Two specialist mortgage lenders reduce rates

August 18, 2024 by Brendan O'Neill

Lenders

Two of the specialist mortgage lenders in the UK have announced that they are reducing their rates across their entire slates with the aim of making their products more accessible to people with credit issues.

Bluestone Mortgages and Vida have become the latest lenders to make this move, in what is being described as a ‘rates war’. Bluestone has announced that rates for all of its residential, Deposit Unlock and Right to Buy mortgages are being cut by a maximum of 40bps (basis points). This means a mortgage with loan-to-value of 65% now comes with a starting rate of 6.43%.

The purpose behind the move is to try to help potential borrowers who may have credit history issues or other ones that put them outside the standard borrowing range. Advisors will be able to access these reduced-rate products using the Broker Portal on the Bluestone Mortgages website.

Vida has cut its rates by as much as 25bps in some buy-to-let cases. The maximum reductions for residential mortgages are 30bps, while for product transfer retention ones they are 35bps. These are the products that the lender has tailored to the needs of people with bad credit, self-employed borrowers and those with complicated financial situations.

Intermediary relationships head at Vida, Helen Cawthra, said to Mortgage Introducer that:

“With the recent base rate change, we are delighted that we can bring these price reductions to our partners and customers across our ranges.”

Mortgage advisors, who will have been through their CeMAP training, will be pleased to see rates come down for borrowers too after a difficult period.