A statement from the lender said: “All new interest-only (including part and part) mortgage applications will require evidence of the repayment plan that the customer wishes to use in order to proceed to offer stage. Only if the evidence meets our criteria and covers the full amount requested on an interest-only basis can a mortgage offer be produced.”
Existing customers are also now required to provide a copy of evidence of a suitable repayment plan if they want to convert all or part of their mortgage from repayment to interest-only. Once received, this evidence will be checked against Halifax’s list of acceptable repayment vehicles and the mortgage account will then be transferred to interest-only.
Halifax said: “As a responsible lender, we believe that it is necessary to ensure our borrowers have an appropriate repayment strategy in place to pay off the mortgage balance at the end of their term.”
