Andrew Montlake, communications director at London-based Coreco, said: “The self-employed are a group of people who have every right to feel hard done by due to the many criteria changes from several lenders.
“These are the very small business owners who need to be supported during current economic conditions and for those who have started their own business in the last few years many are struggling to get finance.
“The more lenders that come back in to this area of the market with a sensible offering the better so this product is very welcome.”
And Lea Karasavvas, managing director at London-based Prolific Mortgage Finance, added: “This is a very positive step from GE and once again shows their ambition as a lender to tackle markets that other lenders are a little afraid of.
“We have seen them tackle the near prime market in a positive manner and now the suggestion that they will look at mortgages for the self-employed who have only been trading between one to two years will not only help out applicants for these types of loans, but could start to encourage a little more activity in the purchase market by encouraging the self-employed to buy and sell again, giving them hope that they can move even without three years trading accounts.
“Full credit to GE on leading the way here but the proof is in the pudding and it will be interesting to see how many applicants that apply having only traded for one to two years, actually get accepted.”
GE Money will launch its self-employed range on the 1st November 2011 and will allow access to self-employed customers provided applicants have proof of income and have been trading for at least two years.
Self-employed customers will have access to the same products and prices as employed borrowers with fixed and tracker mortgages with LTVs up to 80% on GE Money Home Lending’s LVMO and LTM1 products and rates starting from 3.99%..
Gerry Bell, marketing director at GE Money Home Lending, said: “Launching self-employed mortgages is a logical extension of our product range to ensure it is addressing the current demand and limited choice available to customers.”
