used

For full details, please refer to our Mortgage Lending Criteria Guide and Product Guides.

In other news….
With effect from Monday 2 September 2024, our Standard Variable Rate will be 8.50% for Residential and 9.00% for Buy to Let mortgages.

Contact us
If you have any questions or need support, please get in touch with your BDM or call our Broker helpdesk on 0203 427 1019. To find your nearest BDM, please click here.

Paymentshield

Paymentshield launches Enhanced Quote Journey for Landlord’s Insurance

Following the positive impact of our improved Home Insurance quote journey, Paymentshield has announced the next phase of our quote journey optimisation, which now offers an enhanced experience for advisers when generating insurance quotes for their landlord clients.

Generate a quote more quickly

Building upon the success of its existing optimised home insurance quote journey, which has delivered a typical 5% increase in sales conversion, the latest development means that advisers can now benefit from the same time-saving journey for landlord clients.

In addition, Paymentshield’s list of eligibility questions has been reduced from eight questions down to a single statement.

Pre-populated fields to save time

Now live, the enhanced quote journey means that advisers can generate a quote for landlords in less than a minute, thanks to key property data automatically populated from global data provider LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

This includes property type, build year, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, wall type and brick type. In addition, Paymentshield’s list of eligibility questions has been reduced from eight questions down to a single statement.

You can access this new journey via Paymentshield’s Adviser Hub and you can find out more information on our 5 Star Defaqto rated Landlord’s Insurance by visiting our website.

Principality Building Society

Principality BS launches limited edition higher LTI product for FTBs – matches Halifax’s

Principality Building Society has launched a limited edition higher loan-to-income product for first-time buyers exclusively through brokers.

The deal allows customers to borrow up to 5.5 times their income and is available for standard five-year fixed-rate residential products.

Other key details include:

Employed income only
Applicants must have an income of £30,000 individually or £50,000 combined
100% second income and overtime accepted

Principality Building Society national intermediary manager Helen Lewis says: “Our FTB research shows us that this is a diverse group and can be at different stages in their life, have different levels of family support and differing degrees of financial confidence.

“This enhanced loan-to-income is one of a wide range of solutions we will be showcasing over the next three months that aim to provide a boost for FTBs.”

Gatehouse Bank

Maximum finance increased to £10m on all HPP and BTL products

We are delighted to announce with immediate effect that we are able to consider applications for finance up to £10m for both Home Purchase Plans (HPP) and Buy-to-Let (BTL) by referral. Details of the product changes are outlined below:

For HPP we will consider finance on a single property for purchase or refinance of main residence for own occupation up to £10m of finance and up to a maximum of 70% FTV
In the case of BTL, we will consider portfolios of up to £10m of finance, with a maximum of £5m on any individual property. The £5m applies whether an individual property is part of a portfolio or not
In the first instance, all cases above £5m of finance will need to be referred to your BDM where sufficient details will need to be supplied in order for the Bank to assess if we would want to proceed the case to a formal application. Based on this assessment, the maximum FTV may be reduced or the case may be declined
Intermediaries will not be able to bypass the referral process and go straight to application as the system is locked at £5m
For more details on the process, please contact your BDM

We also have another tranche of funds available for residents of Hong Kong which covers both HPP and BTL applications. There is a monthly allocation which will be strictly monitored and allocated on a first come first served basis.

In addition, we are making a minor change to our finance term and fixed rate period end dates. All finance terms and fixed rate periods will now end on the last day of the calendar month in which the finance term/fixed rate period expires. (Example: A 2 year fixed rate period of a product that Completes on 21 September 2024 would end on 30 September 2026 and if it has a finance term of 25 years, the finance term will end on 30 September 2049).

Our product range is available to UK residents, UK Expats, International residents and UK registered corporate entities looking for property finance in England and Wales. Our full range of products can be found here.

If you have any queries or require further information our team remains available via phone and email, details of which can be found here.

To review our current service levels, click here.

Accord Mortgages

Great news! Accord have improved their affordability…

Accord are always looking for ways to help you help more clients. And as they are a common-sense lender, they are pleased to let you know that from today they have enhanced their affordability assessment to:

Reduce the minimum household income threshold for lending above 4.49x LTI (up to 5x LTI) to £50,000 (from £60,000), for LTVs up to 90%.
Increase their new build LTV to 90% (from 85%) for above 4.49x LTI (up to 5x LTI) where the household income is £50,000 and above.
Increase their new build LTV to 90% (from 85%) for Boost LTI where the household income is £60,000 and above.

How does it work?

The good news is you don’t need to do anything differently. Simply visit Accord’s website here and use their online calculators or submit a DIP as normal – MSO will do the rest.

What else do you need to know?

Standard Lending policy and affordability must be met
The minimum income threshold for Boost LTI will remain at £60,000
Not available for applications using the New Build Deposit Unlock scheme

Mansfield Building Society

Flats in blocks of up to 10 storeys now accepted

We can now accept lending on flats in blocks of up to 10 storeys, including in city centres and over commercial units. Lending is available up to 90% LTV for residential properties and 75% LTV for buy to let. Our residential lending includes:

• Remortgage with debt consolidation (max 85% LTV) and capital raising
• Versatility and Credit Repair mortgages for clients with credit blips

Our Buy to Let range across England, Wales and Scotland* includes Expats and regulated Family Buy to Let. We can also accept Limited Company Buy to Let in England and Wales.

You can now search our criteria, check affordability and view our range of products from our website at mansfieldbs.co.uk/intermediaries.

*Buy to Let lending in Scotland excludes Limited Company Buy to Let, Holiday Lets and properties located in the Outer Hebrides, the Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands and postcodes IV41-48, IV51-56, KA27, PA20-49, PA60-78, PH41-44.

Halifax Intermediaries

Online – changes to Terms and Conditions

From Monday 7 November (2022), the Online Terms and Conditions contractual agreements will be updated.

Following a recent review of the contractual agreements we have strengthened the clauses in relation to responsibilities around user recertification, quality of data and the requirement to keep this data up to date.

Changes include ensuring user access data is checked and recertified at least quarterly and providing us with any information we request to confirm this.

The new Online Terms and Conditions will be updated on Halifax Intermediaries Online on Monday 7 November, for you to familiarise yourself with the changes.

Market Financial Solutions

Why take a 5-year product when a 2 year will do?

I know for many of you, this week is your first back after some well-deserved respite, and to start your week, we have some positive news from MFS!

With BBR anticipated to decrease in the coming months and SWAP rates taking a gradual decline, why take a 5-year product when a 2 year will do? That’s the question many brokers will be asking themselves. The great news is our 2-year fixed or tracker BTL rates will enable BTL landlords to achieve more than most 5-year fixed rates on the market through unique affordability tools like rolled and deferred interest, meaning MFS can say yes when many affordability calculators and DIPs will say no.

To that end we’ve reduced our BTL fixed and tracker rates with immediate effect, resulting in fixed rates from 5.04% (6.24% without deferred interest) and tracker rates from 4.96% (6.94% without deferred interest).

However, that’s not all:

We’ve also reduced our Bridge Fusion pay rates. They now start from 3.09% + BBR, and bridging rates from 0.39% + BBR.

Buy to Let: Interest-Only Buy-to-Let Mortgage Rates: Current Rates | MFS (mfsuk.com)

Commercial & Semi-Commercial Term: Interest-Only Buy-to-Let Mortgage Rates: Current Rates | MFS (mfsuk.com)

Bridge/Bridge Fusion: Bridging Loan Rates: Current Fixed & Variable Rates | MFS (mfsuk.com)

To find out more about how MFS can assist with affordability challenges or any questions in relation to the above, please do not hesitate to contact myself or your local BDM.

Market Harborough Building Society

Bridging finance made easier

Great news, we’ve just made it even easier to place your clients’ bridging finance cases by making the following changes:

Expanding the range with products now available up to £5m
Extending our maximum loan to value (LTV) to 70%

Short-term finance can help with a variety of different scenarios, not just chain breaks. And we provide even greater flexibility for your high net worth clients, with up to five years’ interest roll-up.

For more information on the latest changes and how our bridging finance can help you, head over to our website https://mhbs.co.uk/intermediaries/products/bridging-solutions/ or contact our dedicated bridging finance team on 01858 412345 (option 2).

LiveMore

How LiveMore consolidated a self-employed client’s debts

Here’s a recent case that really highlights the unsecured debt challenge the borrowers faced and how LiveMore’s National Account Manager Darren Cunliffe was able to help. If one of your clients has a similar issue, feel free to get in touch, as we might be able to help.

Background
59-years-old and self-employed, the customer came to us via their broker after failing an affordability test elsewhere for a second charge loan. They had amassed £163,000 in unsecured debts, which were spread across seventeen credit cards and loans. High monthly repayments meant they were struggling to manage their finances and might have to consider last resort options, including selling their home.

The Challenge
The customer planned to retire at 78. They needed a solution that reduced monthly payments, addressed longer term debts and to avoid losing their home.

Our Solution
We combined their existing mortgage and unsecured debts to provide:

£460,000 debt consolidationloan
Capital and interest repayment plan
18 year mortgage term
Saving £1,200 every month

Outcome
Despite the odds looking to be stacked against them, our solution allowed the customer to regain financial control, stay on track with their retirement goals, and secure long-term home ownership.

If you have any cases for clients aged 50 to 90+ and want to discuss the options available, reach out to LiveMore directly.