The new residential mortgage rates launched by Aldermore this month are encouraging and represent a rare attempt by an 'off high street' lender to tap into that potentially lucrative early autumn market.
Plenty of borrowers need to move or refinance by Christmas or the New Year for various reasons and those that don't fit the usual high street criteria have struggled in recent years to get a half-decent deal.
After introducing tiered lending in April, Aldermore has enhanced its place as one of the preferred lenders for those with minor credit issues.
It is a position the lender has been building on for some years now, without much competitive opposition.
Offering no fees options on high loan-to-values is also a positive step, but with brokers focusing rightly on total amount payable, the rates will need to be much better if it wants to challenge the mainstream market.
Processing has sometimes been an area this lender has fallen short on, from my experience, and it will be interesting to see how the potential increase in business it will be hoping these rates will bring could affect this.
Overall though, a positive move for the market. Let's hope other lenders in the same space as Aldermore can compete.
Dean Mason is founder and mortgage and protection adviser at Masons Financial Planning
