Santander mortgage affordability checks – borrowers spending examined in detail!
Under new Santander mortgage affordability criteria, house-hold spending on events such as birthdays and religious festivals will have to be declared.
This will form part of the information required on regular and non-regular financial outgoings. In fact over generosity may hinder your chances of being approved for a Santander mortgage.
This follows the decision to introduce new strict affordability checks. The lender has changed how it asks about outgoings and, while few of you will surprised at questions into regular monthly outgoings such as transport costs and utility bills. Many more of you may be taken aback to be asked how much you plan to spend on birthdays and Christmas.
The Santander application form requires details to be provided of non-regular expenditure including such items as magazine subscription, birthdays, holidays and religious festivals. The lenders warns that applicants must be realistic in the amounts entered and any zero amounts may lead to a decline decision.
The criteria change has bemused many brokers. Even here at Deal Direct we are wondering if the rule change will mean that there might be many more circumstances where by a mortgage application might be refused. What is clear is that it is yet another market indication that borrowers are going to need more help in attaining a mortgage.
A spokesperson for Abbey, the Santander mortgage intermediary has said their lending decision is based on affordability which needs to take into account the overall financial position. The change in criteria will purely enable them to collect more information about monthly expenditure. They advise that there has been no change to their lending policy.
Deal Direct are familiar with different mortgage providers lending criteria and we are best placed to source a competitive deal for you. For the best mortgage rates available in the UK today.
