Dudley Building Society has removed upper age restrictions across its entire range as it looks to cater for older clients.
Dudley Building Society has removed upper age restrictions across its entire range as it looks to cater for older clients.
Building societies committed to reviewing upper age limits in November 2014 after people with terms running into their 60s found it increasingly hard to get a mortgage.
At the same time Dudley changed its criteria so properties above four stories are accepted, loan-to-values on second homes increased from 70% loan-to-value while interest-only repayment vehicles now include sale of business, cash savings and sale of other assets.
Jonathan Moore, head of credit at Dudley Building Society, said: “For too long, older borrowers have struggled to find mortgage availability, and those options which did exist generally treated these borrowers as second class citizens by forcing them to borrow from a limited range.
“We consider all borrowers to be equally worthy of consideration, and by making our entire range available, we will demonstrate that we do not discriminate by age.
“In our opinion, cases from older borrowers offer no more risk than younger ones, providing that underwriting is carried out by professional human underwriters.
“However sophisticated credit scoring becomes, when dealing with more complex cases, there really is no substitute for human consideration. We are confident that we can provide a strong proposition for brokers with older clients.”
