Specialist lender Together has increased its maximum personal mortgage loan amount to £1m in an effort to expand its customer base and address rising property prices.
The expanded maximum loan size will be available for purchase, remortgage and right-to-buy applications, with a loan-to-value of up to 50 per cent.
The increase will allow the lender to offer its specialist services to a wider range of customers, serving those that may not be able to secure the funding they require from a mainstream bank.
Pete Ball, chief executive of personal finance at Together, said: "We were seeing demand for bigger loans, in line with the current housing market, alongside an expanding customer base.
"Our recent customer insight data shows that our main three customer groups are high-income professionals, older working families, and those on the road to retirement, and they may turn to specialist finance providers for a variety of reasons.
"It could be that they are self-employed, or it could be about the property, which may not fit the ‘standard’ classification. What this goes to show is that the demand for specialist finance is growing and we’re adapting our products to suit a broader demographic, in recognition of that."
In addition to the increase, Together has increased its maximum loan amount for purchases up to 75 per cent loan-to-value from £200,000 to £250,000, increased its maximum loan size for purchases, remortgages and right-to-buy from £250,000 to £500,000 and its shared ownership limit from £200,000 to £250,000. Cases of more than £500,000 will be manually underwritten.
Together has also launched simplified product guides and is improving its affordability assessment for all personal lending products.
Last year Together closed a £375m bond issuance, increasing its funding capacity to meet demand.
Matthew Fleming-Duffy, director at Christchurch-based Cherry Finance, said: “It’s always good to see a new product, and practically, there is obviously a good headline here that the loan amount is up to £1m and there may be the odd case in the UK that is going to make sense with this, but the rate is going to be high and if you have bad debt problems in the background this is going to be a low-volume product.
“Large loans with high rates, as advisers we really have to sit down with someone and ask if this would stack up with their affordability. These solutions, although they have a great place in the market and a great proposition, have to be seen as short-term.”
