Kensington Mortgages launches new heroes mortgage

By Bridging Loan Directory 11th June 2019

Kensington Mortgages (Kensington), the UK’s leading specialist mortgage provider, today announces the launch of its Hero Mortgage.

The Hero Mortgage is specifically tailored for those working in the UK’s essential public sector services including police officers, firefighters, NHS staff such as paramedics, nurses and clinicians, the armed forces and teachers.

The Hero Mortgage will offer affordability enhancements which will be applied to applications from these professions. Applicants must be aged 40 and under at the time of application. Subject to the usual affordability checks, the Hero Mortgage is available with up to 5 times loan-to-income (LTI) multiple, and 55% debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, a significant improvement on the industry standard of 4.5 times and 50% respectively.

The product is available in 2 and 5 year fixed rates. Rates start from 2.74% on a 2 year fixed for 75% LTV, with rates for up to 90% LTV available.

These Heroes have steady earning potential and job security – something seldom acknowledged by High Street Lenders when it comes to securing a favourable mortgage. In addition, qualifying within these professions requires a large investment of both time and resources, which is likely to increase the commitment of the individual to their chosen profession.

Mark Arnold, Chief Executive Officer, Kensington Mortgages commented:

“We continue to demonstrate our passion for helping people own their homes. The Heroes amongst us don’t do their jobs for the financial reward, the recognition or the glory, but because they care for other people more than themselves.

“Using our propriety data and analytics tool, Vector, we have been able to study these Heroes’ career trajectories and financial behaviour in order to better understand their earnings level, job security and payment histories. By doing so, we have identified a new way of helping the UK’s heroes by creating specialised lending criteria. Launching this innovative product highlights our commitment to helping the heroes in our everyday lives buy their own home.”

Jane Benjamin, Director of Mortgages at Sesame and PMS, said:

“It’s great to see Kensington launching such an exciting and innovative product to the market. For the broker community this product not only represents a promising new business opportunity, opening up the tantalising prospect of helping tens of thousands of our nation’s heroes to become homeowners, but it also shows how Kensington is targeting new cohorts with tailored products. Kensington is bringing fresh innovation to the specialist mortgage space and this is a further example of its ambition.”