Mercantile Trust

Mercantile Trust has revamped its BTL proposition.

The lender has reduced pricing across the range, has added new two- and five-year fixed-rate options and has made its proposition available for HMOs.

Moreover, the suite has been extended to first-time landlords and buyers with no requirement for a main residence, as well as Department of Social Services (DSS) tenants.

It is also now available to landlords who have two units of adverse credit over the past 12 months, ignoring anything over a year.

The lender has also removed the credit scoring and minimum income requirements, and is now allowing top slicing using surplus rental income from the portfolio.

In addition, Mercantile Trust will no longer take into account:

• mail order and communications/telecoms missed payments
• discharged bankrupts over three years old
• individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs)
• partially missed mortgage payments
• outstanding county court judgments (CCJs) if under £300, under £3,000 and satisfied, and all over 12 months old
• utility bills if the accounts are two or fewer payments in arrears, irrelevant of previous account conduct

Maeve Ward, director of commercial operations at Mercantile Trust, said: “The comprehensive changes to our BTL proposition are a signal to the market that we have a real appetite to lend. 

“Our range offers products to cater for all situations and landlords of varying experience, with criteria that caters for landlords who do not fit many specialist lender borrower profiles.

“Our experience allows us to provide lending solutions to sectors and customers traditionally underserved and these new enhancements will further increase the types of borrowers we can support providing more options to our brokers.”

Mercantile Trust provides flexible first- and second-charge BTL mortgages from £10,000 up to £500,000 at up to 75% LTV on property values from £60,000 in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Pepper Money

Pepper Money has added a new two-year fixed-rate product to its BTL range.

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The new option, Pepper 60, offers loans up to 75% and 80% LTV for individual and limited company borrowers, with rates starting from 2.99%.

In addition, the lender has reduced rates on more than 100 fixed-rate mortgages, including the Pepper 60 five-year fix for BTL, which is now priced at 3.13% at up to 75% LTV.

Pepper Money has also launched 30 new tracker rates, available from 2.40%.

Paul Adams, sales director at Pepper Money, said: “Our commitment to financial inclusion at Pepper Money means that we do everything in our power to make our mortgages as accessible as possible to as many customers as we can. 

“We are pleased to be able to cut more than a hundred rates by up to 75bps, making many of our mortgages even more affordable.

“We believe in giving customers greater choice, so the launch of our tracker mortgage range consisting of 30 rates is ideal for those who do not want to be tied into a fixed rate.”

Hodge

Hodge has announced that it will now accept 30 weeks occupancy as a rental yield projection for its holiday let mortgages.

Previously, the lender allowed calculated rental income using an average of projected low, medium and high season weekly rental yield based on 26 weeks occupancy.

The bank has increased this in reaction to the buoyant market, as well as the increasing rental yields across the sector. 

Emma Graham, business development director at Hodge, said: “Here at Hodge, we constantly talk to our broker colleagues and ask them how we can improve our products. 

“They suggested a few things, we listened and now this new 30-week occupancy calculation change is being made. 

“Our holiday let mortgages have been an amazing success since we launched in 2019, and we’ve seen a 173% increase in applications in 2020 alone. 

“We believe this change in our criteria will help even more people get on the holiday let mortgage ladder and offer more accommodation to the UK holiday market.”

“Another advantage of our holiday let mortgage is that we remain one of the only lenders who will allow customers to use websites, such as Airbnb, to let their properties. 

“We believe this, and our flexible criteria and bespoke customer service has really made us stand out of the holiday let mortgage crowd. 

“We will continue to provide this service to our brokers and their customers in the coming years.”