Coventry for Intermediaries has made changes to its remortgage affordability calculator to help clients looking to switch provider and not looking to borrow more.

The lender will now apply a stress rate of 5.24% for like for like remortgages, down from a previous rate of 6.99%.

The change only applies to borrowers re-mortgaging without any further borrowing.

In order to be eligible, borrowers can only remortgage up to their existing mortgage value. Product fees can be added, however, early repayment charges cannot.

Jonathan Stinton, head of intermediary relationships at the Coventry Building Society, said: “This opens up the choices available to many borrowers and will help those who have limited options available. Ultimately it will mean more people will be able to access more of our competitive remortgage products; so long as they’re not looking to borrow more, we’ll now be able to lend to more people.

“It’s a challenging environment for many borrowers, and we know how important some flexibility can be. Additional borrowing is available on our full remortgage offering, but for clients looking to benefit from the lower stress rate, the borrowers can only remortgage up to their existing mortgage value. If a product fee applies to the mortgage, this can be added. Our online calculator can give you an accurate picture of your client’s borrowing potential.

“The change to our stress rate in like-for-like remortgages will improve access to our remortgage products while maintaining our prudent approach to lending.

“We’re sending brokers more information and some useful examples to help them see which of their clients could benefit from this change. It’s all available on our website too.”