KnowledgeBank Daily criteria update 04/06/2020

Daily Criteria Update

A short read for you today as it’s been a relatively quiet day for criteria changes. The week started off with a plethora of changes but now we’re waiting to hear more on physical valuations resuming outside of England and also for lenders to declare what policies they are going to be putting in place around the mortgage payment holidays.

As promised, we’re in the process of adding some new criteria categories to Knowledge Bank and one of those will be around applying for a remortgage with another lender whilst in a payment holiday and the treatment of self-employed applicants who have received support from the government amongst others. The categories are not live for you to search on yet as lenders are currently filling in their answers but we hope to be able to have them in the search very soon so we’ll let you know when they are.

Let’s get going with today’s updates and info that you need to know…….

Lenders who have paused accepting new mortgage applications:

  • None

Lenders who have reinstated lending:

  • Leeds Building Society have resumed lending on Residential New Build with LTV’s of 80% for houses and 75% LTV for flats

Changes to income and affordability restrictions:

  • None

Changes to occupation restrictions:

  • None

Valuations

Physical Valuation Updates and associated criteria

  • LV= have resumed physical valuations for Equity Release customers allowing their applications to resume in England. Those who are unable to have a physical valuation due to self-isolating, shielding, etc. can still have a desktop valuation subject to the property meeting the criteria for this

Desktop Valuations

  • None

Property Restrictions Imposed

  • None

Property Restrictions Lifted

  • None

Loan Sizes

  • None

Property Values

  • None

LTV Reductions

Residential

  • None

Buy to Let

  • None

LTV Increases

Residential

  • None

Buy to Let

  • None

Bridging

  • None

Product Transfers

  • None

Industry News
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have today announced that in addition to the extension of the mortgage payment holidays that Help to Buy customers who need to freeze their current or upcoming loan instalments, if they are facing financial difficulty due to covid-19, can do so. Borrowers will need to set up a payment plan for the suspended equity loan interest payments once this comes to an end.

For more information on this which you may find helpful to share with your clients, you can read through the government’s FAQ’s here on the governments website.

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:

“I was really interested to hear from Skipton for Intermediaries about their “one-day mortgage offers”. All of their applications are going through their underwriters to give advisers the opportunity to discuss the case where necessary. They have invested a lot of money recently in technology to put all of the tools needed to underwrite a case quickly in the hands of their team. A perfect example of where the combination of technology and teams working together to create amazing customer experiences….like we know you do with Knowledge Bank!

Talking of technology, I read today that research by Zoopla had concluded that 98% of prospective vendors would prefer a remote market appraisal from an estate agent as opposed to one in person. We’ve seen how estate agents have responded to the changing market conditions and have seen some really innovative solutions and really encouragingly, we’ve seen lots of examples of the smaller local estate agents embracing these too as they have been able to react quickly. This is a really positive move for the industry as it allows properties to come onto the market where the vendors might otherwise have been deterred from listing because of social distancing. With the guidance from the government on how viewings can proceed, it bodes well for the momentum we’ve seen in the last couple of weeks to continue.

Also just worth a mention are Newcastle Building Society who have launched a new range of interest only products available up to 75% LTV and with an additional 5% LTV that can be secured on a repayment basis, with affordability being calculated on an interest only basis. Their maximum age for borrowers at the end of the mortgage terms is 80 and with some great criteria around repayment vehicles and strategies, it may be something you want to look at for the right clients in the current climate.”