em-financial today announced it has become the first packager to offer free valuations on all its branded lending non-conforming products.
em- told Mortgage Introducer that the first-of-a-kind offer will be across all the non-conforming products it brand lends, effective from 1 August. The packager currently has branded lending partnerships with GMAC, Kensington, First National, Platform, Rooftop, SPML and Mortgages plc.
Guy Garrard, director of business development at em-financial, said: "Nobody’s done this before. This is all purely for client benefit. We envisage that all other packagers that have their house in order will follow our lead. Those that don’t follow will have various financial reasons not to do so."
Jeff Knight, head of marketing services at GMAC-RFC, said: "This is a very positive move in the marketplace at a time when non-conforming needs innovation."
But Vic Jannels, group managing director at AToM, said: "This is a very brave move because if you’re offering free valuations and the cases don’t complete, then you’re out of pocket. I know of at least one major sub-prime lender whose hit rates on completed cases involving free valuations is less than 50 per cent."
