Welcome to our final edition of Just an Update for 2024!
As we close out the year, I wanted to personally thank each of you for your incredible efforts throughout 2024. Your commitment to supporting your clients and navigating the ever-evolving mortgage landscape has been truly remarkable.
Take this well-earned festive season to unwind, recharge, and cherish time with loved ones. Here’s to a peaceful holiday period and a strong, exciting start to 2025! There are a number of propositions and tech improvements lined up for the new year, which we can’t wait to share. For now, enjoy the break.
Warm regards
Ben Allkins Head of Mortgages & Protection
Smartr365 & Conc Integration Updat
We’re thrilled to see the majority of advisers actively engaging with the Smartr365 and Concert Hub integration (see usage stats below). However, we understand that some brokers may still be finding the process challenging.
We’re fully committed to supporting you through this familiarisation journey and ensuring everyone feels confident using these tools. Below is a summary of the resources available to assist you:
1.Personalised Support
One-on-One Sessions: Book a daily, 45-minute Concert Hub session with Openwork HERE
Troubleshooting Webinars: Join our new troubleshooting sessions three times a week! These are bookable via your FSD or RD—please contact them to schedule.
2. Recorded Webinars
Smartr365 Recorded Webinars covering key features: Smartr Retain & Client/Introducer Portal – Watch Here
Admin Session – Watch Here
Complete Integration Walkthrough (November 18th) – Watch Here (Password: Tvc4EMU8)
3. Quick Assistance
Live AI Chat Support: For Smartr365-related queries, you can access live AI chat support. If your issue isn’t resolved within one working day, it will be escalated via your manager.
4. Time-Saving Features
SmartrConnect Webinars: Learn to save 10-15 minutes per DIP with SmartrConnect. Keep an eye out for more webinar sessions!
If you haven’t used Smartrconnect you are missing out! With 8 of our main lenders using this is such a great tool to use. But don’t take our word for it….
5. Local Support
Your Local Area Director is available to help you. Look out for announcements about local drop-in webinars organised by your FSD or RD.
We’re here to ensure you have everything you need to succeed with Smartr365 and Concert Hub. Please don’t hesitate to reach out for further support.
Openwork Fees & Payments – help them to help you!
With many of you consolidating fees and payments due to you for year end, it is appropriate to remind you that if Openwork receives a fee that they cannot match for payment, they email you the adviser with a message, asking for you to confirm the Openwork CaseID (whether it be the OWS CaseID or the ConcertHub CE- reference) so that this fee can then be released and then, in turn, pay you.
If these emails are not replied to, then delays will occur in matching payments and raising enquiries to our financial team will not speed up the matching process, if the above has not been followed.
Thank you for your help with this.
Refer a potential Wealth Advisor and earn £2000!
Just Wealth are expanding!
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From now until the end of January 2025, their usual referral bounty has been doubled from £1000 to £2000 (£1000 payable upon authorisation, further £1000 after 6 months)
What better way to start 2025 than with some extra money in your account!
Referring is easy. Simply click on the link HERE and Just Wealth will do the rest
*Must hold CII Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning or similar industry recognised qualification.
Join us on Thursday 3rd April 2025 (the day after our lender fayre) for a day of golf and fun, with a great cause in mind.
Being held at the prestigious Forest of Arden Hotel & Golf Resort, this is one for any golfer not to miss!
The cost of entry is £75 per player, with a contribution going to Magic Moments. Fun prizes will also be on offer including longest drive and nearest the pin! Spaces are
Leeds Building Society launches ‘Income Plus’
for first-time buyers
Leeds Building Society has launched a mortgage that will lend up to five-and-a-half times income to first-time buyers, which it said could boost loan amounts by £66,000.
Enhanced affordability with Income Plus
Leeds has a proven track record of putting homeownership within reach of more people, helping 17,700 first time buyers onto the property ladder in 2023 – more than half of its new mortgages that year.
Now Leeds is going one step further with its new first-time buyer range, featuring Income Plus, specifically designed to help you get your clients onto the property ladder, with lending up to 95% LTV.
Income Plus products align with Leeds’ enhanced, but responsible, affordability model that features several improved elements. With an LTI of 5.5, your clients with a minimum £40,000 household income may be able to borrow £66,000 more[1] on average without the need to save a larger deposit.
It’s another way Leeds can help you say ‘yes’ to more firsttime buyers.
The Income Plus mortgage products are fixed for at least five years and offer a free standard valuation up to £999.
Halifax using a property’s EPC rating in affordability calculation
From Tuesday 10 December, Halifax will be using a property’s Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating in their affordability calculations.
Halifax are now able to better reflect the impact of home energy costs, and some of the financial benefits of more energy efficient homes. Halifax continue to support customers looking to improve the energy efficiency of their properties, with their Green Living Reward cashback proposition and partnerships with heat pump, solar panel & insulation installers.
Affordability:
Within Halifax affordability model, assumed ‘cost of living’ values are already incorporated, which include energy costs. This adjustment reflects a more tailored view of these costs. A customer whose property has a higher EPC rating (e.g. A/B) will generally have lower energy costs than those with a lower EPC rating (F/G) on like-for-like use. For properties with an A/B EPC rating (c.15%) you may see a small increase in the maximum loan amount available and for properties with an F/G EPC rating (c.3%), a small decrease. There is no change to the maximum loan available for properties with a C, D or E EPC rating or where the EPC is unknown.
How to key:
From Tuesday 10 December, Halifax Mortgage affordability calculator will collect an EPC rating and the maximum loan result displayed will be based on the EPC rating selected. You can also select the EPC rating when keying a Decision in Principle (DIP) or leave as ‘Please Select’ if the EPC rating is not known.
Key information:
In addition to purchase and remortgage applications, EPC ratings will also be used in affordability for further advance applications and product transfers, where a full affordability assessment is required.
The Application Summary document produced upon submission of an application will now include a section recording the EPC details submitted on the application. For New Build properties Halifax will accept a ‘predicted’ EPC rating keyed based on a Predicted Energy Assessment (PEA) or Standard Assessment Procedure
Nationwide withdraw from “Deposit Unlock”
Nationwide Building Society have recently stopped participating in the Deposit Unlock new build scheme due to very low volumes.
This means their New Build LTV’s revert back to 90% on new build houses and 75% on new build flats!
