Teachers Building Society is to offer mortgages to people of any occupation.
The change has been made to support the society’s plans for growth and strengthen its positive relationship with mortgage adviser partners following a re-entry to the intermediary market in 2011.
Founded in 1966 to help teachers onto the property ladder, the society built its reputation around bespoke underwriting based on the working hours, pay system and employment contracts of those in the teaching profession.
In 2016, Teachers recorded its best year for new lending and generated a profit before tax of £621,000, while mortgage assets increased by £9.2m to £219.2m.
Around 40 per cent of new lending went to first-time buyers last year, including through schemes such as Help to Buy.
Teachers' decision to widen the pool of who it will offer home loans to came the day after chancellor Philip Hammond has pledged to build up the UK's challenger banks and credit unions with a package of measures to widen potential membership and increase competition.
Tucked away on pages 50 and 51 of the Autumn Budget 2017 document, HM Treasury outlined ways to bring more people into the banking system in the UK, as well as provide better, more competitive and transparent banking services.
To improve access to "reputable sources of credit" the document stated "the government will increase the number of potential members that a credit union service a local area is to have, from 2 million to 3 million".
Simon Beresford, chief executive of Teachers Building Society, said: “We take an individual approach at Teachers, assessing on a case by case basis, so intermediaries can now benefit from this whether their clients are in the education sector or not.
"Our specialist service for teachers is unchanged.”
Danny Belton, head of lender relationships at Legal & General Mortgage Club, said: “Small regional building societies, such as Teachers Building Society, are growing volumes through good criteria and sensible manual underwriting.
“This positive move by Teachers Building Society allows more Intermediaries to help more customers take advantage of their good proposition.”
simon.allin@ft.com
