LATEST PARTNER BLOGS:
Bank Of Ireland
Earlier Deals For Existing Customers
Standard Life Home Finance
How Could Equity Release Impact Your Client’s Lives?
Royal London
A Huge Protection Opportunity For Adviser Firms?
Vitality
Unpacking Consumer Duty: What Do ‘Good Client Outcomes’ Look Like?
Foundation Home Loans
The Latest Industry Research
As we enter the Autumn season following an unexpected early September heatwave, it’s a crucial period for the BTL sector, which has faced a fair share of heat from various angles, including the market, economic factors, and interest rates…
It’s not uncommon for long-standing landlords to encounter challenges in this marketplace. However, in recent years, these challenges have ramped up. Many newer, accidental, or speculative landlords find themselves less equipped to handle these issues compared to their more experienced counterparts. This shift has led to a greater focus on portfolio landlords, and this trend is expected to gain further momentum.
The Mortgage Lender
Economic update – October 2023
We’ve teamed up with 4most Economic Consultants to provide you with a monthly economic update. The update for October is now available to download.
If you missed Keith talk through the pack on our recent online event, you can watch this on demand here.
The update covers:
- Inflation and interest rates
- Labour market
- Housing market
- Rental market
- Mortgage market – Activity
- Rate analysis
LiveMore
A recent case where we lent 6.6x income
I know that getting the maximum lending possible for older borrowers is often a dealbreaker, that’s why LiveMore offers more affordability for brokers.
Here’s the details of a case where LiveMore offered 6.6x income:
- 50 year old gentleman
- £31k annual income
- Wants to retire at 75
- We offered a 10 year fixed term interest only mortgage of £204,000!
Needless to say both the broker and client were delighted.
To find out what’s possible you can use our affordability calculator here – but remember that there might be assets or income streams that can help to stretch affordability so don’t be afraid to reach out if you don’t get the result you need.
Pure Retirement
launching a new online application journey
Pure Retirement are pleased to announce the launch of their online application journey, featuring a comprehensively enhanced online form designed to streamline the adviser journey and provide improved functionality.
The changes to the online lifetime mortgage application journey mean that more information will be captured upfront during the process, reducing the amount of supplementary information that could potentially need to be requested and enabling improved timescales to offer.
The creation of a new questions set enables the adviser to provide more of the necessary information up front, eliminating the need to provide additional information separately after the app has been submitted. The question set is dynamic and able to adapt to the individual circumstances of the case, meaning that advisers won’t be faced with questions that aren’t relevant.
Pure-registered lifetime mortgage advisers can access the new online application here.
Skipton Building Society
Maximising opportunities for First Time Buyers
Listen to our latest podcast hosted by Mortgage Introducer
Jen Lloyd, Head of Mortgage Products features alongside James Kinns, Proprietor & New Build Director at The Mortgage Store to discuss the current challenges First Time Buyers are facing and the options available to them to get on the housing ladder.
Kensington Mortgages
Bank of England holds firm as economy slows
The Bank of England’s (BoE) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept interest rates at 5.25% on Thursday 21st September as the economy slows.
Read the latest market insight from Kensington Mortgages’ Capital Markets Director following the Bank of England’s decision not to change rates in September.
Zurich
Increasing non-medical underwriting limits for under-50s
Zurich has made changes to its life non-medical limits for people under the age of 50, increasing the value of cover available without requiring medical evidence.
The changes affect the first level of evidence – the nurse medical exam – and the insurer said this would mean medical evidence will be needed less frequently at the point of sale.
For example, for ages 45 to 49, the first point we will look to get evidence for non-medical limits is now £500,001 up from £400,001.
Santander
Industry New Joiners IMLA event
Taking place on Thursday 30th November at the Birmingham Conference and Events Centre (Hill St, Birmingham B5 4EW), the IMLA Intermediary Expo has been designed to bring intermediaries and lenders together to explore the key business issues facing the intermediary lending space.
It is the third event in the series and is aimed specifically at the new joiners to the industry, which will be a mix of newcomers to both lenders and intermediary firms. The objective of the event is to give delegates a broad knowledge of the constituent parts of the market, the key drivers behind the direction of travel of the industry and also exposure to the experience and insight from IMLA and senior industry colleagues to build individual networks, inspire progression and provide access to the tools and confidence to thrive and progress to the very top. Speakers include:
- Perdip Bhachu, senior associate solicitor, Blacks Solicitors
- Amanda Bryden, head of Halifax Intermediaries and Scottish Widows Bank
- Steve Carruthers, business development director, Iress
- Kate Davies, executive director, IMLA
- Jeremy Duncombe, chair, IMLA and managing director, Accord Mortgages
- Maria Harris, chair, Open Property Data Association
- Rachael Hunnisett, green mortgage campaign lead, Green Finance Institute
- Richard Merrett, director of strategic relationships, SimplyBiz Mortgages
- Travis Scholes, commercial director, LMS
- Max Shepherd, group economist, Yorkshire Building Society
- Robert Sinclair, chief executive, AMI
It’s a great opportunity for you to catch up with us and other lenders, and to hear what crucial work IMLA has been doing this year for its members and in collaboration with the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI) to represent the interests of the intermediary sector.
If you would like to join us, please sign up using the registration form here.
Key Partnerships
Could a lifetime mortgage help your clients?
Key Partnerships’ latest guide explores the current mortgage market and how equity release could not only provide more options for your clients but help provide a valuable income stream for your business.
If you would like to talk through the guide and find out how Key Partnerships can support you in offering your clients more later life lending options.
Hodge
Enhancing criteria for later life mortgage products
From 9 October, Hodge have increase income multiples on purchase and remortgage on later life products.
We will be…
- Increasing income multiples across our 50+ and RIO from 4.49 up to 5 times income on an interest only basis, and from 4.49 up to 5.5 times on a repayment basis
- Reducing the stress rate for pound for pound remortgages
- Reducing living costs to reflect the reduction in the energy cap from 1st October
- Accepting a life insurance policy to support affordability under the death stress test.
Curious to find out more about our criteria? Our criteria is here.
Louise Swainston, head of mortgage risk at Hodge.
“We’ve increased our loan to income caps to 5 times for interest only lending and 5.5 times on repayment. On pound for pound remortgage borrowing, we continue to lend up to 6 times income on our later life product range.
“And for our 50+ and RIO joint customers, we will now consider a life insurance policy in our affordability assessment. This will support customers who fail the death stress allowing us to assess affordability based on the policy covering, or partly covering, the loan in addition to their personal income.”
Legal & General
BQA 2024 entries are now open
The BQAs are a celebration of better client outcomes, showcasing the traits of firms that make it happen. For 12 years, these awards have helped hundreds of winning firms to grow their business and raise their quality standards.
Want to join the ranks? Find out what we’re looking for by reading our submission guidance.
We’ll close entries on Thursday 7 December 2023 and we can’t offer any deadline extensions.
Barclays
Mortgage Policy Changes
We regularly review our policy to ensure we’re delivering the right outcomes for customers. Please see below for key changes effective from today, Thursday 12 October.
Limited Liability Partnership (LLPs)
Financial Accounts for LLP’s (Residential and Buy to let)
From today, we will begin to request the latest two year’s financial accounts where the applicant is an equity partner in the firm and has a profit share entitlement of 20% or more.
Transactions at undervalue
We’ve expanded the list of acceptable relationships between vendor and purchaser to include landlords selling to their tenant(s). This means we can now consider lending up to 95% of the discounted purchase price where your client is buying from their landlord but the LTV for product purposes is based on the higher market value.
Please submit applications of this nature under the ‘family sale’ special scheme option. The Loan-to-value for product eligibility purposes should be calculated using the valuation figure.
