MortgagesJul 8 2022

LiveMore Capital to enter equity release market

twitter-iconfacebook-iconlinkedin-iconmail-iconprint-icon
Search supported by
LiveMore Capital to enter equity release market
Leon Diamond executive officer of LiveMore Capital

LiveMore Capital, the mortgage lender for borrowers aged 50 and over, has revealed plans to enter the equity release market before the end of 2022 and launch a pure capital and interest mortgage for the over 50s.

These new products will join the lender’s existing interest-only mortgages and will follow recent moves by LiveMore to consolidate its place in the market following its launch in 2020. 

Speaking to FTAdviser, the company’s executive and founder Leon Diamond said: "We’re a solutions based lender, and our goal is to offer all the different products. If a customer applies for one product and it’s not suitable, we can offer them another product. That’s the vision of where we are moving rapidly to by the end of the year.”

Growing up I saw both my parents and grandparents working into their 70s and 80s but actually struggling to get any type of financing because of age discriminationLeon Diamond

Currently, the lender offers what it calls a flexi interest-only mortgage, which allows customers to make up to 10 per cent capital repayments per year and a retirement interest only mortgage which essentially has no end date under FCA rules. 

Diamond, who was previously head of investments at AJ Bell, views LiveMore as a provider serving a demographic that the big banks have historically ignored. 

“Quite often high street banks won’t look at income past retirement age for someone’s mortgage. So growing up I saw both my parents and grandparents working into their 70s and 80s but actually struggling to get any type of financing because of age discrimination,” Diamond told FTAdviser. 

Diamond said technology played a key role in the business, which he said set it apart from other lenders. 

“If someone gives us their details, and we see that that mortgage might not be suitable or that they don’t meet the criteria, we suggest another type of product. I know from myself, being self-employed a mortgage lender may not like the criteria and you get rejected, whereas with us we are constantly wanting to have solutions for the customer so we suggest a potential other option,” he said. 

Cash flow forecasting and a borrower's ability to repay are also analysed by LiveMore, making its credit modelling more complex than a normal broker: “A normal lender will say ‘four and a half times income, do you meet the requirements?’ We actually take into account all different types of income over a period and analyse it to see if it meets the needs and adhere to FCM and FCA rules.”

Consolidation

In June, the mortgage lender announced a partnership with the Mortgage Advice Bureau making its term interest only products available to more than 1,600 brokers.

Speaking about the partnership with MAB, Diamond said there had been a shift in the market.

“We’re seeing mainstream mortgage lenders move into this underserved over 50s market that was for too long just offered equity release,” he said. 

Before this, LiveMore also launched an ongoing procurement fee of 0.13 percent for brokers to engage them while also allowing LiveMore to get information and insight about their customers on a yearly basis.

Put simply, the broker would phone the client once a year and report back to LiveMore with an update.

“The way we see it, we’re the only lender that looks to proactively engage our brokers, who have the best relationship with customers and who know the customer best. This allows us once a year to get information about our customer, that may give us insight into how we can help that customer. 

"So for example, a customer may be losing their hearing or losing their eyesight and this allows us to proactively manage that customer on an ongoing basis in a requirement that suits them as they are ageing and as they become more vulnerable,” Diamond said. 

Customer Triage

The key idea behind this is that it will allow LiveMore to be more flexible with a client as their circumstances change. 

Diamond explained that this process will allow LiveMore to preempt if a borrower is having difficulty and proactively move them into another product, perhaps switching from an interest only mortgage to an equity release product when the time is right. 

While this is currently unique to LiveMore, Diamond believes that a few other lenders will follow suit. 

LiveMore are also working behind the scenes with banks, building societies and closed book lenders to help customers who have come to the end of their mortgage term on high interest rates remortgage and move to a lower cost product. 

“Most of these people just want to stay in their homes. They don’t want to sell and don’t want to take out an equity release product or maybe don’t meet the criteria. So we’re working institutionally to help these customers.”

jane.matthews@ft.com