Any impending Brexit deal, or non-deal, and general election result will inevitably have varying degrees of effect on the housing market and the economy as a whole. However, with precious little clarity in sight, it’s more important than ever for your clients to have access to lenders who not only have the appetite to lend but who can also supply the right kind of criteria, flexibility and service standards to meet the growing demand of borrowers who continue to be ignored by strict high-street lending policies.

One helpful change that lenders could make would be to cut down how many documentation hoops borrowers with a less than perfect credit rating have to jump through. There is the additional time pressure that our intermediary partners are under when it comes to clients who have been turned down once and are approaching the transaction a second time.

In this property market, some locations are experiencing down valuation, which means that, as a broker, it’s preferable to have some margin in the loan-to-value you’re asking for. There is also good reason to open the door to more first-time buyers who have experienced credit blips but are credit worthy nonetheless.

With all these factors in mind, we’ve introduced a number of criteria enhancements designed to make life as easy as possible for such clients, and to broaden our offering to ensure that credit-worthy borrowers – who might just have some historical credit blips – can still secure competitively-priced mortgage finance.

That means we are now lending at 90% LTV for the first time, plus we’ve increased our maximum loan size to £2m, and we’re requesting less documentation – bank statements will not be requested for affordability assessment in most standard cases. We’re also assessing missed credit card payments alongside revolving credit and allowing one unsatisfied CCJ and ignoring certain defaults under £250.

Minor credit blips such as these may push certain borrowers outside the ‘norms’ of the mainstream lenders. However, we believe they are still very much credit-worthy, and we have the overall product offering, criteria and service to ensure that they have access to the mortgages they deserve.

So, if you’re looking to bolster your residential lending proposition with a lender who understands that credit blips happen, that personalised underwriting routes are the way forward and who takes a pragmatic approach to documentary evidence then look no further. Speak to the Foundation team today to find out how we can help.