Indeed, lenders have been busy tinkering with their criteria, showing they’re as keen as ever to boost lending levels.
Dragonfly Property Finance – which is soon to rebrand to Octopus Property – is one such lender that has been grabbing the headlines. Earlier this month it announced a number of criteria changes across its buy-to-let range, including a reduction on its completion fee from 3% to 2.5% for two, three, four and five-year loans. Dragonfly has also reduced its early repayment charge (ERC) for buy-to-let loans to 3% in each year.
The changes come after Mark Posniak took on the role of managing director following the departure of Jonathan Samuels. Jonathan did a great job at Dragonfly and I’m sure Mark will continue his success.
Meanwhile, Precise announced plans to help people to use property as part of their retirement planning by building up their portfolios. The lender will now allow landlords to secure up to 10 buy-to-let loans, previously restricted to five, and the combined value of lending has been increased to £5m.
Kent Reliance announced some changes to its application process, namely that advisers are now required to upload the minimum supporting documentation with the full mortgage application.
And, finally, Paragon Mortgages answered many professional landlords’ prayers with the launch of a range of products aimed at landlords with large portfolios. The Paragon Premier range includes lifetime trackers starting at 4%, three-year fixes starting at 3.55% and five-year fixes at 4.5%. The range will feature loan-to-values of up to 80%.
