Posts with tag: specialist mortgages

Demand for Specialist Residential Mortgages Increasing

Published On: June 8, 2017 at 9:25 am

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Demand for specialist residential mortgages increased in the first quarter (Q1) of 2017, according to the latest Financial Advisors Confidence Tracking (FACT) Index from Paragon Mortgages, which is based on interviews with 200 mortgage intermediaries.

Demand for Specialist Residential Mortgages Increasing

Demand for Specialist Residential Mortgages Increasing

There was a rise in demand from both self-employed (24%) and complex income (17%) customers, suggesting an increased requirement for specialist residential mortgages and wider availability of products that meet the demands of underserved segments of the mortgage market.

Other customer types were largely unchanged in Q1, with high loan-to-value (LTV) lending at 15%, interest only at 13%, lending into retirement at 11%, low income at 9% and adverse credit at 7%.

The average number of mortgages introduced per intermediary office in Q1 was 20, down from 21 in the previous quarter and the third successive fall. Despite this more recent decline, the number of mortgages introduced has held between 20-25 for almost four years, maintaining a slow recovery tracked from 2009, when the number reached a record low of 14.

The index also shows a positive forecast from intermediaries, with the expected change in overall business over the next three months up for the first time since Q1 2015, reversing consecutive declines in each of the previous seven quarters.

Meanwhile, mortgage advisors expect to do 2% less buy-to-let mortgage business over the coming year. This, however, is up on the previous quarter and, following the largest ever decline seen in Q1 2016, the average now appears to be on a modest upward trend.

Asked about the importance of the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) new affordability rules in estimating the expected change in their level of buy-to-let mortgage business over the next 12 months, more advisors (85%) said that the changes had been at least quite important, up from 80% in the previous quarter, while just 10% said they were not important.

The Managing Director of Paragon Mortgages, John Heron, comments: “It’s encouraging to see increased demand and greater availability of specialist mortgages. Customers with complex incomes deserve access to a wider choice of mortgage products and to specialist underwriting that recognises their unique circumstances.”

Fleet Mortgages Cuts Rates on Landlord Products

Published On: May 18, 2015 at 2:40 pm

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Fleet Mortgages is a new buy-to-let and specialist lender. It has recently revealed rate cuts on individual landlord products.

Advisers who can access Fleet’s products can take advantage of the following standard buy-to-let deals, each with price reductions:

  • 4.09% for a five-year fixed rate at 75% loan-to-value (LTV) – a cut of ten basis points (bps) with a 1% completion fee.
  • 3.95% for a three-year tracker at 80% LTV (LIBOR plus 3.39%) – a reduction of 80bps with a 2% completion fee.
  • 3.99% for a two-year fixed rate at 80% LTV – a drop of 80bps with a 2% completion fee.

On Fleet Mortgages’ limited company two-year fixed rate deal available up to 80% LTV, there has also been a 10bps cut. This puts the rate at 4.79% and has a completion

Fleet Mortgages Cuts Rates on Landlord Products

Fleet Mortgages Cuts Rates on Landlord Products

fee of 1.5%. In the whole range, completion fees can be added to the loan.

Fleet has changed the rates after receiving feedback from intermediaries. It is also believed that further improvements will be launched soon.

Fleet Mortgages has changed its criteria for the maximum age of the borrower at the end of the mortgage term, from 75 to 85-years-old. All its end dates have been extended to 31st July.

The mortgage provider’s products are specifically for experienced landlords and property investors and include mainstream buy-to-let mortgages and financing for those investing through limited companies and for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

CEO of Fleet Mortgages, Bob Young, says: “We continually review our product range to make sure all products are as competitive as they can be and that they provide a range of options to both our intermediary partners and their clients.

“Our rate changes make these standard buy-to-let products for individual landlords even more attractive on price and we believe they will be welcomed by advisers. We would also urge all advisers to look at our products for both limited companies and HMOs, as these are incredibly competitive in today’s market.”

Young continues: “Fleet Mortgages is also committed to evolving and enhancing our criteria in order to ensure it is fit for purpose in a changing marketplace; this is why we have increased our maximum customer age at the end of the loan, up from 75 to 85-years old. We recognise, for instance, that people are living longer, that landlords want to hold their properties longer into retirement, plus there is a growing appetite amongst people over 50 wanting to invest in property. Since launch, close to 50% of all our applications are from borrowers over 50.

“We suspect that with the newly-introduced pension freedoms, there will be a small but perhaps growing number of retirees who wish to use money from their pension pot to purchase a buy-to-let investment. It’s therefore important that our criteria reflects these changes and is uniformly unambiguous, which will make life easier for all our stakeholders, particularly brokers and their clients.”1

1 http://www.propertyreporter.co.uk/landlords/fleet-reduces-rates-on-landlord-products.html