In the healing arts
0 Some societies will now give mortgages without an age limit into later life a reality. A number of building societies have increased the maximum age to which they will lend on a stand- ard mortgage to 85, with some even removing this criterion altogether. These societies recognise that older borrowers present a lesser risk than some other categories of borrower, with most (from my experience) seeking lending at a lower loan-to-value ratio than typical firsttime-buyers, while having a steady and sustainable income stream in retirement to satisfy the lender’s affordability requirements.
Such lending usually takes the individual circumstances of the applicant into account, and is generally at lower interest rates than those charged on the ‘specialist’ later life products.
There can, of course, be no single solution or product that will be right for everyone; and it is therefore essential that advice, taking the borrower’s individual circumstances into account, is provided to everyone considering later life mortgage lending.
New research from the Council of Mortgage Lenders, however, suggests that consumers often struggle to navigate the market as lenders and advisers generally operate in silos that prevent consumers comparing products across the whole market.
This, of course, provides an opportunity for the UK government’s Single Financial Guidance Body (SFGB) to narrow the gap between the lenders and advisers.
As the SFGB will not be introduced until the autumn of 2018, consumers might wish themselves to establish what their local mortgage lender has to offer as part of the bigger picture. Mark Thomson is chief executive, Scottish Building Society