Fleet Mortgages has made a number of criteria changes in order to increased flexibility for brokers and their clients.

The lender has increased its maximum aggregate loan exposure for new customers which was previously capped at £750,000 and increased over time. Now, the exposure has been boosted on a tiered structure: new customers are able to have £750,000 of exposure at 75% LTV; £1 million at 70% LTV; and £2 million at 65% LTV.

The maximum property value has been increased from £2 million to £5 million – with a loan exposure of £2 million as detailed above. Also, the minimum external acceptable size of a property has been reduced to 40 square metres, from its previous level of above 45 square metres.

“There is a management philosophy from Japan called Kaizen which is the practice of continual improvement, and this is something that we at Fleet Mortgages are keen to put into practice,” said Bob Young, Fleet Mortgages’ CEO.

“We continually look at our proposition, product range, criteria and service offering to see if we can continue to make those improvements that are requested and warranted. It’s from a process whereby we listen and learn from our partners and stakeholders that we can ensure regular fine-tuning takes place throughout the business.

“This is why we’ve made the criteria changes announced today based primarily on the back of the top-quality borrowers we’ve attracted since launch. Increasing our maximum aggregate exposure for new customers up to £2 million is a clear example of this, as is the increase in the maximum property value to £5 million.

“We will be instigating a variety of further changes in the weeks ahead as we seek to respond to current business activity and look to develop our criteria in order to satisfy both brokers and their client base. We have been incredibly encouraged by the reaction to our new product range however we know that standing still in this market is not an option.”