The move is aimed at making it easier for landlords to expand their portfolios. Changes include increasing the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio from 75 to 85 per cent for loans up £500,000, and reducing the rental cover from 125 to 110 per cent for all loans.
Skipton BS has also removed its minimum income requirement and residential BTL mortgage products are now available for any number of properties to a maximum total loan value of £3 million, where previously a commercial BTL product was needed for portfolios over 10 properties.
Automated valuation models will be used for BTL remortgages up to 80 per cent LTV on properties up to a value of £1 million and corporate lets for up to three years are now accepted. Skipton BS will also now use Bank of England Base Rate to calculate mortgage interest rates rather than UK LIBOR rates.
Colin Dale, head of lending at Skipton BS, said: “A lot of these changes are about making it much more flexible for landlords to finance the properties they want, using the competitive mortgage deals Skipton offers, so they can get the best returns possible on their investment.”
Rod Murdison, proprietor of Murdison & Browning, commented: “All the changes sound good and it makes its products massively more competitive than they were. Anything where rental cover is a bit easier to fulfil is good.”
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