Here is the latest update from the Hodge Bank. You can access their full product set, including equity release via our mortgage club as well as some packaged mortgage options too.
Latest Announcement from Hodge Bank
New criteria enhancements at Hodge!
At Hodge we’re always evolving to support your clients as best as possible. With this in mind, we’ve introduced two new criteria enhancements across our products.
What’s changed?
We’ve increased the age of the first death stress for joint borrowers on the 50+ product
We will now accept a self-contained annexe across our product range
Increasing the age of the first death stress for joint borrowers on our 50+ product
The first death stress test is a way of ensuring a mortgage remains affordable for the surviving customer when their partner passes away.
As a data led organisation we keep up to date with market intelligence and recent ONS statistics shows us that life expectancy has increased to 87 years of age across the UK.
So, we’ve made changes…
On the back of this ONS data, we chose to raise our death stress from age 82 to 87.
This allows customers to spread their mortgage across a longer term making monthly mortgage payments more affordable.
Business development director, Emma Graham gives more context on our death stress enhancement:
“This enhancement to the first death stress will enable customers to spread their mortgage across a longer mortgage term, making monthly payments more affordable as they lend up to and into their retirement.
“By implementing these latest changes, we aim to better support customers who need more flexible lending arrangements, especially in the current challenging market conditions.”
Want to know more? Speak to a BDM
Do you have questions? Find your local BDM here
Self-contained annexe: Let’s dig a little deeper
There are over 30,000 properties in the UK with an annexe and rising. This is mainly driven by childcare costs, an increasing number of families supporting their children in saving for their own property as well as a greater numbers of people working from home.
What’s changing in our criteria?
We’ll now accept properties with one self-contained annexe subject to the following:
- They’re let on a short-term basis for holiday letting
- They’re occupied by parties related to the property owner (such as a family member).
This is acceptable across all of our products (50+, RIO, Professional Mortgage and Holiday Let).
Jon Matthews, head of property risk, explains why we’ve introduced the annexe enhancement:
“We continue to see demand for properties with a self-contained annexe as families look to support one another intergenerationally. This change represents further flexibility in our property criteria, removing any ambiguity around annexes for your customers.”
Read more about our enhancements in our Knowledge Hub