Buy-to-letMay 18 2018

Hampshire Trust changes mortgage lending criteria

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Hampshire Trust changes mortgage lending criteria

Hampshire Trust Bank has enhanced the lending criteria on its buy-to-let and home in multiple occupation (HMO) mortgages.

The group has reduced the minimum interest cover ratio for residential buy-to-let portfolio landlords to 125 per cent for a company and 140 per cent for an individual.

The minimum ICR thresholds for HMOs with more than six bedrooms has dropped to 140 per cent for a company and 155 per cent for an individual.

This comes less than three weeks after the bank increased the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio to 75 per cent and maximum loan size to £5m on the same product.

Anna Lewis, head of sales for specialist mortgages at Hampshire Trust Bank, said: "We believe this will help our broker partners to better support their portfolio landlord customers. We have more enhancements in the pipeline."

The mortgage company also said it has appointed Richard Winston as business development manager in the specialist mortgages team.

Mr Winston joins the bank from Mortgages for Business, with previous positions including relationship management roles at Santander and HSBC.

Daniel Bailey, mortgage broker from Middleton Finance in Sheffield, said that HMO mortgages were becoming more popular.

He said: "I am definitely getting more enquiries, as I think clients are finding they get better returns with these.

However, he added that 155 per cent interest cover ratio was “fairly standard” for HMOs.

Kevin Dunn, mortgage broker at Furnley House in Leicester, agreed.

He said: “The interest cover is OK. Anything anyone does to help landlords at the moment is welcome though. They have been taking lots of hits. HMOs are popular with our clients, as I think they can get good returns."

rosie.murray-west@ft.com