Kensington targets complex prime

8 March 2010 | By Natalie Thomas

Kensington has launched a new range of two and three-year fixed rates which it says will consider self-employed borrowers and judge customers on an individual basis not a credit score.

Charles Morley, head of sales and product development at Kensington, says there are a lot of prime customers out there who want a mortgage but are excluded by the big lenders because they fail an automated decision.

Kensington says it plans to be more innovative and make its decision based “on a customer not a credit score”.

Morley says: “This means we are well positioned to consider self-employed borrowers, people who receive regular bonuses or overtime and customers whose circumstances are too complex to meet the rigid criteria of an automated system.”

The lender says some of the biggest lenders are using credit scores to cherry pick customers at the moment, which means customers who are prime but with slightly more complex circumstances are excluded by an automated credit scoring system.

It plans to launch more products in the next few months and says it is possible to be a specialist in the prime arena and have innovative products without being vanilla.

The new prime products are available up to 80% LTV, with a two-year fixed rate at 5.69% and a three-year fix at 6.09%. For 75% LTV it is offering a two-year 4.99% rate and a 5.39% rate for three-year fixes, all with a completion fee of £999.

The new products will be available to appointed representatives of Legal & General, Openwork and Pink Home Loans, as well as Personal Touch Financial Services, which has just launched onto Kensington’s exclusive distribution list.

Morley adds: “Now with the launch of our new product range, brokers have greater choice to offer those customers some really competitive deals.

“When Kensington returned to lending we said we were committed to supporting responsible, sustainable recovery in the mortgage market and we believe this new launch demonstrates another step on that road to recovery.”

Ben Thompson, director of mortgages at Legal & General Mortgage Club, says: “Kensington returning a short while ago felt good. It also felt like it marked the start of some sort of slow recovery in terms of new competition which was obviously very welcome at the time.

“What we see now though is a lot more intent around the overall competitiveness of their offering, and I have no doubt there is real appetite for Kensington to make an impact in the coming months.

“Existing lenders very definitely need a healthy dose of competition and indeed many will admit they actually want this; for intermediaries who have worked extremely hard with limited supply over the last two years or so, this is a further step in the right direction and firmly points to better times ahead.”

Readers' comments (12)

Anonymous | 8 Mar 2010 12:10 pm
Is Kensington still owned by Investec?, is this the birth of a restarted non-confirming market place?
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Ron Radway | 8 Mar 2010 12:30 pm
What's wrong with DA's then?
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Ben Olney | 8 Mar 2010 12:30 pm
Would be a warm welcome to have them return with common sense lending away from adverse but targeting good scoring / experienced applicants who are self employed with less than two years accounts. I have many clients who have left their employer and are on target to earn twice as much with decent property portfolios in the background and they cant get a mortgage!!!!
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Anonymous | 8 Mar 2010 12:45 pm
It would be great to see Kensington re start the specialist market after all they were the innovators last time round and clearly have the infrastructure in place
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Julie | 8 Mar 2010 1:06 pm
We need a lender who will look at self employed BTL property portfolio holding clients who's sole income comes from investment income with accounts to back up continuity of earnings and more 'portfolio' based BTL lending using aggregate LTV's - come on lender's use your opportunity to be innovative now!
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Grey Haired underwriter | 8 Mar 2010 4:12 pm
So the return to prudential, non-scored lending based on the '70s & '80s model is now classified as innovative? How strange. Small building societies have been operating like this for over a 100 years- just goes to prove that there is nothing new but just a different way of presenting it!
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Anonymous | 8 Mar 2010 9:12 pm
Kensigton Mortgages come to the rescue again, just like they did in 1996. Early days yet but the fact that they starting to stirr is good news to the intermediary market. Good luck Kensington.....
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Anonymous | 9 Mar 2010 10:13 am
Its interesting how Kensington, just like one or two other lenders, are relying solely on AR networks for distribution. Lets just hope these 'networks' don't go the same way as Network Data & Mortgage Times. Unusually for Kensington, this looks like a strategic mistake!
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Anonymous | 9 Mar 2010 4:37 pm
With reference to the anon comment stating "Unusually for Kensington, this looks like a strategic mistake" you clearly aren't familiar with managing tranche funding then?
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Anonymous | 10 Mar 2010 9:22 am
per the original posting, does anybody know if Investec still own Kensington, their websites give nothing away but it would be interesting to know whose pot of cash is funding a potential relaunch
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