The lender is reducing the affordability rate for remortgages without capital raising from five per cent to four per cent.
It is also removing the qualifying question ‘Is the current mortgage balance the same or less than it was on 31 December 2016?’, which means all remortgages without capital raising will now qualify for the reduced four per cent affordability rate.
Santander is removing the 125 per cent rental cover, and will instead use its usual 130 per cent/145 per cent based on income tax bands.
In addition, it is reducing the affordability rate where a five-year fixed rate is taken from 4.5 per cent to four per cent.
All full mortgage applications already submitted by 9pm on Saturday 7 September won’t be affected and will be assessed on the existing lending criteria.
