Mortgage News
Hinckley and Rugby BS launches foreign worker range
Hinckley and Rugby Building Society has released a skilled foreign workers range to cater to applicants who are “typically neglected by most high-street lenders”.
Hinckley and Rugby Building Society’s latest foreign worker products are aimed at skilled worker and health and care worker visa holders, and require no minimum income, no minimum UK residency and no minimum duration remaining on the current visa.
The lender said that if there are fewer than six months remaining on the current visa, it must be evidenced before completion that a visa extension has been granted.
The skilled worker deals go up to 95% loan to value (LTV), but a cap of 90% is in place if UK residency is fewer than 12 months.
The product range has two-year fixed rates at 6.49% up to 90% LTV and 6.79% up to 95% LTV. Its five-year fixed rate deals are at 5.99% up to 90% LTV and 6.39% up to 95% LTV.
Hinckley and Rugby Building Society said that the latest mortgage offering would “help brokers who struggle to help foreign workers who, despite meeting affordability criteria, simply have not been in the UK long enough to apply”.
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Laura Sneddon (pictured), head of mortgage sales at Hinckley and Rugby Building Society, said: “Bringing their essential skills to the UK, and committing to a new life here, skilled foreign workers deserve the opportunity to feel they truly belong, and owning their own home is a big part of that.
“They’re vital to the national interest, contributing much-needed skills to essential services like the NHS, and we feel that enabling them to own their own home sooner rather than later is incredibly important.
“What’s more, with demand for rental properties seriously stressed, and in some areas almost at breaking point, helping foreign workers onto the property ladder has a positive knock-on effect for everyone in the UK who needs a home.”
Christopher Holmes, products senior manager at Hinckley and Rugby Building Society, commented: “We spend a lot of late nights coming up with new products and making adjustments to existing products, for the single purpose of delivering what homebuyers really need in today’s world.
“We live in an inclusive country, and it’s time the UK showed its skilled foreign workers how much we value them being part of our society. In our own small way, that’s what Hinckley and Rugby has set out to achieve with our new mortgages for skilled foreign workers.”
The mutual has also recently introduced income flex products that are aimed at applicants who have non-standard or irregular income arrangements and are unlikely to be able to meet standard affordability criteria to secure the mortgage they require.