West One suspends expat lending and restructures BTL offering

The lender removed ex-pat borrowers from its specialist and holiday let ranges when they were withdrawn last month.

It will continue to lend to specialist individual and limited company landlords for homes in multiple occupancy and multi-block unit purposes. 

Cases which were already keyed in before 28 October will be honoured where appropriate on its current product range, subject to minimum application requirements and the payment of the £150 application fee by 9 November. 

West One’s two limited edition products which were released in August have also been removed. 

BTL update 

The lender has also made changes to its criteria to differentiate between borrowers with clean and adverse credit and reduced rates on its buy-to-let product range. 

Its buy-to-let rates now start from 3.34 per cent, a 0.25 per cent reduction on its previous offering. 

Products have also been separated into W1 and W2 categories, with the W1 range serving borrowers with a clean credit history while the W2 deals serve those with blips on their report. 

The lender’s existing Apex 0 products have been replaced by the W2 range. 

W1 borrowers must have no defaults or county court judgements (CCJs) in the last 72 months, including those which have been satisfied, and they cannot have any mortgage or secured loan arrears in the last three years. 

They must have no bankruptcy, individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) debt, payday loans, or debt management plans either at the time of application or previously. 

The criteria for W2 will be the same as the criteria for the previous Apex 0 range. 

The maximum single loan size for both W1 and W2 plans has been increased to £1m at up to 75 per cent loan to value (LTV) on standard and specialist ranges.  

The maximum loan term has also been reduced from 30 years to 25.