Marsden BS increases lending limit to 5x income on later life remortgages

Marsden Building Society has announced several changes to its later life mortgage criteria, including increasing lending limits by up to five times a borrower’s income for pound-for-pound remortgages.

The Society’s enhanced policy is a result of broker feedback and aims to provide more flexibility and accessibility for retired homeowners aged 55+ seeking mortgages.

The new criteria changes apply to later life and retirement interest-only mortgage products.

In addition, the maximum age limit for later life mortgages is now set at 90 at the end of the mortgage term and 85 at the start, eliminating the need for ONS data.

The maximum loan amount has been increased from £750,000 to £1,250,000, however, loan sizes above £750,000 will be subject to a 0.40% arrangement fee.

The Society will consider a wide variety of income when assessing affordability, including pensions, investment and rental income. The Society will also accept 5% of pension pots or SIPPs, even if borrowers are not yet drawing from them.

Employed and self-employed income will also be considered up to the age of 75 for later life mortgages, however earned and self-employed income cannot be used on RIO mortgages.

Donna Barclay, head of credit at Marsden Building Society, commented: “We’re committed to understanding the evolving needs of our borrowers and are pleased to announce these significant changes to our lending policies, which will offer greater flexibility and accessibility.

“Intermediary feedback plays a critical role in the development of our products and these changes have been implemented to address the needs and concerns of our brokers and their clients. We’re confident that our updated criteria will be popular with borrowers and will help make lending in later life a genuine option for more people.”