The Mansfield previously offered a five-year discount at 4.39% and a five-year deal term. The discount from SVR has now been improved to 1.6%.
Mike Taylor, product and marketing manager at the Mansfield, said: “We listened to feedback from both broker contacts and customers and as result we are relaunching the product, to this important underserved segment of the market, at a lower initial payable rate with a three-year discounted term.”
David Hollingworth, associate director, communications, London & Country Mortgages, said: “The options for older borrowers are limited over the age of 75 so anything that pushes the age limit further enhances those borrowers’ ability to get a mortgage deal. This is where smaller building societies offer something which bigger players can’t.”
Mortgage products catering for those lending into retirement were severely restricted following the Mortgage Market Review (MMR) rules which came into place in April last year. Lenders reduced the maximum age of borrowers at the end of the mortgage term because of the requirements placed upon them by the regulator to assess income into retirement.
A report from the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, which surveyed lenders’ attitudes on lending to borrowers with specific risk profiles revealed that lenders feared a future clampdown by the regulator and so had retreated from lending into retirement altogether.
IMLA’s executive director Peter Williams said that a lack of clarity in the MMR had left older borrowers frozen out because lenders found it difficult it to determine whether a loan would be affordable beyond the retirement age.
The findings of the report brought a backlash from over 50s champion Saga which claimed lenders were discriminating against borrower on age. It wants banks to base lending decisions on borrowers’ ability to pay and not arbitrary age limits.
Mansfield Building Society has also expanded its shared ownership, buy-to-let and residential mortgage ranges with new deals available up to 95% loan-to-value.
