ResidentialJun 17 2020

Accord resumes 90% LTV mortgages for first-time buyers

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Accord resumes 90% LTV mortgages for first-time buyers

Accord Mortgages is relaunching 90 per cent loan to value mortgages exclusively for first-time buyers.

The products are available from 9am today (June 17) to clients where at least one applicant has never owned a property or held a mortgage before.

Accord is offering two products, both of which are five-year fixed deals offering rates of 2.99 per cent and 3.09 per cent, with the former carrying a £495 product fee. 

The launch comes after it was one of several lenders to withdraw its 90 per cent LTV range last week (June 8) due to “higher than expected” application volumes since re-entering the market last month, in order to “manage demand and reduce impact to service”.

Accord said it had experienced its two busiest days in its 17-year history as a result of application volumes.

Jeremy Duncombe, director of intermediary distribution at Accord Mortgages, said: “Our commitment to the housing market has not changed and our new range of products aims to help first-time buyers with smaller deposits, a group which has so far been offered limited choice. This will help the purchase market and keep chains moving, hence allowing subsequent buyers to keep moving on.

“We reluctantly took the decision to temporarily withdraw from this LTV tier just nine days ago and our underwriters have worked incredibly hard to get our service levels back to the Accord standard to which brokers have become accustomed to."

Mr Duncombe added: “We hope by offering longer term fixed-rate products borrowers are given confidence in managing their payments in a very uncertain market. We know the demand is there and we have streamlined our products to ensure we can support brokers and their clients on the purchase journey.”

Chris Sykes, mortgage consultant at Private Finance, commented: “Lenders need to price for risk and price for expected business levels so this new offering is much higher in rates than their previous one and even higher than a lot of 95 per cent offerings pre-Covid but is a welcome sight and will manage that inflow of applications keeping service levels high. 

“We hope other lenders will follow suit and additional competition in the space will work towards driving down these rates again in the medium to long term and help get things back to some form of normal.” 

chloe.cheung@ft.com