Speaking on a Mortgage Solutions video debate in light of Pepper Money’s adverse credit report, the lender’s sale director there was an “even split” between those who were well off and those who were not.
Adams said: “There’s lots of preconceptions that run the report and I think that’s it’s such an interesting read. One would be that adverse credit is much more prevalent in less affluent social groups, but it’s a relatively even split.
“That would indicate missed payments are not necessarily about people not having the means to meet their commitments, but often life gets in the way.”
He added: “Another consideration probably is that the more affluent you are, the more lines of credit you have and therefore you have more opportunities to slip up.”
Watch the video below [12:30], chaired by Victoria Hartley, group editor of Mortgage Solutions, featuring Paul Adams, sales director, Pepper Money; Stephanie Charman, head of strategic relationships, lender, Sesame Bankhall Group and Danny Belton, head of lender relationships, L&G Mortgage Club.
It is the second consecutive month searches for lenders that will accept borrowers on furlough leave has fallen after a 40 per cent reduction between March and April.
Previous analysis of searches made using the club’s SmartrCriteria tool have painted a picture of a market dominated by needing to find suitable deals for borrowers with financial complications.
But as furlough searches decline, the market has started to resemble “pre-pandemic conditions”.
The volumes of searches for mortgages suitable for borrowers with unsatisfied defaults also continued to reduce falling by two per cent. Demand for mortgages for borrowers with unsecured arrears remained stable month-on-month.
Overall search activity has also continued to return to more normal levels, having fallen 20 per cent in May from its March peak.
The club also tracked a growing trend for remortgaging after six months of purchasing a home. Searches for quick remortgages rose by 40 per cent.
Legal & General said it is unclear what is driving this, but the current strong house price inflation may be leading to some people that have purchased recently to cash in on the property price increases seen in recent months by selling soon after their purchase. Other homeowners could be leveraging the added equity in their homes to access the more affordable interest rates available at lower loan to value bandings.
Clare Beardmore (pictured), head of mortgage transformation and operations, said: “The mortgage market has been on a rollercoaster ride in recent months with demand reaching unprecedented levels between January and March. However, we are now seeing the early signs that things may be returning to normal with search activity more closely resembling pre-pandemic conditions.
“Of course, many are still likely to feel the financial consequences of the crisis for some time yet and the key for mortgage borrowers is to continue seeking independent mortgage advice when it comes time to find a new mortgage. ”
Dynamo, which was initially known as The Buy to Let Club until a rebrand in 2019, was founded in 2012 and now supports around 3,000 intermediary partners.
The group was bought by Connells Group in a 100 per cent buyout earlier this year, with Dynamo’s and chief executive Ying Tan leaving the business in May.
Connells Group is one of the largest estate agency networks, with over 80 local estate agency brands and other brands like Countrywide, Conveyancing Direct and LMS.
Cupis joined Openwork as mortgage director in 2016 from Sesame Bankhall, where he was managing director of mortgages for around eight years.
He previously worked at Legal & General for around eight years, initially as sales and marketing director and then as mortgage propositions director. Before that he worked at Natwest as mortgage marketing manager for around five years.
A Connells Group spokesperson said: “We’re delighted that John Cupis will be joining us as MD of Dynamo. As a well-known and respected figure in the industry, his expertise in the sector will be an asset to our business and we look forward to welcoming him to the group.”
An Openwork spokesperson said: “We can confirm that The Openwork Partnership’s Mortgage Director, John Cupis, is taking on a new opportunity as managing director at Dynamo and will be leaving The Openwork Partnership.
He added: “We are actively recruiting and John has kindly agreed to stay on for a few months to ensure an orderly handover of his responsibilities. We wish him all the very best in his new venture.”
Analysis by the opposition party found that between May 2020 and April 2021, an average of eight buildings a month had aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding removed.
Meanwhile a further 2,017 are still on the waiting list.
It said at the current pace, it would take 262 months to fix the affected buildings.
Of the buildings over 18 metres tall where works had begun, 217 were incomplete and 107 still had ACM cladding on their facades.
Today marks the fourth anniversary since the Grenfell fire, which sparked the need to reform unsafe, potentially flammable materials used on high-rise buildings.
Lucy Powell MP, shadow housing secretary, said: “How many more years will the government allow people to live in unsafe homes?
“The government’s woeful lack of leadership is condemning hundreds of thousands of people to a living nightmare, wondering if the next disaster will occur on their block. The whole system is clogged, and most of the funding hasn’t even been paid out.”
She added: “We cannot pass another Grenfell anniversary with people living in unsafe homes. The government should set a deadline to make all homes safe by June 2022, and back this up with funding, enforcement and support for residents at the heart of this crisis.”
‘Irresponsible scaremongering’
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) disputed Labour’s claims and suggested they were causing fear.
The spokesperson said: “These misleading claims are completely false. It is irresponsible scaremongering which ignores the significant progress that has been made in removing dangerous cladding. Work is completed or underway in 95 per cent of buildings identified by the start of 2020 as having ACM cladding.
“Our priority is making sure residents are safe by removing dangerous cladding from the highest risk buildings as quickly as possible, backed by over £5bn of government funding.”
There are now two property value bands, compared to 24 before.
Free standard valuations will be offered to applicants where the purchase price or property value is below £2m. This will only apply to the first standard valuation.
For purchase prices or property values up to £3m, applicants will pay £177. NatWest said this was down from the previous average cost of £352 for applications where property values were up to £3m.
Properties with a value or purchase prices over £3m have a valuation fee of £1,455.
Costs include a £75 administrative fee and would have been applied to new applications from 12 June.
Home buyer and structural reports remain unaffected, with fees starting from £450.
As many take long overdue holidays after a frenzied H1 and energy levels naturally dip, can the mortgage industry sustain the service levels it has managed into H2?
Vote now on Mortgage Solutions’ latest poll to share your predictions for the coming weeks.
Will sun and an excess of delayed fun with family and friends bring a summer of service difficulties?
In his role he will work on the sales and distribution strategy for the lender’s bridging and development proposition and manage and expand its sales team.
Jones (pictured) was most recently commercial director at Roma Finance for just under a year and before that he worked at Together Loans for around 15 years where he worked in several senior sales roles.
Enra Specialist Finance chief executive Danny Waters said: “I have known Nick for a very long time, he has an amazing track record within our industry and I am delighted to welcome him to our team.
“Our business has seen very impressive results already this year and we have exciting plans ahead, I am confident Nick is the right person to power the next phase of our growth,” he added.
West One Loans secured a £250m JP Morgan investment for its buy-to-let (BTL) lending, building on its West One Loans’ residential mortgage-backed securitisation of its buy-to-let and second charge loans in November.
The lender last offered high LTV mortgages in March last year, according to a spokesperson.
The lender will offer a two-year fixed product at 95 per cent LTV with 3.8 per cent rate. The product is not subject to product fees and has an early repayment charge of 2 per cent until 30th November 2022 and 1 per cent until 30th November 2023.
A five-year fixed of up to 95 per cent LTV at the same rate is also available. It has no product fee and early repayment charges of five per cent until 30 November 2022, 4 per cent until 30 November 2023, 3 per cent until 30 November 2024, 2 per cent until 30 November 2025 and 1 per cent 30 November 2026
The products have a fee standard valuation and ten per cent annual overpayments. Selected deals have £250 cashback.
Newcastle Building Society’s intermediary mortgages head John Truswell (pictured) said: “As well as first-time buyers, second steppers, home movers and remortgage customers can all benefit from higher LTV products which are currently limited elsewhere in the market.
“This range builds on some of the initiatives we’ve recently announced and provides low-deposit borrowers with even more choice in the market.”
According to Moneyfacts, product choice for mortgage borrowers have reached their highest levels since the start of the pandemic, with 4,243 products available in June. The number of higher LTV deals has grown the most.
The latest product count from Moneyfacts indicated that there were around 525 products at 90 per cent LTV and 207 products at 95 per cent LTV.
At 95 per cent LTV, Platform will cut rates on two, three and five-year fixed-rate mortgages by up to 0.37 percentage points from Wednesday. That means the lender’s two-fixed rate zero-fee deal for borrowers with a five per cent deposit will be reduced from 4.11 per cent to 3.74 per cent.
Between 60 to 90 per cent LTV, Platform will cut rates by up to 0.20 percentage points on selected deals.
A zero product fee option will be introduced to some 80 to 90 per cent LTV mortgage deals.
Fred Sharp, director of mortgage distribution at The Co-operative Bank, said; “We are committed to supporting first-time buyers who often need higher LTV lending, with some of our 80 to 90 per cent LTV products also offering up to £1000 cashback for borrowers.”
Zephyr Homeloans
Zephyr Homeloans has launched an 80 per cent LTV mortgage through its packager channel.
Rates start at 3.89 per cent for a two-year fixed-rate mortgage and 4.15 per cent for a five-year alternative. Both are available for purchases and remortgages on standard properties. The maximum loan amount is up to £750,000.
Paul Fryers, managing director at Zephyr Homeloans, said: “Since Zephyr entered the market two years ago we have established ourselves as a lender that is finely attuned to the needs of specialist and portfolio buy-to-let landlords.”
It is comprised of a portfolio of first and second charge mortgages secured against small value commercial, residential and mixed use properties in England, Wales and Scotland with 40 per cent
of the underlying borrowers being self-employed. More than 79 per cent of the issued notes were rated AAA.
Citibank acted as sole arranger and sole lead manager.
Gerald Grimes, group chief executive designate of Together, said: “We are delighted to announce the successful completion of our second small balance commercial real estate MBS, just three months after we issued the UK’s first transaction of this kind since the global financial crisis.
“The £249m CRE2 facility provides additional resource as we continue to extend our support to UK businesses.”
Gary Beckett, group managing director and chief treasury officer at Together, added: “This is our fourth successful public transaction since the commencement of the pandemic, as we continue to add further strength and diversity to our funding platform.
“We would like to thank our funding partners who continue to show strong support for the Together growth story.”
