Darlington cuts residential and buy-to-let rates by up to 0.20%

Darlington Building Society has reduced rates across its residential, specialist residential, shared ownership, buy-to-let and holiday let ranges.

The changes apply across selected two-year and five-year fixed rate products for both purchase and remortgage business.

Highlights include a residential two-year fixed rate at 80% LTV, down by 20bps to 5.09%, and a specialist residential visa two-year fix, which has reduced to 5.99% at 90% LTV.

In addition, a shared ownership two-year fix is down by 10bps to 5.79%.

In the Society's buy-to-let range, a standard two-year fix has reduced to 5.49% and a holiday let two-year fix has reduced to 5.59%.

Darlington offers a range of inclusive criteria across its buy-to-let and holiday let propositions, including no minimum income requirement, no maximum age, support for first-time buyers and first-time landlords, and no six-month ownership rule.

Borrowers can remortgage a former residential property to buy-to-let, with Airbnb accepted for holiday let applications, and up to 90 days’ personal use permitted.

Chris Blewitt (pictured), head of mortgage distribution at Darlington Building Society, said: “One of the biggest challenges for brokers at the moment isn’t necessarily finding a mortgage, it’s finding a mortgage that genuinely fits the client’s circumstances.

“We regularly see cases involving first-time landlords, borrowers on visas, holiday let operators and clients looking to remortgage a former residential property into the buy-to-let market. None of these are particularly unusual scenarios, but they can still sit outside the comfort zone of some lenders.

“On cases like these, criteria is just as important as rate. Brokers need lenders that can look at the full picture rather than at a rate that’s competitive, which is why we’ve continued to focus on both pricing and flexibility across the range.”