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Gen H product launch

ended 14. March 2023

Fintech residential mortgage lender, Gen H, today announced "a new product range that offers first-time buyers a seamless homebuying experience combining mortgage and legal services under one roof. This is a first for the UK mortgage market. Customers could be able to save thousands of pounds on their mortgage as Gen H will make this premium service available with exclusive lower interest rates. Gen H’s first-time buyer bundle includes: 

  • Access to a premium conveyancing service provided by Gen H Legal
  • Exclusive reduced mortgage rates on 2-, 3- and 5-year fixed rate products at loan-to-values up to 95%
  • Free valuations
  • Gen H Legal will pass all its profits back to the customer in the form of lower interest rates. These first-time buyer bundle rates will be as much as 0.35% lower than Gen H’s standard range.

The bundle will be available to all intermediary partners on the Gen H panel and direct customers from Wednesday 15 March.

Free PR platform, Newspage, asked brokers for their thoughts, below.

8 responses from the Newspage community

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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
Lowering interest rates, free valuations and keeping the legals in-house will hopefully mean a quicker service, less chasing and more transparency. What's not to like? I can see Gen H being the go-to lender this year.
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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
Ultimately, anything that supports first-time buyers, keep costs down and passes on any rate savings is going to be popular. As long as the service from the legal team is proactive with everyone involved in the buying process, this could be an attractive model to copy for other challenger lenders. Most lenders offer free valuations, and some provide a cashback for first-time buyers such as Nationwide, so the figures will need to support the initiative.
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Craig Fish
Director at Lodestone Mortgages
On the face of it this sounds interesting, but as with anything new and market-leading, the devil will be in the detail. Anything that offer lower rates and benefits to first-time buyers though is warmly welcomed. After all, first-time buyers are the lifeblood of the property market. I do reserve caution, though, based on previous bad experiences with 'free' legals, which have historically proved to be more costly. The proof will be in the pudding, but if Gen H's track record is anything to go by, then this looks like it could be quite positive.
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James Vince
Managing Director at Castle View Finance
Gen H is proactive in embracing market conditions with new offers and solutions to the front end of the purchasing market. It's great to see more and more options coming available for the critical first steps in home ownership, which helps drive the wider home moving industry. Gen H has done its homework with this new offering whilst streamlining the process and taking some of the complications and fears out of home purchasing. Incentives like free valuations and premium legal services show a sense of knowledge in this space, as we often see these two areas as the areas that can disrupt the homebuying process. Profits going back in to further support rates is a positive headline, however the product offering and wider solution should be enough to sell the product range in itself.
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Rhys Schofield
Brand Director at Peak Mortgages and Protection
In theory, it's a good idea but there are potential pitfalls. The devil will be in the detail, too, as you may still be left with more in your back pocket going to a top sourcing lender and paying for your own conveyancer where you can actually choose a firm based on their reviews and service rather than having a particular firm forced on you. The other pitfall I can see is what happens if a case ends up not going through with Gen H, as having to change lenders happens more often than anyone cares to admit. Does the legal process have to start again? That could add months onto a property transaction. I commend Gen H for trying to make things easier for first-time buyers and this will grab headlines but I don't think it'll be easy to pull off.
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Scott Taylor-Barr
Principal Adviser at Barnsdale Financial Management
I'm a cynical man and tend to look at any good news and then try to find the dirty secret that's trying to stay hidden behind it. Now that I've got that out of the way, I don't feel so bad in telling you my first response to this was not positive. You see, the mortgage adviser and conveyancer are the only two parties that are employed by the buyer and so our responsibility is to them. My concern with this is that the conveyancer is now employed by the lender, so whose interests are they looking out for? The first-time buyer, or the lender that is paying them? The jury is out for me on this one at the moment. I'd need to learn more about how it intends to work before I'd be comfortable recommending it to a client.
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Graham Cox
Director at Bridging Hub
Kudos to Generation Home for doing something innovative in the marketplace. For first-time buyers, having the conveyancing all taken care of is one less thing to worry about. It could also reduce the time to completion. However, the fine print will determine whether these deals offer value for money or not.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
This is music to our ears but to be honest we have been around a long time and have heard similar things before. If Gen H actually manages to maintain control over the obvious service issues with conveyancers, it would be a major step forwards. We hope this is the case as a rework of this situation is long overdue.