Contractors applying for a contractor mortgage with Woolwich (Barclays) from August stand to benefit from Woolwich cutting rates and offering a “drop lock” facility to new clients.
Woolwich is cutting its interest rates on its 80% LTV mortgages by up to 0.21% and at the same time introducing a drop lock facility for all new mortgages for contractors.
The key reductions across the 80% Loan to value (LTV) range include a reduction of 0.21% on their two-year fixed rate from 4.59% to 4.38%, and a 0.10% reduction on their three and five-year fixed rates to 4.79% and 5.39%.
Contractors can also benefit from the introduction of a lifetime tracker rate mortgage at bank base rate plus 3.38% for 80% LTV.
The “drop lock” facility will be offered to all new contractors applying for a tracker and offset mortgage with Woolwich (Barclays).
The drop lock facility will allow contractors who opt for a tracker or offset mortgages to switch to a fixed rate in the future without incurring an early repayment charge.
The head of mortgages for Woolwich, says: “With speculation this week that UK interest rates are set to stay at record lows until 2014, the drop lock facility provides customers with peace of mind that they can go into a low tracker rate now and switch at a point in the future when they need greater security.” This is excellent news for contractors and freelancers looking to take advantage of the low Bank of England base rate, currently at 0.5%.
All fixed rate mortgages revert to a lifetime tracker rate at base plus 2.49% after the fixed rate period.
Unlike many of the other big name high street lenders like, HSBC, ING Direct, Abbey, First Direct, etc… Woolwich (Barclays) are contractor friendly. Fortunately, over the past few years a number of specialist “contractor mortgage brokers” like ourselves have put in a huge amount of effort to negotiate bespoke income underwriting policy with senior underwriters at Woolwich. This enables us to secure competitive mortgages that are based simply on a multiple of your contract rate alone. We make use of our special relationship with senior underwriters to directly package your mortgage application so that your full earnings potential is taken into account, including retained profits.
Contractor Mortgages
Irrespective of whether you have your own limited company or work through a payroll umbrella company, we can secure mortgages based simply on a multiple of your annualised contract income.
The mortgage loan can be as much as 4-5 times annualised contract rate.
Click Here to find out how much you can borrow based on your daily rate.
If you are interested in finding out more about the mortgage options available to you, simply fill in our enquiry form, and we will get back to you shortly.
Also, read our articles on mortgages for a UK contractor made easy in the post-crunch world.
Freelancer Financials are the preferred choice for thousands of contractors in the UK. Our mortgage specialists are more than happy to help in any way they can, so please do contact us on 020 8421 7999 or email us at [email protected]
