New purchase product range now available and changes to affordability policy

17 April 2020

To help us support more customers with a wider product range, we have increased the use of desktop valuations. We can now offer selected purchase products and have expanded our LTVs across our residential remortgage range and BTL products.

Summary of new deals

Our Core range has been extended to include the following products available for properties valued between £80,000 - £500,000:

• NEW 75% LTV 2, 3 and 5 year fixed rates for residential remortgage
• NEW 65% LTV for residential purchase deals with free valuations starting from 1.62%
• NEW BTL purchase deals up to 60% LTV with £300 cashback and free valuation starting from 1.45%
• NEW BTL Remortgage LTV has been increased to 60% LTV
• NEW 2 Year Freedom to Fix Trackers for existing customers

Some restrictions apply to the types of lending we are currently able to offer, for example we are currently unable to accept New Build applications.

Additional information

We’ve had to make some temporary changes to our lending policy which unfortunately means that we are currently unable to accept the following:

• Any form of variable income (overtime, commission, bonus). Affordability will only be assessed on basic salary.
• Where an employed customer is designated as furloughed, or a self-employed customer has applied for the self-employed income support scheme, their income will not be used in the affordability assessment.
• Personal Income will not be accepted on BTL applications where there is a rental shortfall between 100% and 145%.

Self-employed customers will also need to provide their last 3 months business bank statements to evidence continued turnover.

The changes to our affordability policy do not impact applications received before Friday 17th April 2020, which will continue to be assessed on a case by case basis.

If you have any questions or need further information on these changes please contact your dedicated BDM.

Service update

Due to the impact of COVID-19 we are focussing our resources on providing crucial services to customers during these difficult times, therefore our 10-day Application to Offer Service Commitment has been paused. We are working hard to progress cases in our pipeline and support our existing customers and remain committed to getting offers to your customers as soon as we can.

For full details of our current range, please view our Mortgage Update.