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Specialist lender criteria

Journalist: Anna Sagar, Mortgage Solutions / Specialist Lending Solutions

ended 09. August 2023

Interested to speak to brokers about specialist lender criteria and whether they are seeing enhancements/widening of criteria to capture more business. 

  1. Are you receiving more emails from specialist lenders about enhanced criteria or is it about the same? 
  2. Are there any particular areas that specialist lenders are widening criteria on? 
  3. Are you recommending more specialist lenders to customers than you have done previously? 
  4. What advice would you give to a customer before using a specialist lender?

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Darryl Dhoffer
Founder at The Mortgage Geezer
Non-mainstream or specialist lenders have certainly ramped up their emails over the past 12 months - I haven't seen any groundbreaking criteria changes from any of them, much the same as always - however, is good to see finally lenders are simplifying their product offerings to fit complex criteria. Our company caters for complex adverse client mortgages to ex-pat mortgages, so a broad range, and sadly not all "specialist" lenders within this field have a real grasp of how these client profiles, meet their product criteria, and what is deemed as "acceptable" and from our experience, not enough experience or competitive choice in the market. The only advice I would give a client is to make sure the broker advising has experience within this arena, as can save valuable time and any confusion in the process, and most of all, clients must be patient, as these are not automated applications.
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Stephen Perkins
Managing Director at Yellow Brick Mortgages
Criteria enhancements from specialist lenders seem roughly the same as usual, we haven't seen any major increase. However, more clients may now fall into needing specialist lenders due to the amount of background credit and or missed payments, which are both increasing due to the cost-of-living crisis. It is always worth borrowers being transparent about any issues with their background or the property so that the most suitable option can be found, Often there is a mainstream option that can do what many banks cannot, without the need for a higher rate specialist lender.
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Austyn Johnson
Founder at Mortgages For Actors
Specialist lenders are my go to and the best for flexibility. They enhance their criteria to make up for the higher rates, they lend where others cant. Usually its variable income they are widening, but they look at all aspects such as property. I usually have to go for a specialist lender, sometimes I can use high street, but its about 25%. I always advise that we will look to the low high street rates first and see if we can fit, but if not, we will need to look to the mor specialist lenders.
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James Bull
Mortgage Broker at JB Mortgages
Specialist mortgages are becoming more and more relevant as life gets increasingly complex. The rising cost of living means more and more people have blips on their credit file and do not pass the credit score with high street lenders. Also, many people are now self-employed and specialist lenders have favourable criteria for example accepting people with just 1 years accounts. Ultimately the specialist mortgage market is growing year on year and this is expected to continue long into the future.