OneFamily has changed its Roll Up Lifetime Mortgage to allow customers to roll up interest for the term of the loan or begin to pay the loan off in lump sums of up to 10% of the total or on a regular basis.
The criteria change is only available to new customers.
The lender said half of the lifetime mortgages taken with OneFamily were already used by homeowners who pay off interest. Of these existing customers, over a third pay off both some of the capital and interest up to a maximum of 10% of the original loan value each year and 16% choose to pay off up to 100% of the interest.
The lender said this demonstrates that the majority of customers would prefer to have the option to pay off interest.
Nici Audhlam-Gardiner, managing director of Lifetime Mortgages, said: “By giving our customers the option to pay off the interest on their loan we are giving them increased flexibility.
“We know that our customers’ financial circumstances change, and we want our products to be able to flex with their needs. For example, we’ve seen cases where customers have been left an inheritance by a friend or older family member, and they want to be able to make a payment on their loan. This new approach helps with this situation.”
OneFamily’s lifetime mortgage range is available on either a fixed, two year fixed or variable rate basis.
In September the lender appointed Denise Saber as lending consultant to broaden its range of funders and raise the profile of equity release as a sector among investment managers for retail and institutional pension funds.
Victoria Hartley is contributing editor at Mortgage Solutions, Specialist Lending Solutions, Your Money and Your Mortgage at London-based publishing company AE3 Media.
She has an MA in Radio from Goldsmiths after gaining a 2:1 in a Comparative American Studies BA at Warwick University. She also holds a TEFL qualification and taught overseas in Mexico and Japan from 1994 to 1997.
Her role includes editorial oversight of the news, analysis and features, event content management and strategic and editorial consultancy for the AE3 Media group. She is an experienced video, broadcast and live-event host and regularly chairs web and podcast debates and interviews.
Multiple award nominations have resulted in two wins: Santander Media Awards, trade journalist of the year and Headlinemoney Awards, mortgage journalist of the year (B2B). Here is one of the award-winning pieces: https://www.mortgagesolutions.co.uk/news/2011/07/21/exclusive-tale-bailey-fraud-witness/
Previous roles include editorships of Mortgage Solutions, consumer title What Mortgage and trade title Credit Today as well as a stint freelancing for a variety of outlets including The Guardian and Which? Money.
