A new set of mortgages from Skipton Building Society may set a trend in offering exclusive product transfers to brokers, one mortgage expert has said.
Skipton's new range of retention products, available only to current Skipton customers, includes the first ever broker exclusive retention product with Legal & General.
This is a five-year fixed rate at 2.09 per cent at 75 per cent loan-to-value with free standard valuation.
The rest of the residential retention range includes a three-year fixed rate mortgage at 1.74 per cent at 60 per cent loan-to-value.
Ray Boulger, senior technical manager at mortgage broker John Charcol, said the products were competitive, especially for small mortgages.
He said: "Not only is there no arrangement fee but also no other costs, whereas even on a remortgage with a free valuation and free legal fees there still tend to be some costs.
"The other benefit of a product transfer over a remortgage is that the process is simpler, with no need normally to meet current criteria, which could be particularly useful for interest-only borrowers.
"Therefore, even if a product transfer is not quite as cheap as a remortgage it may still represent good value.
"It is also really interesting that there is a broker exclusive in the range. This may well set a trend as lenders engage more with brokers on product transfers and particularly for lenders like Skipton, who obtain a very high proportion of their business through brokers.”
Kris Brewster, Skipton's head of products, said: "Working in partnership with brokers to offer clients access to our full range of retention and new business deals is at the heart of our strategy in 2018.
"In addition, we are delighted to partner with L&G to offer an exclusive five-year retention deal to maturing customers should that give access to a preferential rate.
"We believe this is the first of its kind and demonstrates our commitment to working in partnership with brokers at the point of retention."
