Newcastle Building Society has increased its mortgage offer validity period to six months, up from three months.
The mutual said this change was due to feedback from brokers and to give homebuyers “peace of mind”, especially when they are in a transaction chain. It is also expected to help people who are remortgaging before the end of their fixed rate period.
This will apply to purchase and remortgage applicants, while the nine-month offer period for those buying new-build homes will remain.
The change follows the latest Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) which found it was now taking 20 weeks on average for sales to complete, up from 17 weeks a year ago.
Franco Di Pietro (pictured), head of intermediary mortgages at Newcastle for Intermediaries, said: “Borrowers looking to buy a home or remortgage can experience uncertainty during the process, particularly those who find themselves in a chain.
“We want to ensure we’re able to support a broad range of borrowers as effectively as possible and, after listening to broker feedback, we’ve taken the decision to increase our offer validity period to help ease some of the pressure facing borrowers, providing greater peace of mind at a time that we know can be stressful.”
Shekina is the deputy editor at Mortgage Solutions and commercial editor at Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions. She has nearly eight years of experience in the B2B publishing market, having previously covered the hospitality, retail, pet, accounting and jewellery sectors.
Shekina has worked for Mortgage Solutions and Specialist Lending Solutions for almost five years. Here, she covers the market’s breaking news stories, engages with professionals in the sector, and oversees any commercially agreed content in partnership with mortgage-related companies.
This includes presenting webinars and hosting roundtable discussions on developing themes in the mortgage sector.
She is an NCTJ-trained journalist and was nominated for the Headline Money Awards Mortgage Journalist of the Year in 2021.
In her spare time, Shekina likes to read, travel, listen to music and socialise with friends.
She currently reports on current events in the mortgage market and liaises with financial clients to produce sponsored content.
Follow her on Twitter at @ShekinaMS
