As part of a move to focus attention on the flexibility of its mortgage products, from 18 July, its residential self-certification products will be re-branded under the Lifewise brand name, whilst buy-to-let products will carry the Enterprise brand name.
The rebranded products will carry a full range of flexible features, including a drawdown facility, the ability to make overpayments without ERC, underpayments and to take payment holidays.
Recent research undertaken by UCB Home Loans showed a strong level of demand from customers for flexible features on mortgages. Of those surveyed, 38 per cent of brokers said that up to one-in-four customers actively request a flexible mortgage.
The ability to make overpayments was the area of flexibility most often enquired about by clients, with two-thirds of brokers putting this in first place. Almost all brokers (99 per cent) said that access to additional funds would be useful to their clients. UCB Home Loans can underwrite to the maximum loan amount when the client applies for a mortgage, enabling additional funding at a later date if required.
Keith Astill, managing director at UCB Home Loans, said: "The ability to have instant access to additional funding can be extremely useful, enabling people to drawdown money at a later date without having to pay interest on it when they originally take out their mortgage. Flexibility can be an extremely important factor in the self-cert and buy-to-let sectors, where the ability to make over and under-payments, or to take payment holidays can be useful."
