Six of the UK’s largest banks have announced that they will start lending on medium and high-rise flats with cladding from January, in a move that could help thousands of people stuck in properties they have not been able to sell or remortgage.
Lenders including Santander, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nationwide Building Society, and NatWest, said they would consider new mortgage applications from 9 January.
This comes after lenders obtained long-awaited guidance from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) on how to value affected properties.
Mortgage providers pulled back from lending against flats with cladding in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower disaster, which revealed costly safety problems in buildings across the country.
It was reported by the Guardian that there are approximately 500,000 flats where owners were unable to sell or get a new mortgage because of uncertainty over towers clad with flammable materials.
Mark Edwards Principal of Mortgages and Insurers Solutions said “This is a significant development. In many cases, the mainstream lenders will no longer need an EWS1 form on properties in England that are in buildings of 5 storeys or higher. This is likely to make the whole process much simpler and will help 100,000’s of people who were “cladding prisoners” unable to sell or remortgage their properties.”
Let’s discuss your mortgage
If you have a cladded leasehold property or would like to discuss a mortgage on another type of property, please use the Schedule a Call button or call and speak to our senior broker, Danny O’Keeffe today on 0208 364 3444.
Christmas Opening Times
Our offices will close at 4pm on Friday 23rd December and are closed all day 28th, 29th and 30th December 2022. We reopen on 3rd January 2023.
Research shows 7.91 million considered to have adverse credit
According to the latest research carried out by Pepper Money and YouGov, the total number of adults with adverse credit has reached 7.91 million. This is over 1.6 million more people with adverse credit than the last wave of the research, which took place in Winter 2021.
If you have concerns regarding your credit or require advice and want to purchase or remortgage a property, we work with a number of lenders that can help. Speak to our senior broker, Danny O’Keeffe on 0208 364 3444.
Bank of England raises interest rates to 3.5% in ninth increase in a year
As previously predicted the Bank of England raised interest rates from 3% to 3.5%. It is the ninth consecutive hike since December 2021. The rate is at its highest level for 14 years.
Many economists are predicting further interest rate hikes with a peak in the middle of next year.
Some forecasts suggest the the final resting level of interest rates will likely be between 4% and 5%.