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Halifax tweaks non-sterling income and shared ownership criteria
Halifax has widened the non-sterling incomes it will accept and made improvements to its affordability assessment.
In an update on its intermediary page, Halifax said that following feedback, it was introducing five non-sterling incomes to its acceptable income.
This includes US dollars, euros, Australian dollars, Indian rupees and Swiss francs.
For purchase and remortgage applications, basic salary, bonus, overtime and commission non-sterling income will be converted to GBP and apply a “haircut of 20%” or 10% for bonus income to cover “potential currency fluctuations”.
Halifax said if payslips show the amount in the original currency, that was sufficient for income verification, and if it showed the converted figure, then a broker would need to upload a compensation letter or remuneration statement with a payslip.
The lender said that its website affordability will not accept non-sterling income at the point of launch.
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On the shared ownership side, Halifax said that it was improving its affordability decision for decision in principle (DIP) and full application by using actual rental payment compared to assumed value in its affordability calculations.
The lender said that the changes would “improve and simplify the processing of shared ownership applications and give you more certainty of the loan amount available at the point of application, enabling us to further support this important sector of the housing market”.
Halifax added that it would request proof or shared ownership rental amount in its key information document or memorandum of sale.