As another year has closed, Group Managing Director Alan looks back at 2019 and reveals ways we could help you place more of your customers’ cases in 2020.

“So this is Christmas and what have you done?” asks John Lennon in his song Happy Xmas (War is Over). Well, we’ve certainly got a lot accomplished here at Precise Mortgages in 2019.

The big news for the year was the merger with OneSavings Bank which will help to make us bigger, better and stronger. Our larger scale and resources will enable us to seek out new opportunities, while our complementary product sets means we’ll be able to offer you and your customers even more solutions in the New Year.

However, the merger wasn’t the only thing to happen in 2019; there was plenty of other things going on too. As the UK’s leading specialist lender¹, we’re always thinking of new ways to help you and your customers in an ever-changing market. In case you’ve missed some of the things we’ve introduced in 2019, I’ve picked three things which could help you place more of your customers’ cases in 2020.

More Help to Buy options

As one of the first specialist lenders to enter the Help to Buy market, we’re as committed to the scheme as we were when we started supporting applications three years ago. It’s why we now offer homeowners the option to remortgage and capital raise to repay part of their original equity loan. We also offer choice for those looking for more standard remortgages and Help to Buy Scotland.

It’s this innovative approach that has helped us to win an incredible 20 industry awards in 2019. We wouldn’t have been able to achieve this without all of your nominations, so thank you if you took the time to vote for us.

Extended top slicing proposition

Our top slicing proposition has been so popular since its launch that we decided to extend it across our entire buy to let range. It means you could help more customers than ever before, including personal ownership, HMO, multi-unit, limited company, holiday let and refurbishment buy to let landlords.

Enhanced Refurbishment Buy to Let offering

Not only do we enable landlords to buy a property and carry out light refurbishment work to bring it up to a habitable standard before renting it out, we now also allow works completed under selected permitted development rights (providing there are no structural changes and the property meets the expected valuation following refurbishment). This is fantastic news for landlords looking to change the use of a property from a C3 dwelling house to a C4 House in Multiple Occupation with up to six bedrooms.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading Thinking Outside the Blog in 2019. It’s been viewed more than 30,000 times throughout the year which suggests you find the messages useful. Rest assured we’ll continue keeping you up-to-date with what’s happening around the market, letting you know about the latest news from Precise Mortgages and ways you can keep ahead of the competition in 2020.

As always, thanks for choosing Precise Mortgages in 2019. I know there are a lot of other lenders you could have gone with, so I really appreciate you placing your cases with us.

I hope you and your families have had a great Christmas and will have a prosperous 2020. We look forward to helping you and your customers again this year.

^{1: BVA BDRC Project Mercury Report Q3 2019}