Higher life expectancy and changing living structures has driven Masthaven Bank to enter the residential mortgage market with a new range of products it claims have been developed to meet the needs of borrowers.
Masthaven says that a modern mortgage market builds products and services based on customer needs, rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach to lending.
With the new offering, Masthaven wants to support brokers whose customers have more complex application requirements, removing the need for credit scores and providing manual underwriting where required.
Masthaven is working with a select panel of specialist brokers to start with, and plans to extend distribution to the wider UK market before the end of the year.
Highlights of its residential range include loans from £40,000 to £1,000,000, offerings for contractors, individuals with a short employment history and customers with impaired credit.
It will also lend to people who are up to 85 years of age at the end of the term of the loan.
Masthaven launched as a retail bank in November last year building on its existing business as a specialist lender since 2004. The organisation currently offers bridging and second charge mortgages and development finance alongside a savings product.
The new product range includes a two-year fix from 2.94 per cent, a five-year fix from 3.44 per cent and a lifetime tracker from 3.44 per cent.
Provider view:
Matt Andrews, managing director of mortgages at Masthaven, said: “People are working and living longer, starting out adult life in greater debt due to tuition fees, and a job is no longer for life, with a huge swathe of the population either self-employed or not working the traditional nine to five contract job.
“Many won’t fit the conventional box-ticking exercises that the mortgage market currently requires, yet they can comfortably afford the mortgage repayments they wish to commit to.”
Charges:
Lender fee of £995 applies to all mortgages
Adviser view:
Jane Hodges, managing director at London-based Money Honey Financial Planning, said: “The world is changing rapidly; the population is growing older, more people work longer or part-time through retirement, parents and children are joining forces to buy bigger properties where they will all live and the world is full of more flexible living arrangements. It is great to see these lenders try and push the boundaries to cope with their customers needs more fully and more individually.”
David Hollingworth, associate director of communications at London & Country added: “Although Masthaven is a name that many brokers will be familiar with, this marks a new departure as it steps into the first charge mortgage market. It’s clear that it intends to offer a specialised approach in an effort to meet the needs of those borrowers that can find themselves poorly served by the high street.
"A new lender in this sphere can only help grow the lender and product choice for those that find themselves without a mainstream lender option."
Verdict:
As society evolves and living structures change, Masthaven has seen a growing gap in the market it can plug. It may carry a higher risk for the lender, servicing individuals with credit blips and limited self-employed history, but as a more bespoke product it will enable Masthaven to understand customers better.
