Semi Retired Residential Mortgage

The Client
Client was an ex-army veteran who was semi-retired, but still working with a big chain supermarket. Their spouse was a housewife in the process of receiving a pension.

After an initial conversation and affordability calculation, our client was satisfied that they could get a new mortgage, despite their ages and with enthusiasm began their property search.

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The Scenario
They wished to sell their existing home to move to a more expensive property and therefore needed to arrange a mortgage for their new property. As they owned their existing home outright without a mortgage – the property needed to be placed on the market first. As this was back in February 2022 when the market was at a seller’s advantage, they found a buyer just in a few short weeks.

“The whole process was daunting, and we did not know if we can even get a mortgage at our age.”

After long and careful consideration they decided to move to Wales to be closer to the beach. An offer was made on a property, and they were ready to proceed with the mortgage application.

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The Solution
Initially we considered looking at a Retirement Interest Only mortgage, however most lenders would not take the earned income into account and the application would fail affordability with the retirement income only. Furthermore, the clients would have preferred a repayment option just for peace of mind.

Most High Street or even smaller specialist lenders had a max age at the end of the mortgage term / using employed income criteria which normally is 70. This meant that the monthly payments would have been too high for the clients liking and budget. However, we approached a senior underwriter at at a High Street Lender who accepted the mortgage application using the client’s earned income up to 75 years old, which would make the mortgage affordable and allow the rest of the term to fit on the joint retirement income alone.

This approach meant the client could take a longer-term mortgage for affordability and stick to a repayment option as preferred.

Summary
Reaching a certain age doesn’t necessarily mean that you unable to get a new mortgage. It can put off a lot of the High Street lenders, however, with our experience and access to specialist lenders, we are able to find options available to suit the clients’ exact requirements.

If you have any questions relating to Residential Mortgage, contact us today to speak directly with one of our CeMAP certified Mortgage Advisors. Call us today on 0113 8730 740. Alternatively, please complete this short online form and one of our Advisors will call you right back.