Barclays Mortgages is offering discounted interest rates to borrowers buying energy-efficient new-build homes.
Available from next week, the Barclays Green Home Mortgage will be available to buyers purchasing an A or B energy efficiency-rated new-build property from one of the five house builders the lender has partnered with.
Barclays Mortgages will offer preferential rates on two- and five-year fixed rate mortgages up to a 90 per cent loan-to-value, and on Help to Buy mortgages up to 75 per cent LTV.
Borrowers who meet the criteria for the Green Home Mortgage will receive a discount of 10 basis points off of Barclays Mortgage Products. The lender estimated borrowers could saved £750 on a £150,000 mortgage over a five-year period.
Hannah Bernard, head of Barclays Mortgages, said: "We are increasingly hearing from mortgage customers that they’re interested in purchasing an energy efficient home. We’re proud to be the first major UK mortgage lender to offer a product that helps buyers in decision to purchase a Green new build home."
Some 80 per cent new homes built last year were received an A or B EPC Energy Efficiency Rating.
Barclays said the range was created in response to the Government’s Green Finance Taskforce, which has recommended provides support clean growth in the mortgage market. Currently partnered with Barratt Homes, Berkeley Group, Countryside Properties, Crest Nicholson and Redrow, the bank is aiming to partner will all major UK housebuilders by the end of the year.
Andrew Montlake, director at mortgage adviser Coreco, said: "Sometimes this type of offering can be dismissed as a gimmick but I think focusing on greener homes is an important initiative.
"It is refreshing to see a large lender doing something to help encourage home buyers to make greener choices and I hope that Green Mortgages will be a competitive part of the market in its own right in the near future."
Energy and Clean Growth minister Claire Perry said: “This is exactly the kind of progress I want to see more of as we consider the recommendations of the Government-commissioned Green Finance Taskforce.”
