Enness Mortgages has claimed that many of the historically record low mortgage rates will not be accessible to most borrowers.
Steven Boyde, associate director at Enness Mortgages, said: “With mortgages costing less than ever, and competition among lenders rife, it’s important to know that most borrowers won’t actually have access to these ‘market leading rates’.
“Rates as low as 0.99% are only accessible to borrowers with the most vanilla / straightforward cases, healthy deposits, copious amounts of equity and bog standard income streams. For example, a self-employed person will struggle to prove affordability due to a short period of accounts, or a doctor will struggle as their income is paid from multiple sources so a steady income stream is difficult to evidence.
“These borrowers can more than afford to service a mortgage, but they will have to pay a higher rate simply because they have slightly complex circumstances. Once you have sifted through the very best rates at the top of the pricing charts, it is then a case of finding the cheapest product / lender specific to the actual client’s situation.
“The checks inflicted upon borrowers now mean that even the wealthiest clients are limited in their property financing options, and all this hyperbole about the cheapest ever rates is alienating them from the mainstream market even further.”