With Christmas just around the corner and a new year nearly upon us, we look back at some of the ways we’ve helped your clients and improved the service we offer over the past 12 months.
Expat foreign currencies
We expanded our expat lending criteria to be able to accept residential applications in ten selected foreign currencies. Our buy to let products are available to applicants paid in any currency and living in any country not subject to UN sanctions.
Expat foreign currency deposits
Following that, we then recently improved our expat criteria again to be able to accept applications where the deposit has been saved or otherwise built up in a foreign currency.
Increased max loan size
We increased our maximum loan size from £500k up to £750k for most products, granting your client further flexibility when seeking a larger loan. We will consider applications for loans above £750k on a case by case basis.
Brand new self build hub
We launched a dedicated self build hub on our website – your one stop shop for all things self build including handy guides and information, infographics on how to submit your case and more about what is involved when dealing with your client. Remember, you can submit all applications to us directly.
Heartland exclusives for first time buyers
To further our commitment to helping people get a foot on the housing ladder, earlier in the year we launched our range of first time buyer mortgages exclusively available to borrowers seeking to purchase within our heartland area.
Building a team fit for the future
We’ve had a few changes in our team over the last year – we now have two dedicated BDMs who are regularly out and about visiting our valued intermediary partners and we’ve grown our in-house support team with three new members – Gemma, Tracey and Jamie.
Holiday let products
In the summer we expanded our BTL proposition to include a range of specialist holiday let products, with loans available up to 80% LTV and the ability for your client to stay in the property themselves for up to 60 days per year.
Improvements to our shared ownership criteria
We’ve made some changes to our shared ownership criteria including increasing the maximum loan size to £500k and increasing the maximum number of storeys we will look at to 10.
Shared ownership product innovation
At the same time we launched a competitively priced 90% share product for those borrowers looking for a shared ownership property but with a bigger deposit.
Making our products easier to access
We’ve been expanding the availability of our mortgage products through key network partners including L&G and PMS.
Introducing BTL top slicing on fixed rate deals
Top slicing – where we take a portion of other income to make up a shortfall in rental cover – has been available on our discount rate BTL products for some time, and this year we expanded this further to include our 2 year fixed rate deal as well.
Improved affordability calculators
And last but certainly not least, we’ve enhanced the affordability calculators on our website, making them easier to use and helping you get a better idea of what your client might be able to afford.
We’d like to thank all of our valued intermediaries who have supported us over the last year – we can’t wait for you to see what we have in store for 2020.
