Yorkshire has teamed up with retirement specialists Age Partnership to provide equity release advice for the building society’s interest-only customers.
Leeds-based Age Partnership will provide whole-of-market equity release and mortgage advice with no advice fee for interest-only clients who have no repayment vehicle or a shortfall at the end of their mortgage term.
The partnership - believed to be the first of its kind - follows record growth in the equity release sector, with over £2bn of housing equity released in 2016.
Tom Moloney, corporate partnerships manager at Age Partnership, said: “We are delighted to be working with Yorkshire to support their interest only customers. Together we have tailored our services to ensure clients have the knowledge and confidence to make informed decisions.
“Our offering will encompass residential mortgage and equity release advice so clients benefit from real choice. To ensure cost is not a barrier to engagement no advice fee will be payable.
“Combined with the right advice, equity release can play a key role in supporting clients with no interest only mortgage repayment strategy. With competitive rates of interest, improved flexibility and the ability to service interest, this could be a viable long-term solution for many clients.”
Andrew Montlake, director at London-based broker Coreco, commented: “There is a definite need for lenders to look at their lending book and ensure that interest-only borrowers get proper advice around the options available for them when approaching the end of their term.
“Partnerships such as this are one option available to lenders and I suspect we will see other lenders looking at similar options going forward.
“It is important that these customers get impartial advice, not just on an equity release basis, as with the market changing rapidly there are now many options available for standard mortgages rather than automatically looking at a potentially more expensive and unsuitable equity release product.”
simon.allin@ft.com
