Inform 8th March 2024

The Cambridge

Buy to Let

Whether your customer is a First Time Landlord, an Expat or even both, we’ve got you covered with our range of BTL mortgages and sensible lending criteria.

We have no upper age limit for Buy to Lets and only require a minimum income of £25,000.

What’s more, on our 5 Year Fixed Rate BTL mortgages, we’ll use the payrate to stress and a rental cover ratio of 140% – this doesn’t change based on your customers tax band.

Our BTL Mortgages

*All currencies and countries considered providing the country is not on the government financial sanctions list

Click on the links below to hear more about our BTL mortgage criteria:

Expat Criteria

Holiday Let Criteria

Did you know we have a rental income calculator?
The perfect tool to help your client understand what they can afford. Select whether you’re looking at a Buy to Let or Holiday Let property and we’ll show the products that are on offer. We’ll just need to know either the mortgage required or rent achievable. Take a look here.

Family Building Society

Our affordability calculator has changed

We’ve made some enhancements to our affordability calculator! A summary of the key changes are:

• You can now use our affordability calculator for Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor arrangements, in the same way as a standard application, removing the need to complete a full DIP request
• We’ve reviewed the way the calculator views household costs and will now ask you to confirm the number of child dependents aged 0-13 and 14-18 separately
• We’ve improved the way we calculate affordability for houses with more than two adults, and those with slightly different household arrangements
• With no maximum loan size, those with higher incomes may be able to borrow more.

Try our new affordability calculator!

Why choose us?

• No ‘computer says no’ underwriting – We’ll listen to your clients’ stories and our human underwriters will make a common-sense assessment based on the merits on each individual case
• No credit scoring – We offer tailored credit checks, taking a holistic view of your clients’ finances, not just assessing a predefined set of criteria
• No ‘one size fits all’ – Unlike many mainstream lenders, we’ll offer mortgages to a wide range of clients – through products such as Joint Borrower Sole Proprietor (including reverse JBSP) and Buy to Let (including expat & Limited Company). We also offer mortgages to those who are self-employed, as well as those approaching or in retirement
• Other acceptable income – We accept income from pension pots, investment portfolios, stocks, and shares ISAs, other ‘unearned’ or passive income streams such as rental income, state pension and any other annuities can be added to the assumed income.

Our team of BDMs now cover the whole of England and Wales, plus some areas of Scotland, and are all ready to answer your queries and guide you through the application process.

The Co-operative Bank

Packaging Requirements

With the significant amount of business we received earlier in the year, you’ll appreciate it has had a significant knock on effect to service.  Whilst we work to get as many offers out to you as quickly as we can, we do appreciate you will have experienced delays to your cases and we thank you for your patience and continued support.

We launched a reduced range of new products this week and learning from feedback, we are keen for advisors and administration teams to have a smoother processing journey.  We have updated our SLAs which will apply to new business submitted from 26 February and should give some clarity on packaging.  The changes will give advisors enough time to upload the documents so that the processing journey can begin fully at first assessment and an offer can be produced as quickly as possible.

• Valuation instruction will be on day 1
• An outbound team will call the advisor around day 2 to request outstanding documents are uploaded.  If there is a specific admin contact for the case please advise contact details in the notes section of the application
• Initial assessment will be on day 5 if all documents are uploaded
• Subsequent chases will be 5 days after initial assessment

A shopping list of documents is shown at application submission and these will need to be uploaded, and the tasks for the documents closed, to trigger the initial assessment.  If the tasks aren’t closed – and all documents aren’t uploaded – the initial assessment will not begin.  The application will only be assessed once the case is fully packaged and proactive attempts by Co-op Bank to chase documents may not be made.

The initial documents required are:

• 1 full months bank statement with the applicants name showing salary credit, general expenses and utilities with a running balance.  This can be electronic but must show the applicants name
• 3 months most recent payslips – these can be uploaded as one PDF per applicant if you prefer; for self-employed applicants please upload 2 years completed SA302s and the tax year overviews
• Proof of deposit

The application will be reviewed 5 days after initial assessment.  Other documents which may also be required are:

• Any ID if requested
• Gifted deposit letter if appropriate – this must have a wet signature as digital signatures are not acceptable

If these are uploaded with the application submission, the case can be fully assessed and we hope this will lead to a quicker journey for both advisor and client.

The Mortgage Lender

From Directors to Drag Artists, we’ve got you

When you’re self-employed, your circumstances don’t always fit into neat boxes. And, many high street lenders still see everyone from drag artists like Donny to company directors, as high-risk cases, instead of real life people.

In one example from last year, working with EHF mortgages we were able to progress a self-employed residential mortgage application in just 10 days by assessing the couple’s affordability on their net profits before tax.

Our case study subjects were Limited Company directors, and what would have been a straightforward case became a little more complex due to a change in company structure part way through the process. Our approach meant that we were able to deliver the right level of financing for EHF’s client.

Read more about the case study here.

Our approach to Affordability is different:

• We look at profit before tax, giving a greater capacity to lend
• We consider overtime, employment bonus, commission, car allowance and regional allowance up to 100%*
• We assess up to 100% of second job income*

If you need specialist lending support for your clients find out more.

*Please refer to our criteria guide for more information.

e.surv Chartered Surveyors

Game changing updates from HomePlus incoming

We are thrilled to share some exciting developments from e.surv that are set to revolutionise the way we work together.

What’s changing?

Starting 11th March, we are introducing a game-changing update to our payment process. As a valued referring partner, you will now receive your commission payments within an incredible 7 days of survey completion!

This underscores our commitment to providing not just fast, but super speedy services that cater to your needs and expectations.

We understand that time is of the essence in the residential property market. That’s why, in addition to our new faster payments, we continue to deliver speedy survey reports and enable direct interactions between your customers and our expert surveyors, to speed along the house sale.

We’re all about efficiency, ensuring you and your clients experience the smoothest, most reliable service possible.

We’re excited for you to experience these benefits first-hand.

Join the speed and efficiency of HomePlus, and watch your business thrive.

Refer today.

Kensington

Kensington spotlight – Shared ownership

Kensington Mortgages have expanded their Shared Ownership product range, allowing your clients to borrow at 85% and 90% of the share price, in addition to the existing 95%, giving them more options and reduced rates.

• Up to 95% of share LTV options available, subject to affordability
• Capital raising acceptable for home improvements and staircase
• Available for purchase and remortgage
• Loans available up to 75% LTV of the total market value

Discover more.

Vitality

Your Serious Illness Cover toolkit: supporting your client conversations

We’ve developed a new and enhanced toolkit to support you when recommending Serious Illness Cover. These resources will help you unpack our unique proposition, as well as demonstrate the value of our cover to your clients.

Explore your toolkit

Plus, as part of our toolkit, we’ve updated two of our Serious Illness Cover online marketing tools – the Conditions Covered Tool and the SIC vs CIC Comparison Tool.

With the new functionality of these tools, it’s now easier and quicker than ever to demonstrate just how many conditions we cover compared to other providers on a typical critical illness plan.

Use the tool

The Mortgage Works

Interest Cover Ratio (ICR) reductions

We’re pleased to let you know that from Tuesday 5 March, The Mortgage Works have reduced the following minimum ICRs:

• For higher rate taxpayers, the ICR reduces to 160% from 165%
• For Limited Company and lower rate taxpayers, the ICR reduces to 125% from 130%.

The minimum ICR for Houses in Multiple Occupation will remain at 175%.

Existing Portfolio Rental Calculation stress rate update

We will also be reducing the Existing Portfolio Rental Calculation stress rate to 4.50% from 5.00%.

Pipeline

Should you now wish to see if further lending is available to your client, please do the following:

• If a full mortgage application has been submitted, email your request to tmw.applications@themortgageworks.co.uk
• If the case is at the pre-application stage, you just need to amend the DIP.

Paragon

Portfolio landlord report

Portfolio landlords are the backbone of the private rented sector. In our latest report, we examine who these landlords are, how they feel about their property business and their plans for expansion.

After a subdued 2023, dogged by increasing borrowing costs and uncertain property prices, landlords enter this year in a more confident mood. Nearly four out of 10 (37%) landlords are planning to increase the size of their portfolio in 2024, compared to 21% seeking to reduce stock.

Click here to read the latest report.

Newcastle Building Society

launches new broker website 

The intermediary arm of Newcastle Building Society is now known as Newcastle for Intermediaries, as part of a new broker website and brand refresh.

The lender’s new website has been specifically designed with brokers in mind, offering easy navigation, an enhanced user experience, innovative solutions and the latest tools to deliver greater performance, and efficiency.

As part of a new visual identity, the refresh also includes a change of name, from ‘Newcastle Intermediaries’ to ‘Newcastle for Intermediaries’, which aims to reflect its partnership-first approach, ‘Powered by Partnership’.

Franco Di Pietro, head of intermediary mortgages at Newcastle Building Society said: “Our new website demonstrates our commitment to partnership and to helping brokers deliver those ‘feel-good’ moments for their clients. Our new name reflects how much we focus on collaborating towards making our shared goal of helping clients’ homeownership dreams come true.

“The launch of Newcastle for Intermediaries’ new website marks the next step in our investment into technology that will help us to offer an improved broker experience. The new website will play a key role in making the process run as smoothly as possible and we want brokers to help inform future development with their feedback.”

The website will offer brokers daily updates on service standards, as well as tools including an interactive product finder to identify suitable products faster, an enhanced criteria search tool, a Business Development Manager (BDM) finder and a live chat facility with direct access to the lender’s Intermediary Support Team.

To find out more about Newcastle for Intermediaries new website and refresh, visit: https://www.newcastleforintermediaries.co.uk/.