Tesco Bank and Which? Mortgage Advisers gone. Yet others launch new products.

Market conditions continue to cause huge uncertainty and as such, we’ve seen some lenders pull out of the market until more stable conditions return and others completely stop lending.  The most recent being Tesco Bank.  They announced that hey have ceased all new mortgage lending and are actively looking to sell their existing mortgage portfolio, to concentrate on serving a broader range of customers in more specific areas outside of mortgages. 

Whilst this is a slight negative for the mortgage market, as their lending book amounted to over £3.7bn, others continue looking for ways in which to help attract new business.

We’ve seen some great new product additions and just in the last few days, our friends at Masthaven Bank have launched some fantastic products aimed at the Buy to Let sector.

This includes the launch of a new ‘Specialist Property’ product to cater for a wider variety of property types including:

- Multiple unit freehold

- Larger Houses of Multiple Occupation (7-10 rooms) on single or multiple Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreement

- Flats on floors 10-20

- Retirement accommodation

- Modular Housing

They’ve also launched a new ‘Specialist Landlord/Tenant’ product to cater for a wider variety of landlord and tenant types including Holiday lets, Airbnb lets, DWP/Asylum tenants and Houses of Multiple Occupation/Student accommodation (6 or fewer rooms on a single or multiple AST).  Great news. 

Further assistance for the Buy to Let sector was also launched recently by another lender who now allows for ‘Top Slicing’.  Basically, rental income is used to calculate the loan amount. If there is an excess, this may be used to assist other properties where the rental income falls short. Or if the rental income is not quite enough to reach the loan required, the customers income may be taken into account to ‘top up’.

Finally, Help to Buy (HTB) schemes have also been given a boost.  We have a lender who offers free standard valuations on all HTB products available in England and Wales.  They will also consider schemes with 5% Builders incentives and allow the mortgage offer to be valid for 6 months with extensions possible.

Obviously with all the above, terms and conditions apply and it’s down to the lenders standard underwriting and affordability checks.  But these are signs that despite the uncertainty, there are active and proactive lenders looking to help all types of customers.