Scarborough Specialist Mortgages Announces Non-Conforming Product Range

Press release published on 2 October 2006 by Scarborough Building Society

Scarborough Building Society today unveiled the first details of the products and criteria which will form the basis of its new non-conforming lending subsidiary, Scarborough Specialist Mortgages (SSM).

And Head of Group Marketing Tony Burdin revealed that the new range will be characterised by:

• Simplicity
• Flexibility
• Market leading lending criteria
• Commonsense underwriting
• No hidden loadings
• Keen pricing
• Attractive procuration fees.

‘One of the main findings of the extensive research we carried out as part of the SSM set-up process was that this market segment is overcomplicated. There is almost an expectation that applying for a specialist mortgage should be more difficult than applying for a prime loan, and this makes it harder for both intermediaries and their clients to access the product they need,’ said Tony.

‘We see no reason why this should be the case, especially as increasing demand is rapidly transforming what is currently a niche area into a mainstream segment of a mature home loan market.

‘That’s why, from the outset, we were keen to overcome all of this and offer what we believe is a totally fresh solution which will help to demystify specialist lending.’

He added: ‘We looked at what many of our competitors were offering and in most cases, the picture was the same – too much complexity in product offerings and criteria, interest rate loadings where we simply don’t believe they are necessary or justified, and confusing lending criteria, which take too much time to decipher.’

By contrast, SSM will be offering:

• Prime, Near Prime, Light Adverse, Medium Adverse and Heavy (unlimited) Adverse – up to 90% loan to value (LTV);
• True self-certification available on all of the above – with 0.25% loading (0.50% Heavy Adverse 80% LTV);
• No loadings for re-mortgages and Right-to-Buys;
• Buy-to-Let up to 90% LTV, with 120% rental calculation at pay rate (115% at 85%);
• Adverse Buy-to-Let at 90%;
• No over-hanging ERCs;
• No Higher Lending Charge;
• All products available as 2-year Fixed Rate or 2-year Base Rate Tracker – all reverting to Base Rate-linked rate;
• Broker procuration fees up to 1.25% for sub-prime, and up to 0.75% for Buy-to-Let.

Tony added: ‘The quality of our product offering signals our intention to be a serious and long term player in the non-conforming market.

‘However, whilst using appropriate technology to support our proposition, we also aim to give brokers and packagers a highly personalised service.

‘People will, I’m sure, enjoy doing business with SSM.’

SSM is due to launch via packager associations AMPD and Freehold – and a number of Scarborough Building Society’s introducer key accounts – on 9 October. Full product outlines, including interest rates, will be revealed shortly.

In addition to its outstanding product offering, SSM is backed by some of the best underwriting expertise within the non-conforming sector. Boasting a total of 30 years’ specialist underwriting experience between them, Dave Newby, Andy Richardson and Peter Brooke – formerly of Kensington Mortgages – will work out of Scarborough’s newly-created Specialist Mortgage Centre, in Leeds. They will exercise commonsense decision-making, backed up by individual case management.

---