MORTGAGE LENDING

Moving advice

KFH mortgage experts reveal how they help customers overcome the often tricky complexities of buy-to-let, help-to-buy and self-employed applications

Fred Abayeta Senior Mortgage Consultant

Kerry Golding Senior Mortgage Consultant

Med Moroglu

Senior Mortgage Consultant he big high street mortgage lenders

Tlove a high-production TV advert to sell their products, whether it’s big showbiz names or troupes of fl ashy dancers. But away from all that razzmatazz, the reality is that 70% of home movers looking for a mortgage use a broker rather than going direct.

Brokers are essential in today’s world when very few borrowers fi t the ‘bog standard’ description and instead require expertise to get the best deal for their circumstances and kind of property. This is particularly true if you are a landlord, fi rst time buyer or are selfemployed. These are the kinds of property buyers who need extra help navigating the mortgage approval process.

Med Moroglu, who has worked in the fi nancial industry for 16 years and at KFH for eight of them, is one of the star consultants within the company. “Every lender has a diff erent set of criteria, which changes on a regular basis,” he says. “A good broker matches an applicant’s needs to the lender whose criteria fi ts their situation, so you need to be on the ball and know what’s happening.”

Moroglu says Covid has impacted lenders’ risk appetite and consequently mortgage terms have been changing fast and furiously. For most customers, being able to track the 25,000+ changes during the bumpy months of 2020 was clearly going to be a challenge.

He says that this has been particularly hard for selfemployed buyers. For example, one well-known high street bank now only off ers them mortgages with 75% loan-tovalues – so knowing where else you look can be crucial.

Lenders have seen self-employed workers as more likely to lose their income than employed staff during Covid, which is why some will only accept applicants with larger deposits. “But a big thing that’s changed for the good is that both the self-employed, contractors and those working through partnerships and other ‘non-standard’ jobs no longer need to track down a specialist broker,” says Moroglu.

“A good broker matches an applicant's needs to the lender whose criteria fi ts their situation, so you need to be on the ball and know what's happening”

Case study: Self-employed

“KFH has the experience and expertise within our mortgage team to support any client with any employment background. Contractors and self-employed workers think they have to provide two or three years’ worth of invoices before they can get a mortgage,” Moroglu says, “but that’s not true any longer – sometimes one year will do. More people are setting up their own businesses or are self-employed; the days when the mainstream mortgage market concentrated solely on those with regular salaried jobs are gone.

“I had a couple who were limited company directors and wanted to borrow funds to purchase an investment property. They were declined by their existing lender because they had utilised the government income support scheme and Bounce Back Loan during Covid-19,” he says. “But I was able to fi nd a lender, who was understanding of their circumstances and granted them the amount they needed and at a market-leading rate.”

Case study: Help to Buy

Fred Abayeta, who has been with KFH since 2018, specialises in helping fi rst time buyers apply for a mortgage via the government’s Help to Buy scheme. “A lot of fi rst time buyers buying new build properties assume that getting a mortgage via this scheme is easy because it’s government-backed and on the face of it they fi t the basic fi nancial criteria, but it’s very easy to be rejected,” he explains.

“My job is to hand-hold them through the application process so that they can work out which properties they can aff ord. This also reassures house builders that people we take on viewings are ready to buy and have a realistic estimated budget nailed down.”

Abayeta says many people don’t realise that Help to Buy aff ordability calculations are based on a buyer’s net (rather than gross) pay, and that a borrower’s regular outgoings including pension contributions,

student loans payments or train season ticket loans – for “It’s why landlords stick with us – particularly if they’re example – must not be higher than 45% of their net pay. re-mortgaging – because we have all the information needed

“People get a shock because the Help to Buy advertising to submit a loan application at our fingertips such as rents doesn’t communicate the nitty gritty of pre-qualification, achieved, running costs and any void periods, for example. so I help them navigate the application process with a “Also, there are a lot of brokers out there who say they healthy dose of reality,” he says. “I help them by looking know about the current criteria the different lenders are at the loan term, being realistic about the size of deposit applying to applications, but don’t – whereas KFH always they can put together, advising them to use the correct ensure we’re up-to-date with this and that we get regular interest rate in their calculations and also discussing which weekly updates direct from the lenders we deal with. outgoings could be reduced by showing them the impact. “We recently received an update on how lenders

“I recently had a first-time buyer couple from overseas are approaching the looming changes to Energy who had been in the UK for about a year, staying via a Tier 2 Performance Certificate minimum band rules – Visa,” says Abayeta. “When applying for a standard mortgage, something other brokers may not know about. first time borrowers are usually asked for a 25% deposit. But It’s this sort of thing we’re really strong on.” via Help to Buy they can get a 20% equity loan to get on A 30-something woman from Muswell Hill came to the property ladder and of course provide 5% themselves. Golding for advice after inheriting a lump sum from a

“The couple were in their early 40s and would family member. She was keen to use the cash to get on Milman Road, Queen’s Park NW6the property ladder, but not in the way you might expect. “She wanted to buy her first rental property and become a have had to save for years or wait for a big pay rise or bonus to buy anything in London. But though they were not hopeful, I got their equity loan and landlord but remain living at her parents, as she wasn’t ready Offers in excess of £4,000,000yet to move into her own place, but wanted to start her mortgage approved and they were over the moon.” property journey – I helped her get the best mortgage deal A rarely available and impressive 3,220 sq ft seven bedroom terraced house available given her unusual circumstances,” says Golding. This example remains an uncommon one, but Golding Case study: Buy-to-let Kerry Golding is a senior mortgage consultant and with a south west facing garden, located on a sought after residential road with says she is seeing more younger landlords seeking to has been at KFH for five years working across much uninterrupted views of the much loved Queen’s Park.buy their first buy-to-let property but remain at their family home, expecting to then move into the properties of its branch network with landlords on mortgage applications. Many are accidental landlords who are referred to Golding by KFH branches, but also themselves two or three years down the line.  Seven bedrooms | Two reception rooms | Three bathrooms | Beautiful family homeinvestor landlords with up to five properties. Garden office | Planning permission | Park views | EPC Rating C | Freehold KFH Financial Services 020 4571 9800 FSreferrals@kfh.co.uk “One of the key points many landlords don’t realise is how much information lenders require when approving buy-tolet loans, so it’s something we work with landlords on as early as possible in the process and do for them,” she says.

Milman Road, Queen’s Park NW6

Offers in excess of £4,000,000

A rarely available and impressive 3,220 sq ft seven bedroom terraced house with a south west facing garden, located on a sought after residential road with uninterrupted views of the much loved Queen’s Park.

Seven bedrooms | Two reception rooms | Three bathrooms | Beautiful family home Garden office | Planning permission | Park views | EPC Rating C | Freehold