Everything in the mortgage world was as we knew it in February 2020 and at that time nobody knew what was coming.

By April 2020 everybody had heard about COVID 19 and words like ‘ lockdown and furlough ‘ were to become commonplace.

During 2020 the mortgage market was turned on its head – lenders went from accepting 5% deposits on properties and agreeing to 95% mortgages to either only lending 75% or 80% meaning you needed to have a 25% or 20% deposit – some poor credit / specialists lenders stopped lending completely.

Over the course of 2020 lenders constantly changed their criteria in line with people’s employment, furlough, and self-employment.

Lenders stopped accepting employed people’s commissions, overtime and bonuses, increased mortgage rates, charged arrangement fees of £995 and above and still required a large deposit.

For the self-employed lenders looked at what sector of industry you were in, and in most cases would not lend if you had received any government grants etc.

Towards the end of 2020 lenders increased the mortgages available to 85% with one or two lenders offering 90% – these lenders were quickly swamped with business and the 90% deals were soon taken and being withdrawn a few days later.

2021

At the start of 2021 more and more lenders started to returning offering 90% mortgages and also offer the choice of obtaining a lower interest rate with £999 arrangement fee or a higher rate without a fee.

Nearly six months into 2021 the majority of High Street lenders & Banks are back to offering 95% mortgages – but they still come with restrictions – mainly excluding New Build properties and apartments / flats.

Some lenders are also starting to accept commissions, overtime and bonuses again and to accept self- employed applications – usually asking for business bank statements showing trading over the last three to six months.

The mortgage market still remains open and continues to change in line with events since April 2020.

Manchester Mortgages remain committed to providing our clients with friendly, no nonsense mortgage advice.

If you have any mortgage queries please ring MANCHESTER MORTGAGES on 0161 706 0242 or use the Contact Us below.