We do not write much about HNW applications on our site. Most of our customers do not fall into that category so it has never crossed m mind to write about it.
However in the last few years we have spoken to more people who are on 6 figure incomes and I thought maybe we should cover it off as something we can help with.
Recently we were accepted on to Handelsbanken panel of mortgage brokers – this is something not many brokers can claim to have! We are in a very small pool of brokers who have access to Handelsbanken.
The scenario
This is a customer we have looked after for over 10 years! They have recently purchased a property in Cheshire’ “Golden triangle”. They knocked the existing home down and built a new larger property in its place. I wish I could share some of the photographs as it is a lovely home.
We were looking for a mortgage that was only 60-65% LTV so not a stretch by any means. Unfortunately we were finding many lenders were not open to the application for a variety of reasons… Some lenders were classing it as a self build, others were not happy with how the build was originally financed etc.
However we did manage to find a couple of options, all on the high street. The client had also been looking to switch his bank account due to being unhappy with his existing provider. Handelsbanken went round with a view to discussing his banking but had also convinced him to look into their mortgages – up steps Mortgage Success!
Because we had worked with the client for many years, he asked us to include them in our research. We had a chat with Handels and their deal was maybe not the absolute cheapest, but only around £500 more expensive over the 2 years – which on a 7 figure mortgage is nothing major. In addition, the customers preference was to have everything together in one place.
The application
We ran everything by Handels, we explained the issues we had come up against with other lenders to esnure there would be no nasty surprises down the line. The feedback we received was all positive and so we proceeded with the application.
The application process was a little quirky due to the way they work (in a nice way). The initial movement was not the quickest. They are quite thorough with their AML checks for example – although given the large numbers it is not a huge surprise I suppose. It was noticeably slower than if we had gone to the high street. However this is not uncommon with smaller lenders, there is less automation.
Given the hurdles we had to overcome, they gave us the green light on the potential problems early on. So although it was slower, it was more to do with the mundane parts of the application process so the client was happy and confident throughout.
The outcome
The main thing is the result. Because of their flexibility and manual underwriting (and of course their experienced broker!) we were able to secure the mortgage offer for the client. In around 3-4 weeks they had gone through the ID checks to open a bank account, the mortgage application, the valuation received a mortgage offer on their new home.
Summary
Although HNW is now something we talk about a lot, we do have clients who:
- Work in high flying jobs involving travel all over the world,
- Run departments in local councils,
- Work in IT or finance
- A little more glitzy and work in Film/TV or sports,
- Youtubers or content creators.
These can also be combined with bad credit which is what we are used to doing more of or self employed or any other complex scenario you can think of, please feel free to run it by us. We are always happy to have a conversation.
Chances are we have come across something similar before, but where we have not we always relish the chance to get our teeth in to something new and unique.