Leeds Building Society extended mortgage offers on new lending

Leeds Building Society is improving its service for new build home buyers and their mortgage brokers by extending mortgage offers on all new lending by up to six months, it has announced.

It says that this is expected to particularly benefit buyers of new build homes, where completions can sometimes be delayed due to hold-ups in construction. Similarly, the change could help buyers temporarily stuck in a property chain.

The change has been made in response to borrower and broker feedback and will save the time, effort and expense of submitting a new application and in recognition of some of the challenges specific to purchasing new properties, the Society also is launching a dedicated new build helpline so brokers can receive a swifter reply to queries.

The helpline is currently undergoing a phased introduction with selected new build brokers before being rolled out more widely.

‘These latest service improvements demonstrate our ongoing commitment to the new build sector and acknowledge new build purchases can often take longer to complete, particularly when buying a home off-plan,’ said Martese Carton, Leeds Building Society’s head of intermediary distribution.

‘We continue to strengthen our new build proposition for intermediaries, which is now led by our corporate account manager Clive Sandom, who has many years’ experience in this sector. Feedback from our borrowers and intermediary partners drives our service improvements and we’ve taken a number of steps in the past year to support new build,’ he pointed out.

‘These include widening the range of warranties we accept, increasing LTV on new homes, introducing criteria to support modern methods of construction, and creating a dedicated new build underwriting team,’ he added.

The launch includes two new fixed rate deals specifically for new build with rates fixed for up to two and a half years at 2.39% up to 85% LTV and 2.59% up to 90% LTV.