Kensington enters specialist prime

The deals are aimed at borrowers who need specialist mortgage products but have not had any credit problems. The lender has introduced a range of prime, self-cert and buy-to-let products, featuring criteria that has collectively never been offered before by one lender.

The prime products provide a number of highlights, including:

Self-Cert

No minimum trading period for self-employed (‘Day one’ self-cert)

Maximum 90% loan-to-value (LTV)

No income verification required

Buy-to-let

Maximum 90% LTV

Competitive rental calculations

Maximum portfolio limit of £1million across 10 properties

Prime

Maximum 95% LTV, available as a verified alternative to self-cert

No Higher Lending Charges

Income multiples up to 4x income taken on 100% of all earned income including bonus and overtime.

All of Kensington’s ‘Prime Mortgages’ product range come with a Fees Free remortgage option, with free valuation, free legals, no Higher Lending Charge and no completion or arrangement fee. While in Scotland, where the remortgage process is different to England, Kensington has introduced a £500 cashback option that replaces the free valuation and free legals. Every deal comes with flexible features as standard, including the facility to overpay, underpay, borrow back and take payment holidays.

Kensington’s specialist Prime products are available as one ‘Prime Mortgages’ range with all deals on offer both through packagers and direct to brokers via Kensington’s award winning e-commerce system, K-net, and through its dedicated service centre in Reading.

Ian Giles, director of marketing at Kensington Mortgages, said: “Kensington have always been synonymous with adverse credit lending so it might surprise people that we are launching a range of specialist prime products. But it is our considerable experience of lending to borrowers with adverse credit that has taught us how to build products for customers whose circumstances mean that they are not catered for by other lenders.

“If, for example, someone is recently self-employed, wishes to invest in a buy-to-let property with only a 10% deposit, or wants to borrow 95% LTV without paying a Higher Lending Charge, they would have found it very hard to find the right deal - until now. Because, with Kensington’s new range of Prime products we have identified areas in the market where there is an unsatisfied demand, and we have met that demand.

“The popularity of our Prime products exceeded all expectations during a recent pilot and we look forward to the whole market being able to use Kensington Mortgages as the one-stop shop for all of their specialist customers.”