Fantastic news coming out of NatWest Intermediary Solutions as they announce a significant improvement to their mortgage lending criteria – an increase to both the maximum term allowed and age allowed.
What’s new?
Effective immediately, mortgages submitted via an intermediary like Oportfolio Mortgages, will be able to apply for a residential mortgage up to age 75 and up to a 40 year mortgage term.
This is available to customers borrowing on a Capital & Interest basis and NOT extending into their retirement. This is also available for customers looking to Product Switch with additional borrowing. Interest Only and Buy to Let customers will continue to borrow in line with current policies.
This is great news for clients and brokers alike as previously Natwest was only able to offer mortgages that ran up until the client turned 70 with a maximum mortgage term of 35 years. A good length of time in most cases but extending to a 40 year mortgage term can really make a difference. Especially to the mortgage lending amount and monthly repayments of the loan.
How will this affect things?
For example, someone borrowing £300,000 at a rate of 1.09% over 35 years would pay around £859 per month. By extending the term to 40 years, that reduces the repayment to £771 a month. That’s £88 saved per month or £1,056 a year in your back pocket to treat yourself!
Only a very small handful of mortgage lenders will actually offer 40 year mortgage terms, and even fewer will take the mortgage past age 70. Now don’t get me wrong, it can be done but with most lenders, it comes down to job role and pension projections. This announcement by Natwest completely navigates through these rules. That’s why securing your mortgage through a specialist broker with access to exclusive lenders and rates like Oportfolio is always key. If you were to approach Natwest as a client on your own, this 40-year term and maximum age 75 would not be available to you.
What are Natwest saying?
Natwest have commented:
“We believe these changes will ultimately help us to provide support to customers at every stage of their lives and will allow us to better serve customers and deliver a greater experience in line with our purpose.”
What are the mortgage experts saying?
Content manager at Oportfolio Mortgages Louis Mason had this to say:
“Well, I am certainly impressed Natwest. I think we (mortgage intermediaries) all are. I remember not too long ago when Natwest was leading the way with forward thinking. Generosity when it came to acceptable clients and affordability went together with Natwest. Unfortunately, it seemed like this took a back seat in favour of focusing on competitive rates (which is also great, of course). But seeing Natwest leading the way again by allowing more flexible borrowing and allowing clients to take longer mortgages is a real breath of fresh air. These changes will really help buyers and remortgagers to better manage their finances per month. Let’s see who else follows suit.”
If you or someone you know is looking for a mortgage and wants to take advantage of these new changes from Natwest, please feel free to give our friendly advisors a call.
