The lender said that the criteria changes and improved flexibility would help brokers “turn the dream of owning a home into reality for even more borrowers”.
On the foreign national side, affordability has been improved so for cases where at least one borrower does not have permanent rights to reside and the loan to value (LTV) is above 75 the minimum income eligibility for joint applications has been lowered.
Previously, the main borrower needed to earn £50,000, whereas now a combined total income of £70,000 is acceptable. This is around £35,000 each for two applicants.
Mortgage applications where the main borrower earns at least £50,000 and the combined income is less than £70,000 are still acceptable.
The threshold for excluding defaults and CCJs when allocating product tiers has been increased from £250 to £500 across all product tiers.
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The existing threshold for ignoring unsecured missed payments under £250 remains unchanged.
Ross Williams, head of mortgage product management at Vida Homeloans, said: “The affordability enhancement builds on the improvements we’ve delivered for foreign national customers. It means that couples applying together can combine their incomes to meet eligibility requirements, providing greater flexibility and opening more opportunities for foreign national customers looking to secure a mortgage in the UK.
“By increasing the thresholds for CCJs and defaults we disregard, we’re making it easier for customers to secure a mortgage without being held back by historic issues—while maintaining responsible lending standards.”
Vida Homeloans recently launched a Let to Move proposition and added consumer buy-to-let deals to its proposition.
Recent figures suggest that it has more than doubled its gross mortgage lending in the first half of the year to £348m.
