Many banks and building societies have a traditional view to lending that means your older clients may often struggle to gain access to any kind of borrowing. Upper age limits for lending seem at odds with the way we live today. The reality is that people are living longer, healthier lives and so need funds to support this active lifestyle much later in life than ever before.

 

At the Family Building Society, we have an experienced team of underwriters, who can assess your clients’ needs on a case by case basis, which means we’re often happy to help when other banks and building societies are not. We don’t believe a ‘one size fits all’ approach to lending really works that well in today’s market. That’s why we’ll work with you to find mortgage solutions for your clients.

 

Here’s a list of some of our USPs;

 

  • No upper age restrictions on our products (maximum mortgage term may be limited)
  • Up to 5 year term to an 89 year old
  • Up to 16 year term to a 70 year old
  • We consider earned income up to the age of 70 and pension income beyond that
  • We accept rental and investment income that can be evidenced on an SA302.

 

We’re able to do this because we individually underwrite each case on its own merit, using a ‘common sense’ approach. We have no set maximum loan and we don’t credit score, which means we might be able to provide a mortgage for your client who has been turned down elsewhere (in particular for those in or nearing retirement).

 

We’ve also created an innovative new product specifically for the over 60s who could do with a little boost to their finances, the Retirement Lifestyle Booster mortgage.

 

  • Aimed at those over 60, who are mortgage free and need a little financial boost every month but are not ready to downsize just yet.
  • Pays a fixed amount each and every month for 10 years with an option of an initial lump sum.
  • In return, the mortgage holder pays us a set amount each month to cover the ‘average’ interest due.
  • At the end of 10 years, assuming all the payments have been made, what’s owed is what was borrowed.
  • The loan is then repaid by selling the house and moving somewhere less expensive, mortgage free, when ready to downsize.

 

John and Linda’s story

Having been retired for almost a decade, John and Linda were concerned about the rate at which their savings were going down. They wanted to prop up their savings in retirement so chose our Retirement Lifestyle Booster mortgage.

Result: They now have a mortgage that protects their retirement savings until they are ready to downsize. In the meantime, they’re able to fund their holidays and to treat their family on special occasions.

In their words

“We obviously budgeted, but knowing we had some capital in the background, we weren’t really worried about our finances. But as soon as I saw our savings start going down a bit I thought ‘we need to prop this up’. We may need to have something there at some point because you never really know what may happen.

“We might need to pay for home care costs or private healthcare when we get older. Life is expensive, you know.

“We’ve already mentioned the Retirement Lifestyle Booster to other people we think it might be suitable for. The Retirement Lifestyle Booster will make retirement easier for us.”