Hampshire Bank Trust has confirmed it will lend to portfolio landlords ahead of the final deadline for the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) underwriting changes.
The challenger bank’s commercial mortgages team has created a suite of documentation to help brokers submit the additional information, including a portfolio schedule, business plan, cash flow for the previous 12 months and a future cash flow forecast.
It will issue the documents later this week.
The PRA has mandated stricter underwriting rules for portfolio landlords – those with four or more properties – to ensure they can afford to take on additional properties now and in the event of an interest rate rise.
Lenders have until 30 September to provide details of their approach to the regulatory change.
Hampshire Trust Bank re-launched in May 2014 and reported a pre-tax profit of £4.4m in 2016.
Customer numbers more than doubled to over 16,000, while the commercial mortgages loan book increased to £101.3m.
Mark Sismey-Durrant, chief executive officer at Hampshire Trust Bank, said: “The buy-to-let landscape has faced a period of unprecedented change, with a number of new regulations being implemented that have impacted the market. Our approach has largely anticipated these changes already.
“We remain committed to the portfolio buy-to-let sector and in supporting our broker partners with their business. Our new documents are designed to make it a simple and straightforward process for brokers to provide us with the new information that will be required.
"As a specialist lender, we are focused on providing timely and balanced decisions on buy-to-let deals, helping to ensure that introducers and borrowers do not miss out on the opportunity to grow their businesses."
Mike Richards, director at London-based Mortgage Concepts Associates, said he thought the PRA changes could be an opportunity for the challenger banks.
He said: "It is (an opportunity) because they can do this manually. Most other lenders are so set up with online function that they can’t spare the manpower – they would have to employ a lot more people.
"Some of the challenger banks will take over some of the more interesting cases."
simon.allin@ft.com
