Marsden Building Society offers up to 5x income lending on Later Life remortgages

We've made several changes to our Later Life mortgage criteria, including increasing lending limits by up to five times a borrower’s income for pound-for-pound remortgages.

Our 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 the Later Life and Retirement Interest Only (RIO) mortgage ranges and the updates include:

• Increased flexibility for pound-for-pound remortgages: Borrowers could now benefit from five times income multiples on pound-for-pound remortgage cases on our Later Life and RIO products, subject to affordability criteria. This covers the outstanding principal loan balance only and associated fees are excluded.
• Simplified age criteria: 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.
• Updated equity requirements for downsizing: Minimum equity requirements for downsizing are subject to the underwriter’s discretion at the point of application.
• Increased maximum loan size: The maximum loan amount has been increased from £750,000 to £1,250,000. Please note, loan sizes above £750,000 will be subject to a 0.40% arrangement fee.

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."

As a specialist later life lender, we'll consider a wide variety of income when assessing affordability. This includes 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. Please note that earned and self-employed income cannot be used on RIO mortgages.