Knowledge Bank Daily criteria update 19/05/2020

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Daily Criteria Update

A busy start to the new week with more physical valuations returning and also new criteria to accompany them including increases in LTV’s, loan sizes and lots more!

In fact Matthew Corker, our Lender Relationship Manager, is stealing the show today with his intel!

So let’s get cracking with the first round-up of the week…..

Lenders who have paused accepting new mortgage applications:

  • None

Lenders who have reinstated lending:

  • Platform will re-launch their Mainstream and Buy to Let mortgage ranges for both New Business and Product Switching from Wednesday 20th May

Changes to income and affordability restrictions:

  • None

Changes to occupation restrictions:

  • None

Valuations

Physical Valuation Updates and associated criteria

  • Barclays are restarting physical valuations in England from today, Monday 18th May for both new and existing cases including those that were unable to proceed previously with a Desktop Valuation
  • Just have confirmed that they will recommence physical valuations in England as of today where possible
  • Keystone Property Finance have announced that they have resumed physical valuations. They expect that due to the restrictions and guidelines that they are following to keep their valuer’s and customers safe that it will take up to 20 working days but this could be longer depending on the property type
  • LendInvest have said that they will begin working through their back log of Buy to Let cases from this week
  • Platform have told us that they are starting to carry out physical valuations in England from today but that they will continue to carry out Desktop Valuations where possible.
  • Santander are returning to physical valuations from this week in England for both Residential and Buy to Let cases
  • TSB have resumed physical valuations in England. They have said that they will be starting with unoccupied properties and new builds, before booking appointments for occupied properties

Desktop Valuations

  • None

Property Restrictions

  • None

Loan Sizes

  • Foundation Home Loans are lending up to the following on Residential, Buy to Let and HMO’s:
    • £1m up to 75% LTV
    • £1.5m up to 60% LTV
  • Santander are increasing their loan sizes as of Tuesday 19th May as follows:
    • Residential – up to £1m on selected Fixed and Tracker rates
    • Buy to Let – up to £750,000

Property Values

  • None

LTV Reductions

Residential

  • None

Buy to Let

  • None

LTV Increases

Residential

  • None

Buy to Let

  • Hampshire Trust Bank (HTB) have increased their LTV to 75% with immediate effect

Product Transfers

  • None

Industry News
You only have until tomorrow, Tuesday 19th May, to have your say to the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) consultation on ‘Regulated fees and levies; rate proposals for 2020/21’. You can read more about it and indeed ‘have your say’ here.

Also, Mortgage Introducer are again doing their big “State of the Nation” survey. If you’d like to take part you can do so here and all entries are put into the draw to win one of five £50 Amazon vouchers.

In some cases, there have been additional restrictions placed on things like loan sizes and property values to enable the lender to do Desktop Valuations. You’ll find these have been amended by the lenders in the relevant criteria categories on Knowledge Bank. There are also the “lender announcements” under the lender’s logos in the search results to alert you to anything you need to be aware of before placing the case. To see these features and much more, log in to Knowledge Bank here.

Our Lender Relationship Manager, Matthew Corker comments:

“Skipton for Intermediaries have made some changes today to their Interest Only policy. Where ‘sale of property’ is used as the repayment vehicle, the minimum equity requirement has increased from £250,000 to £300,000. And the maximum LTV will be 50% now on these applications, unless other repayment vehicles are being used alongside. If you’ve currently got a case with them in the pipeline, they will still honour it as of when you submitted the application.

Keystone Property Finance have resumed physical valuations and have said that any cases that are ready to be instructed will be processed in the order that they were submitted, subject to them meeting the guidelines and safety measures. They are aiming to contact advisers who have placed cases that are awaiting valuations asap to arrange dates. They have also asked respectfully that you don’t contact them to check on valuation dates as this will inevitably slow the process down as staff are working towards clearing the backlog. They have said that once arranged, the date for the valuation will be added to the ‘case notes’ on the MyKeystone portal and you’ll receive an email telling you that the portal has been updated.

We mentioned on Friday that Foundation Home Loans have started lending again from today. Just a couple of key points on criteria for them; on Buy to Let their ICR’s are 145% for all applicants and they are happy with First Time Landlords but there are no short term lets, low loan products or early re-mortgages available at the minute. On Residential cases, there are no First Time Buyer products available currently.

Just off the subject of criteria for a second, but today Foundation Home Loans launched their “Broker Hub” which is well worth a visit. All of their news and updates are on there as well as ideas and tips on growing your business. There is also a ‘coffee break’ section which is great if you want a quick 5 minutes away from work to enjoy a bit of something different. Take a look here…. but I won’t be held responsible for the time you spend trying to get to the top of the leader board of the “Running the roof” game!

Product related rather than criteria but Precise Mortgages are withdrawing their existing products as of 8pm this evening, Monday 18th May and their new range of products will be available on their website from 8am on Tuesday 19th May. If you’ve not submitted an application to them for the 8pm cut off, you’ll need to check the product options available from Tuesday now. More on this tomorrow and the criteria that relate to the new products.

Finally for today, just a heads up that Platform have told us that they will be reintroducing Buy to Let mortgages up to 60% LTV from Wednesday 20th May. We’ll bring you more detail on this later in the week but you should start to see their products appearing on the sourcing systems from Wednesday morning.”