On Wednesday 13th May, the government advised that workers in England who
aren’t able to work from home should travel to work if their workplace is open. This
represented a slight relaxation of the Covid-19 restrictions that were originally put in
place that had temporarily put most lenders, estate agents and the housing market to
a halt. Since then, most lenders have announced that physical valuations have
resumed, providing it is conducted in a safe manner that complies with the
government’s guidelines.
Prior to the government’s announcement of the slight ease in restrictions, the buy-to-
let mortgage sector was hit particularly hard during the lockdown period.
All applications that involved HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupation), MUBs (Multi-
Unit Blocks) type of properties, most new build properties and most Limited
Company buy-to-lets, had to be temporarily suspended because a physical valuation
was required, regardless of the loan-to-value.
Those with “standard construction” type properties faced a mixture of desktop
valuations where possible, or a cap in loan-to-values that affected borrowing
amounts. Depending on the lender, many purchases and remortgages still required
physical valuations which put these applications to a halt too. Some lenders stopped
lending to buy-to-let properties and accepting new applications altogether because of
the pandemic.
Therefore, the start of in-person valuations allows the housing market to slowly open
up again, and those mortgage applications that were paused, can now proceed.
Many lenders are also now gradually going back to their pre-Covid 19 lending criteria
and product range, albeit cautiously and slowly.
At such an uncertain and unprecedented time period, many questions still remain with how lenders should appropriately be approaching the situation. The mortgage market as a whole is constantly changing on a daily basis.
If you have a mortgage application in process, it would be a good idea to get in touch with your mortgage broker for an update as they ‘d be able to contact both lender and solicitor
to ensure things keep moving as efficiently as possible.
If you are interested to see what mortgages are currently available, what changes
have been made, or if you have any questions about your own mortgage, speak to a
broker here at Mortgage Advance who would be willing to help you.