Changes aim to support brokers working with complex income, expat, and older clients
Three lenders have announced updates to their mortgage offerings, targeting professional, later life, and international borrowers.
Chorley Building Society has launched a suite of Professional Mortgages, offering borrowers loan-to-income ratios of up to six times, with both fixed and variable rate options available. The range includes products up to 90% loan-to-value (LTV) over five-year terms.
The lender is also introducing a ‘low start’ option, allowing borrowers to make interest-only payments for the first five years.
“We know that newly qualified young professionals can sometimes struggle to meet affordability criteria,” said Liz Pearson (pictured left), head of operations at Chorley Building Society. “We wanted to recognise the full earning potential that they have, as well as offer innovative options to help them onto the property ladder.”
The products, which include £250 cashback and no scheme or application fees, follow recent launches aimed at first-time buyers and shared ownership customers.
Meanwhile, later life lender more2life has announced that it will integrate the Horizon lifetime mortgage range, previously offered by Standard Life Home Finance (SLHF), into its own offerings from July 7.
The Horizon suite includes fee-free and fee-paid plans as well as the Horizon Interest Reward, which features a 15-year repayment period for borrowers committed to monthly interest payments. From July 6, SLHF will stop offering new lifetime mortgages, though existing SLHF customer loans will continue to be serviced.
“This is a significant milestone for more2life with an integration that not only strengthens our market-leading position, but also reaffirms our long-term commitment to the later life lending sector,” said Dave Harris (pictured centre), chief executive at more2life.
The integration is part of a move to streamline operations under a single brand, while maintaining product diversity for advisers and customers.
Elsewhere, Suffolk Building Society has updated its lending criteria to support foreign nationals, expats, and borrowers planning to downsize.
Starting this week, foreign nationals need only 12 months of UK employment and 12 months remaining on a qualifying visa to apply. These include skilled worker, health and care worker, and global talent visas.
“As a building society that specialises in expat and complex income cases, it’s only natural that, as the foreign national market has grown, we’re seeing more enquiries of this nature,” said Charlotte Grimshaw (pictured right), head of intermediaries at Suffolk Building Society.
The lender also lowered the income threshold for expat buy-to-let applicants from £40,000 to £25,000 and reduced the minimum age for expat residential borrowing from 21 to 18.
Suffolk has also increased the LTV for interest-only loans used by downsizers from 50% to 70%, acknowledging demand from older borrowers seeking to use equity as a repayment vehicle.
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