The products are available for people with smaller deposits and in need of 80 to 95 per cent loan to value (LTV) options.
There will be two, three and five-year fixed rates available as well as a choice of product fees.
This support around credit score follows Leeds Building Society’s partnership with Experian Boost earlier this year. It was the first building society in the UK to work with the service and it helps borrowers improve their credit score by including regular payments such as council tax.
It also launched a Home Deposit Saver product which gives a £500 bonus to people getting onto the housing ladder.
Matt Bartle, director of products at Leeds Building Society, said: “Offering a solution for those who may have otherwise faced the possibility of being turned down for a mortgage is another step in delivering our purpose, putting home ownership within reach of more people generation after generation.”
“For some, their credit score is one of the barriers which prevents home ownership. By introducing the new products in our Reach Mortgage range, alongside other initiatives launched this year such as our ground-breaking partnership with Experian Boost and Home Deposit Saver, we’re aiming to increase the number of mortgage applications we accept and help more people get on the housing ladder.”
Getting more people into homeownership
James O’Reilly, head of intermediary distribution at Leeds Building Society, said the mutual had become more “purpose-driven” in the last few years and had a goal of putting “homeownership in reach of more people generation after generation”.
He said this was influencing its commercial decisions and resulted in the mutual considering what it can do to help people with affordability constraints.
O’Reilly said: “People with a lower credit score who would have previously been declined now have a second bite of the cherry. That’s been led very much by our intermediaries.”
He said the range was still being refined but the pricing would be higher than its core offering to reflect the risk.
Leeds Building Society launched the product at the higher LTV tiers as O’Reilly said its aim to improve access to homeownership was naturally focused on first-time buyers. He said this would also cover many first and second-time remortgagors.
O’Reilly said Leeds Building Society had not “moved into the specialist sector” and the range would be open to people who only just fell short of the credit rating requirements. The mutual’s standard criteria will apply.
“We would still consider it to be within mainstream lending but it’s an extension beyond where we would have usually gone,” he added.
O’Reilly said the ‘Reach’ range could work with the mutual’s service through Experian Boost “in a nice way” as borrowers with a low rating could improve their credit score using the system.
“The combination of the two will have a bigger impact,” he added.
