Recognising that this did not provide a flexible range of competitive options, the fifth largest building society in Britain declared that their doors are now open to contractors looking for residential and buy to let lending, at the same interest rates available for permanent employees.
Simon Butler, Senior Mortgage and Protection Consultant at Contractor Mortgages Made Easy, said: “This indicates that lenders are responding to calls to address the growing contractor market. We are now in a better position than ever to promote competition amongst contractor friendly lenders, which in turn benefits our clients with lower interest rates.”
The 140-year-old building society has launched its lowest ever two-year fixed rate, available for a limited time only.
The rate is fixed at 1.45 per cent and is available with a 40% deposit for house purchase applications only. It comes with a £999 fee.
Leeds Director of Business Development Martin Richardson says: “This is an outstanding offer that allows customers to guarantee low payments for two years, and benefit from the peace of mind this delivers.”
The building society has also added two-year fixed interest rates which come with no fee to its Help to Buy remortgage range. With many coming to the end of their initial deals, these products are expected to see a lot of interest. The product comes with a free valuation up to £560 as with many of Leed’s products.
Leeds Building Society is also piloting a new method of instructing valuations, which it says has shaved up to five days off the application process. The lender has been testing the new process, which sees it instruct the valuer on the day it receives the application. Although your Mortgage Consultant can request that the case be assessed first.
Another benefit that this announcement brings for contractors is competitive buy to let borrowing, with interest rates as low as 3.14% for specialist holiday-let mortgages, opening more flexible lending options for freelancers and those on fixed-term contracts.