Apart from the heatwave and our near miss of the world cup title, 2018 is likely to be remembered as another year of political and economic uncertainty.

Despite this, the mortgage market stayed resilient. For Kensington, the past year has been an exciting and positive one – we take a look back at some of our highlights.

Scotland launch

In March, we announced a full market launch in Scotland, which brought Kensington’s range of specialist products to a whole new market. The potential to expand our offering here was a natural step. Like the rest of the UK, Scotland is home to a growing population of contractors, self-employed workers and we’ll continue to help these borrowers who are underserved.

New products

It wasn’t just our buy-to-let offering we enhanced though. On our residential range we extended the product set to include up 95% LTV and launched Options 1 & 2 for those with a minor credit blip. As part of our mission to cater for borrowers at every life stage, we launched our ‘Brighter Mortgages’ range for young professionals and ‘Enjoyable Futures’ for those in later life. The later life range was introduced to help borrowers over the age of 55 looking to take their mortgage into retirement and potentially beyond the age of 75.

A mortgage milestone

Our growth this year wasn’t just geographical; however, it was also numerical. In September, Kensington reached a new milestone, having lent over £1 billion across a 52-week period.

Buy to let overhaul

Just like the Buy to Let market, Kensington has been through a lot of product changes. We have focused on key launches offering higher LTVs up to 85% LTV, Limited Company, enhanced affordability on 5 year fixed products, and top slicing.

The future: 2019

2018 has been a very busy year for us, but the best is yet to come. While this year we focused on our proposition, it’s now time to focus on what we, Kensington, stand for. We are a lender who will continue to help those who are underserved by high street lenders’, using our head and heart to help Britain’s underserved make their journey onto and up the ladder.

Thank you for your support during 2018 and we look forward to working with you in 2019.