Legal & General has announced the addition of Gen H (Generation Home)’s affordability calculator to its tech tool, SmartrFit.
The tool provides free access to all advisers using a Legal & General agency number, including Legal & General Mortgage Club members, or via third parties including SimplyBiz Mortgages, One Mortgage System, and Smartr365.
Gen H lends up to 95% LTV and 5.5x income for first-time buyers, home movers and remortgagers. For mortgages with a 95% LTV, the maximum loan size is £500,000, or £700,000 in London and the South East.
Among Gen H’s offering is an income booster feature, which allows applicants to use up to six incomes on their mortgage application to boost their affordability. Family members, such as parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles can contribute to monthly payments and build equity in the home or stay on standby until needed. Using Gen H’s ejector seat feature, income boosters can be removed before the max age of 85 or when owners can afford monthly payments on their own.
In November 2022, Legal & General acquired an 18.75% stake in Gen H, following a Series B funding round.
In order to help best serve advisers, Legal & General has also added three more buy-to-let affordability calculators to SmartrFit from Swansea Building Society, Vernon Building Society, and Landbay.
Jodie White, head of product & transformation, Legal and General Mortgage Services, said: “Integrating Gen H’s innovative affordability calculator to SmartrFit is just another way that we are using technology to support our fast-paced market. We have seen adviser searches for first-time buyers grow on our SmartrFit tool since the start of the year, while the number of higher LTV products (typically relied on by first-time buyers) continues to steadily improve. It is vital that we continue to advance our support for aspiring buyers and their advisers, all operating in a busy period.”
Will Rice, CEO at Gen H, added: “We’re delighted that advisers will now be able to check a client’s affordability for Gen H products through SmartrFit. Affordability continues to be one of the main barriers to first-time buyers getting onto the property ladder, which is why it is vitally important that customers get an accurate understanding of how much they could borrow based on their individual circumstances. Anything that makes this easier, like this latest integration, will benefit the end customer.”