The Mansfield Building Society has launched a specialist residential product to allow loans to be assessed against the improved valuation of a property to help borrowers fund significant or structural property improvement.

The criteria is aimed at supporting clients remortgaging in order to improve their property, or those looking to purchase a property that will benefit from capital investment to materially change the value of the property.

Details include:

• Additional borrowing of greater than £15,000
• Up to three stage releases are possible following initial loan completion
• Release amounts reflect the final and interim LTV as well as the extent of the work

The criteria is available on its specialist residential three-year discounted rate mortgage up to 80% LTV. Offering a rate of 1.60% below SVR (3.99% pay rate), the product carries a £199 application fee and a £1,200 completion fee.

Mike Taylor, the Mansfield’s product and marketing manager, said: “Despite government initiatives to create housing stock, affordability and house price inflation are not going to change dramatically in the short term.

“When lenders only allow borrowing against the current property value, it can restrict those with limited equity from accessing funds to make the improvements that they need. Rather than push people to short term credit, our individual underwriting expertise allows us to evaluate circumstances and to lend against the value of the property with the work completed.

“We believe commonsense lending like this can help underserved niches realise their housing ambitions.”