Accord Mortgages will re-enter the first-time buyer 90 per cent LTV market for two days next week, to help “support brokers and their clients” while ensuring it maintains its standard of service.
The lender will offer the products from 9am on Monday (September 7) until 8pm on Tuesday (September 8).
Accord will offer two house purchase mortgages at 90 per cent LTV. Both products are five-year fixed rates, with a £495 product fee and free valuation.
A rate of 3.59 per cent will be available for loans up to £500,000, while a higher rate of 3.69 per cent will apply to loans between £500,001 and £600,000.
At least one applicant must be a first-time buyer, which the lender defines as someone who has never owned a property or held a mortgage before.
Jeremy Duncombe, director of intermediary distribution at Accord Mortgages, said: “We are keen to support the market and we understand the difficulties lack of supply at 90 per cent LTV is causing for both brokers and their clients, with first-time buyers particularly affected.
“However, with recent lender announcements and a lack of supply in the wider market for 90 per cent LTV products, we fully expect extremely high levels of interest in these products.
“We’re therefore limiting applications to a two-day window to enable us to deliver the high level of service brokers expect from Accord."
He added: “In order to provide the best possible service, and to allow us to return to 90 per cent lending as quickly as possible again in the future, we’d ask brokers to work closely with us by using the portal in our MSO system for case updates, checking our website for up-to-date service positions before contacting us, and spending an extra few minutes checking and packaging cases before submitting.”
Adam Wells, director at Lloyd Wells Mortgages, commented: “It’s great that Accord have entered the market at 90 per cent LTV.
“When HSBC pulled out earlier this week I had to call a number of clients who were ready to proceed to tell them that they now needed a 15 per cent deposit. It’s given me the ability to return to these clients and provide them with another option."
Mr Wells added: “It’s great to see Accord filling that gap and hopefully the other lenders will join them”.
In July Accord Mortgages suspended all lending on its 90 per cent LTV products for first-time buyers.
At the time, the lender said it had been “forced” to temporarily withdraw the products as one of the few lenders offering products with a 10 per cent deposit, despite “every effort” being made to manage service levels and maintain turnaround times.
Its parent company, Yorkshire Building Society, predicted that lenders would come “in and out” of the 90 per cent LTV tier for the foreseeable future.
The building society said it remained “keen to lend in this part of the market and will continue to do so where service levels allow”.
chloe.cheung@ft.com
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