As part of its launch, the lender has confirmed it will offer a range of products, including remortgages, first-time buyer products, buy-to-let (BTL) and self-cert.
Victoria’s prime range will ignore borrower defaults and satisfied CCJs in addition to ignoring payment profile of secured loans under £25,000. It will assess borrowers based on affordability based lending up to five times joint income and will provide true self-cert for employed and self-employed for loans up to £250,000.
Victoria has also announced the launch of a BTL option which will require a rental yield calculation of 110 per cent of the pay rate accepted from a professional letting agent, with rates starting from 5.74 per cent. All products are available from 1 February 2007.
Kevin Hillgren, chief executive at Victoria Mortgages, admitted he expected the prime self-cert sector and the near-prime sectors to be the main drivers of the market in 2007.
He said: “The prime and near-prime markets are becoming increasingly competitive. This new range has been launched following feedback from our packager partners who highlighted a significant market opportunity for clients who self-certify their income, or have only very slight adverse credit.”
Andrew Forsey, director at Andrew Forsey Financial Services, said: “I would agree that we are seeing a lot more self-cert and near-prime borrowers and that this is a growing market. Victoria’s criteria looks potentially good, however, how competitive it will be depends on what products start at 5.74 per cent.”
