The mutual said this reflected the rise in property prices which was also impacting first-time buyers.
From today, a borrower with a five per cent deposit can access a loan up to £500,000, up from £400,000. For those requiring a 90 per cent LTV mortgage, the maximum loan size has risen from £500,000 to £600,000 while at 85 per cent LTV this has gone up from £750,000 to £1m.
The increases apply to both standard and shared ownership residential mortgages.
Jonathan Thompson, senior mortgage manager at Leeds Building Society, said: “We’re always looking for ways we can support more borrowers, whether that’s through product innovation or responsiveness to market changes and customer and broker feedback.
“Rises in property prices affect all homebuyers but we’re mindful that first time buyers and others with smaller deposits face a particular challenge to buy in some areas, such as London and the South East.”
He added: “We’ve responded by increasing our maximum loan sizes, as well as expanding our choice of higher LTV mortgages, while continuing to lend responsibly and sustainably to help to deliver on our purpose to put homeownership within reach of more people.”
Improving EPC data collection
The mutual also announced that it teamed up with 4-Xtra Technologies, a tech spin-out of Leeds University, to estimate the missing energy performance certificate (EPC) data within its mortgage portfolio.
Leeds Building Society will use the data to evaluate the emissions of its portfolio.
This comes after a three-month pilot of the technology, which uses artificial intelligence to forecast climate events.
Andy Mellor, chief risk officer at Leeds Building Society, said: “We want to demonstrate how we are effectively incorporating climate risk considerations into our risk management processes and credit decisions. Missing EPC data was a particular obstacle in meeting these requirements for our mortgage portfolio.”
Mellor said the mutual could now improve its credit decisioning processes and report its impact on the environment more accurately.
David Potter, CEO of 4-Xtra Technologies, added: “We’re delighted to support Leeds Building Society in factoring in ESG considerations to its risk processes.
“Our software as a service (SaaS) solution can accurately predict missing EPC data, while also providing clients with enhanced data analytics capabilities to manipulate the large data sets involved. We are working on providing further enhancements to our solution, to include other physical risks while also actively developing other financial services solutions.”
