Harpenden Building Society has launched revamped versions of its holiday let and second home mortgages.

The products include a 2.99% 2-year discount and a 3.49% 2-year discount offering, with the former including early repayment charges (ERCs) and latter having none.

Harpenden has increased the the maximum loan-to-value (LTV) of its holiday let products to 75%, and to 80% for second home products.

Added benefits include the ability to purchase a property that would have previously been labelled as a consumer buy-to-let (BTL), as a holiday let qualifying for the more attractive criteria that comes with this lending category.

There are no restrictions on location for the property purchase giving wider buying options.

The customer’s earned income is considered from a range of sources in addition to salary, including their savings, investments and a portion of the expected rental income when a lending decision is made.

Harpenden also aims to take a holistic view of the applicant’s financial circumstances to ensure they have surplus income and funds available to afford the mortgage and the holiday let running costs for up to three months.

Craig Middleton, mortgage sales manager at Harpenden, said: “We’re delighted to launch new, improved products in this space.

“The holiday let and related markets are seeing unprecedented growth as the UK ‘staycation’ remains the holiday of choice for many Brits.

“High returns can be secured by those marketing their short-term rental properties currently.

“The popularity of renting holiday lets; the associated tax breaks linked to this type of property plus wider benefits like providing holiday accommodation for friends and family, are currently delivering strong returns for savvy investors and explains the strong uptake of holiday let mortgages right now.”

“As with our full mortgage range, the holiday lets and 2nd home products are manually underwritten, allowing us to review applications in greater detail, taking a deeper dive into income with a view to being able to say ‘yes’, when some high street lenders may reject a complex mortgage application.

“We look forward to supporting our broker partners as they use our improved products to secure new business with their customers.”