The mortgage, which is available to both customers buying a new home and those looking to remortgage, has a £1,545 product fee and is part of a series of reductions across the Chelsea range.
Home-movers or first-time buyers with a 10 per cent deposit can also benefit from changes to the range, which include the launch of a 3.09 per cent two-year fixed rate mortgage, with no product fee, free standard valuation and £250 cashback on completion.
Brendan Gilligan product manager for Chelsea Building Society, said: “We are committed to helping people into the home of their choice, whether that’s as a first-time buyer, or as a borrower who wants to move into a new place.
“We have launched these mortgages with borrowers who have smaller deposits in mind – we think the 1.82 per cent is an attractive rate for those with a 15 per cent deposit, in addition we have a range of products that come with incentives and no product fee which could be beneficial for those looking to save on upfront costs.
“We feel the new mortgages fit well within our range and there is a wide variety of choice for all types of customers.”
Chelsea Building Society’s decision to amend the priced of its two-year fixed rate mortgage caught the attention of Mr Hollingworth.
The deal now has a price of 1.84 per cent to 31 January 2018.
This deal is for first and second-time buyers only who borrow between £25,000 and £5m at 75 per cent loan-to-value.
No fee is payable and there is an incentive package of free valuation and a £250 rebate upon completion of the mortgage.
This deal has the flexibility of being able to make overpayments, underpayments and take payment holidays.
According to Moneyfacts the deal is highly competitive and heads straight into their Best Buy tables.
Mr Hollingworth said: “The Chelsea deal is certainly very well priced.”
Elsewhere Accord Mortgages reduced the rates on its 90 per cent and 95 per cent loan-to-value (LTV) two-year fixed rate residential mortgages by 0.15 per cent, with the added incentive of cashback on completion for house purchase.
The intermediary-only lender, which is part of Yorkshire Building Society Group, is now offering borrowers with a 10 per cent deposit a two-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.24 per cent, with £250 cashback on completion.
The mortgage has no product fee and offers free standard valuation for house purchases.
Also on offer is a 4.59 per cent two-year fixed rate mortgage at 95 per cent LTV, with no product fee and £130 processing fee.
The mortgage has a £750 cashback on completion and offers free standard valuation for house purchases.
Paragon Mortgages also confirmed it was launching a new product range aimed at professional landlords with larger-scale portfolios; available through an exclusive distribution network.
Paragon Premier features enhanced criteria and includes a range of lifetime trackers starting at 4 per cent, three-year fixes starting at 3.55 per cent and five year fixes at 4.5 per cent.
The new product range will include loan-to-values of up to 80 per cent.
Fleet Mortgages, the buy-to-let and specialist lender, also announced a series of criteria changes.
Many of the changes are based on maximum LTV and lending exposure which Fleet Mortgages has revised upwards based on the quality of the borrowers it is attracting.
Fleet Mortgages has increased its maximum aggregate loan exposure for new customers which was previously capped at £750,000 and increased over time.
Now, the exposure has been boosted on a tiered structure; new customers are able to have £750,000 of exposure at 75 per cent LTV; £1m at 70 per cent LTV; and £2m at 65 per cent LTV.
The maximum property value has been increased from £2m to £5m.
Also the minimum external acceptable size of a property has been reduced to 40 square metres, from its previous level of above 45 square metres.
Fleet Mortgages will be announcing further changes to its criteria over the forthcoming weeks.
Bob Young, chief executive of Fleet Mortgages, said: “There is a management philosophy from Japan called Kaizen which is the practice of continual improvement, and this is something that we at Fleet Mortgages are keen to put into practice.
“We continually look at our proposition, product range, criteria and service offering to see if we can continue to make those improvements that are requested and warranted. It is from a process whereby we listen and learn from our partners and stakeholders that we can ensure regular fine-tuning takes place throughout the business.
“This is why we’ve made the criteria changes announced today based primarily on the back of the top-quality borrowers we’ve attracted since launch.”
peter.walker@ft.com
