Santander 

Santander has announced any mortgage applications submitted from 1 January will no longer be granted a two month extension to enable completion. 

In March last year, lenders agreed to extend mortgage offers by up to three months to allow customers time to complete transactions amid the closure of the property market and subsequent delays along the chain. 

Now, applications submitted to the bank after 1 January will be processed in line with Santander’s existing offer validity of three months. 

No extra action needs to be taken for applications which have already been submitted or received an offer, but Santander said brokers should inform them if there are any material changes. 

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The bank also said reversion back to three-month offers would still allow new applicants to meet the stamp duty holiday deadline.

Helen Harrison, head of intermediary distribution at Santander said: “We know that with the current volume of homebuyers in the market, and the challenges presented by Covid-19, some customers may be finding the buying process is taking longer than usual.

“For customers with mortgage offers that were due to expire soon, our automatic two month extension will provide peace of mind allowing them to focus on progressing their purchase.”

 

NatWest 

NatWest is reverting the window to refund a mortgage porting to four months, in line with conditions before the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Applications fully submitted before 31 January will still be entitled to a porting refund window of six months, while applications made from 1 February onwards will go back to the shorter original timeframe.