Kensington, which announced its decision to work with specialist distribution again last month, has selected Brightstar to be its first specialist distributor partner.

Brightstar will offer all of Kensington’s core range of residential and buy-to-let products, in addition to a 90% LTV residential semi-exclusive. Rates for this 90% product start at 4.89% for a two-year fixed rate and 5.19% for a three-year fixed rate.

Chris Bramham, director of mortgages and buy-to-let at Brightstar, said: “This is a welcome return of Kensington to the specialist distribution channel and we are delighted to become the first distributor to work with the lender.

“We will begin by offering Kensington’s core range in addition to a 90% LTV semi-exclusive, and we are looking forward to working with them to develop new products and provide more options for our brokers to place their specialist cases.”

Steve Griffiths, head of sales and distribution at Kensington, added: “Specialist distributors have proven key for Kensington in the past as they provide brokers with a simple way of sourcing and placing their more complex cases, and we are really excited about partnering with Brightstar and re-establishing this channel as we continue to grow our business.

“This is a great opportunity to leverage Brightstar’s extended reach and packaging capability to help more customers whose real life circumstances get in the way of a standard mortgage application.”