London, 11 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 to 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 those with a 25% deposit. A minimum of 10% deposit is required to apply.
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.”