Roger Morris – Group Distribution Director, Precise Mortgages
The past year has brought about huge changes to how mortgage lenders operate, specifically the products and criteria they offer to support the ever-changing needs of borrowers.
What’s just as important, is that brokers know where to find solutions for their customers. This means being aware of which lender to turn to when facing a particular challenge, becoming the go-to brokers for all things specialist and complex.
With this in mind, I want to take the opportunity to give you a rundown of three standout specialist solutions Precise Mortgages can offer, and how these have enabled us to support borrower needs, even during the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Supporting the self-employed
Self-employed residential buyers often face challenges when securing a loan, partly due to a lack of a consistent monthly salary. This has been made all the more challenging due to COVID-19. Between 30 November and 31 December 2020, HMRC received 1.9 million claims for the government’s Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS)* – yet another sign of the struggle self-employed workers are facing.
Precise Mortgages understands the importance of self-employed individuals in today’s economy, along with the difficulties they encounter in securing a mortgage. We accept applications with only one year’s accounts or taxation calculation, and accept applications from limited companies, sole traders and partnerships, and consider changes in trading style during the last 12 months.
We consider customers with less-than-perfect credit profiles, including CCJs, defaults and secured/unsecured arrears. Plus, we can also take other income sources, such as pension, car allowance and permanent health insurance and life insurance contributions, into consideration.
Find out more about how Precise Mortgages can support your self-employed clients or read our self-employed income guide today.
- Return of refurbishment buy to let
Our refurbishment buy to let offering helps us provide solutions for landlords looking to refurbish their properties and maximise their potential. It delivers the same flexibility of bridging finance, whilst providing an exit strategy onto a long-term buy to let mortgage based on the after works valuation.
You can help your customer maximise rental yield by refurbishing a property before renting it out or taking value from the property to reinvest elsewhere. The good news is that this can all be processed on one application, with a single conveyancer and a single valuer. You may not be aware that in addition to helping your customer get the mortgage they need, you’ll also receive two separate proc fees.
An example where a refurbishment buy to let loan could help, would be the latest phase of the Electrical Safety Standards in the Private Rented Sector (England) Regulations. From 1 April, all rented properties must be certified as safe by way of an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) prepared by a suitably ‘qualified and competent’ person.
All fixed electrical parts of the property, including the wiring, plug sockets, light fittings and the fuse box need to be inspected and tested, as well as permanently connected equipment, such as showers and extractors. Find out more about the EICR requirements today.
- Benefits of blended ICRs
If you need to help your customers maximise their affordability, we have our own approach to helping. By taking every customer’s individual circumstances into consideration, this enables us to create ‘blended’ ICR calculations to optimise the performance of each applicant’s situation and ownership structure.
Say you have an individual customer who’s a higher rate taxpayer and wants to purchase their first buy to let property. Despite having a decent salary, assessing their affordability at an ICR of 145% could mean they’re unable to borrow what they need to buy the property.
Now, say this same customer was to approach you about buying the exact same property, now with their partner who is a basic rate tax payer. Because there are now two applicants we, can create a blended ICR based on their joint tax position and they’re now able to get the loan they need.
Although this solution may not be suitable for everyone, it’s another way Precise Mortgages can support your buy to let customers, so find out more about our approach to blended ICRs today.
Find your next solution
Despite the challenges we’ve all faced over the past year, Precise Mortgages continues to offer residential and buy to let solutions designed for a range of lending situations.
Our flexibility and willingness to lend provides an array of opportunities for struggling buy to let landlords and residential buyers, along with our adaptability in responding to change across the market.
Through the combination of our products and criteria, we’re committed to supporting brokers, giving them the confidence they need when it comes to helping their customers.
Speak to our award-winning sales team today, or call our dedicated support service on 0800 116 4385 to discuss your cases.
*https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/self-employment-income-support-scheme-statistics-january-2021/self-employment-income-support-scheme-statistics-january-2021#seiss-third-grant-claims-and-eligibility
