The lender has reduced the rates for eight two-year fixed rate first-time buyer products between 75 and 95 per cent loan to value (LTV), with the largest reduction applied to its 80 to 85 per cent LTV and 85 to 90 per cent LTV products.
Its two-year fixed rate between 80 and 85 per cent LTV has fallen from 2.69 per cent to 2.39 per cent, whilst its two-year fixed rate at 85 to 90 per cent LTV has gone from 3.09 per cent to 2.79 per cent.
On the house purchase side, the lender has cut the rates for eight products between 75 and 95 per cent LTV.
The largest reductions were on its two-year fixed rate at 80 to 85 per cent LTV, which has also been cut by 0.3 per cent to 2.39 per cent. Its two-year fixed rate at 85 to 90 per cent LTV has fallen from 3.09 per cent to 2.79 per cent.
Newcastle BS launches large loan range
Newcastle Building Society will re-enter the large loan market today, after exiting in April last year.
It has released two and five-year discounted variable products.
The products are designed to support higher earning professional clients and are available up to 80 per cent LTV.
A two-year discounted rate is available at 2.34 per cent and comes with free standard valuation and allows 10 per cent overpayments per year in addition to £499 monthly overpayments already allowed.
An early repayment charge (ERC) of one per cent applies for the first year of the fixed term period.
A five-year discounted rate product is also available at 2.75 per cent, which has no ERCs to give borrowers flexibility on payments.
The minimum loan size for the product is £500,000 and the maximum loan size is £1m for 80 per cent LTV, whilst for 75 per cent LTV minimum loan size is £1m and maximum loan size is capped at £1.5m.
The products allow income multiples up to 5.5 and a fee of £1,999 applies to both products.
Newcastle Building Society’s head of intermediary mortgages Franco Di Pietro said: “We’re seeing strong demand in the market for loans between £500,000 and £1,500,000, this re-launch will provide greater choice for borrowers whilst brokers will also have direct access to our experience underwriters and bespoke service proposition.”
Across its buy-to-let offering, the two-year fixed options up to 60 per cent loan to value (LTV) have been reduced by up to 0.15 per cent.
The fee-free option now has a rate of 1.84 per cent, while the £995 fee paying option is priced at 1.44 per cent.
The five-year fixed alternatives have been increased by 0.05 per cent, now at 2.14 per cent for a fee-free product and 1.89 per cent for the £995 fee paying mortgage.
For residential borrowers, two-year fixed products at 0-75 per cent LTV with a £995 fee have been reduced by up to 30 basis points (bps).
At 0-60 per cent LTV, the product has a rate of 0.94 per cent while the 60-75 per cent LTV product has a rate of 1.09 per cent.
Two-year fixes at 75 to 85 per cent LTV have had rates reduced by 20 bps, as well as the five-year fixed product transfer at 0-60 per cent LTV with a £995 fee.
The fee-free five-year fixed option at 0-60 per cent has seen an increase of 0.25 per cent to 1.94 per cent.
At 60-75 per cent LTV, the five-year fix with a £995 fee has been reduced by 0.45 per cent to 1.34 per cent.
Elsewhere, 10-year fixes with five years’ early repayment charges (ERCs) at 0-75 per cent LTV have risen by 0.20 per cent. Meanwhile, 10-year fixes at 0-60 per cent LTV with 10 years’ ERCs have increased by up to 0.45 per cent.
The bank will lend up to £500,000 and new-build properties are exempt from the change.
TSB initially excluded such flats, maisonettes and new-build properties when it relaunched mortgages for those with a five per cent deposit in April.
Since then, TSB has only been lending up to 85 per cent LTV on these properties, while houses and bungalows were eligible for up to 95 per cent LTV.
Under the updated criteria, new-build properties will still be restricted to 80 per cent LTV for purchases and 85 per cent LTV for remortgages with additional borrowing.
Changes are effective from today.
The Building Safety Information Portal, which was launched last year allows, homeowners, buyers, sellers, valuers and lenders to search and submit EWS1 forms.
However, professionals have been slow to upload them with around 6,000 existing forms not yet submitted to the platform according to UK Finance.
According to the FIA user guide, in order to use the platform signatories need to register and pay £200 plus VAT for their application to be processed, thereafter there is a £25 plus VAT annual fee to maintain the registrations.
The EWS1 forms are then submitted and reviewed by the FIA and cost £150 plus VAT every time a form is submitted by PDF or £100 plus VAT for each form if it submitted online.
EWS1 forms were introduced in 2019 to address concerns of external cladding following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017.
However, there has been confusion about when a form is required by lenders and increased demand coupled with fewer fire professionals have led to some delays.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) issued new guidance in March which outlined when a form was needed, which housing minister Christopher Pincher said has freed 500,000 leaseholders from needing to obtain the form.
Brokers canvassed by this publication said that EWS1 lender requests were still a “grey area” and “mess” despite the new guidance.
UK Finance’s mortgages director Charles Roe said: “These forms are vitally important for anyone looking to buy, sell or remortgage homes in a multi-storey building. The financial backing and support of the seven lenders is a positive step to keep the housing market moving for flats and apartments.
“In addition, it will improve transparency and access to building safety information for everyone involved in the home-buying process.”
In February, Lendex was rolled out to all mortgage advisers using online sourcing solution MortgageBrain Anywhere following a pilot period.
The ability to request decisions in principle from TSB is being trialled with Fluent mortgages and will be rolled out to all users of Lendex this summer.
The integration with TSB is being carried out through IRESS Lender Connect.
TSB’s mortgage distribution director Roland McCormack said: “We are delighted to go live on Lendex. At TSB we have been early advocates of connecting to broker systems and now have close to 100 per cent coverage, making life easier and simpler for advisers.
Fluent Money Group’s chief operating officer Tim Wheeldon added that the introduction of Lendex to its adviser cohort had provided “significant benefits” in terms of time and efficiency.
Neil Wyatt (pictured), sales and marketing director at Mortgage Brain, added: “It’s clear that momentum is building behind Lendex, with more lenders recognising the significant time saving benefits it provides.
“Lendex is already making a real difference to the workloads of advisers across the country and we look forward to welcoming more lenders on board in the months ahead.”
The 0.94 per cent remortgage product is available at 60 per cent loan to value (LTV) and has a fee of £995. This comes a month after it launched a two-year fixed mortgage with a rate of 0.99 per cent for first-time buyers and movers.
It also joins a raft of sub-one per cent deals released by lenders in the last few months at the same tier.
Equivalent two-year fixed remortgages up to 75 per cent LTV have seen reductions of up to 0.20 per cent, with the 60-75 per cent option now priced at 1.09 per cent.
The five-year fixed remortgages with early repayment charges (ERCs) for the period have also had reductions with rates of 1.14 per cent for 0-60 per cent LTV, and 1.34 per cent for 60-75 per cent LTV.
Elsewhere, the bank has reduced rates on first-time buyer and purchase five-year fixes by up to 50 basis points.
The product up to 60 per cent LTV with a £995 fee has a rate of 1.09 per cent, while the fee-free option has a rate of 1.54 per cent.
For borrowing requirements between 60-75 per cent LTV, the fee paying option has a rate of 1.34 per cent, while the fee-free deal is priced at 1.79 per cent.
TSB has also withdrawn two and five-year fixed remortgages at 0-75 per cent LTV with fees of £1,495. The maximum fee on any of its products is now £995.
The mortgages have seen reductions of up to 0.25 per cent.
The 80-85 per cent LTV product with a £995 fee has been reduced from 2.29 per cent to 2.14 per cent. The fee-free option now has a rate of 2.69 per cent, down from 2.84 per cent.
The £995 fee paying mortgage at 85-90 per cent LTV has a rate of 2.89 per cent, previously 2.99 per cent.
The fee-free alternative is priced at 3.09 per cent, down from 3.19 per cent.
At 90-95 per cent LTV, mortgages for first-time buyers and purchasers now range from 3.54 per cent with a £995 fee and 3.69 per cent with no fee.
Elsewhere, two-year fixes now vary from 0.99 per cent at 60 per cent LTV with a £995 fee to 2.34 per cent at 75-80 per cent LTV with no fee.
Changes are effective from today.
The lender has reduced the five-year fixed first-time buyer and house purchase product at 75 to 90 per cent LTV by up to 0.4 per cent.
The largest decrease was on its five-year fixed first-time buyer product at 75 to 80 per cent LTV, which has been cut from 2.49 per cent to 2.09 per cent. It is subject to a fee of £995.
The rate for its five-year fixed first-time buyer stepped down product between 75 to 90 per cent LTV has also been reduced by up to 0.4 per cent.
An example of this is its 75 to 80 per cent LTV product, which will start at 2.74 per cent in year one, before going to 2.64 per cent in year two, 2.54 per cent in year three and 2.39 per cent in years four and five.
The lender’s two-year fixed remortgage between 75 and 85 per cent LTV has been reduced by up 0.2 per cent, beginning from 1.79 per cent and going up to 2.84 per cent.
The rate for TSB’s five-year fixed remortgage up to 75 per cent LTV has fallen by up to 0.3 per cent and rates now stand at 1.14 per cent and go up to 1.49 per cent.
On the BTL side, rates have been decreased by 01.5 per cent, with the rate for its two-year fixed remortgage up to 60 per cent LTV now set at 1.44 per cent, with a fee-free product rate set at 1.84 per cent.
The lender has been adapting its offering, bringing in green additional borrowing products earlier this week.
It has also reduced rates on its two-year fixed purchase and remortgage products by up to 15 basis points across all LTVs.
Existing residential and buy to let customers can borrow a minimum of £10,000 up to 85 per cent loan to value (LTV). The money can be used to fund renovations such as loft and wall insulation, solar panel installation and heating upgrades.
A minimum of £1,000 must be spent on green improvements.
If all of the money is used to fund emission reducing improvements, customers will be offered a rate reduction of 0.5 per cent with no product fee. Where the borrowing funds a mixture of ecological and standard improvements, then just the part of the loan used for environmentally friendly changes will benefit from the reduced rate.
Nick Smith, head of mortgages at TSB, said: “We are all conscious of the need to do more to protect the environment and we know that a lot of our customers are also keen to play their part in tackling climate change.
“So we’ve decided to give our mortgage customers a helping hand, by offering them a discount when they borrow to invest in the energy efficiency of their homes.”
