Mercantile Trust, the specialist buy-to-let, bridging and commercial lender, has made a number of amendments across its buy-to-let (BTL) proposition.
Top slicing is now available using surplus rental income from the portfolio, no minimum income is required, houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) are accepted, Department of Social Services (DSS) tenants will be accepted and there is no more credit scoring.
The lender will also now allow landlords to have two units of adverse credit over the past 12 months, ignoring anything over 12 months.
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Items no longer taken into account include mail order and communications or telecoms missed payments, discharged bankrupts over three years old, individual voluntary arrangements (IVAs), partially missed mortgage payments and outstanding County Court Judgments (CCJs) if under £300, under £3,000 and satisfied, and all over 12 months old.
As well as this, utility bills are now ignored if accounts are two or fewer payments in arrears, irrelevant of previous account conduct.
The lender has also reduced its pricing, along with adding 2- and 5-year fixed rate options to its product range.
Mercantile Trust provides first and second charge BTL mortgages from £10,000 up to £500,000, on property values from £60,000, up to 75% loan-to-value (LTV) in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Maeve Ward, director of commercial operations at Mercantile Trust, said: “The comprehensive changes to our buy-to-let proposition are a signal to the market that we have a real appetite to lend.
“Our range offers products to cater for all situations and landlords of varying experience, with criteria that caters for landlords who do not fit many specialist lender borrower profiles.
“Our experience allows us to provide lending solutions to sectors and customers traditionally underserved and these new enhancements will further increase the types of borrowers we can support providing more options to our brokers.”