Together has increased its loan amounts for first charge mortgages from £200,000 to £250,000, as house prices continue to rise.
The changes, which apply to first charge purchase, remortgage and right to buy applications, will come into effect this week.
Gary Bailey (pictured,) Together’s sales director, said: “We’ve had a number of referrals within £250,000 recently that we have accepted, and since the average house price is now over £200,000, it made sense to upgrade our product plans to reflect this, by increasing the amount available.”
In addition, Together has removed the maximum age limit on its consumer buy-to-let mortgages, where rental income covers 120% of total secured lending repayments. This follows the removal of the upper age limit on the lender’s first charge buy-to-let products last month.
Bailey added: “We’ve already removed the age limit on our buy-to-let range so we were keen to apply this to the consumer buy-to-let mortgages as well. The UK has an ageing population, with 11.4 million people aged 65 and over, and according to the latest official projections this is expected to grow by 12% by 2020, so lenders are looking closely at age limits across different products. At Together, we apply our common sense philosophy on this and if the customer can show the required rental income, then age needn’t be an issue.
“The concept of consumer buy-to-let covers the ‘accidental’ landlord; someone who, for example, has inherited a property or has let their property as a result of circumstance, rather than as part of a business plan, and this change in criteria will help ensure we’re meeting the needs of these customers, as well as the buy-to-let investors and professional landlords.”