Vida Homeloans has introduced a new maximum LTV of 90% for first time buyers, 100% Discounted Purchase Price for Right to Buy and a new maximum loan amount of £1.5 million.

On its specialist buy-to-let range, Vida has increased its maximum loan amount to £4 million on portfolios of up to 15 properties. The lender will consider flats above commercial premises, including restaurants and takeaways.

In its first year of trading Vida attracted £2 billion in DIPs, £1 billion in applications and over £400 million in completions.

Louisa Sedgwick (pictured), director of sales – mortgages at Vida Homeloans, said: “Here at Vida Homeloans, we are always listening to feedback from mortgage intermediaries, at the same time as designing products for borrowers who are currently not well-served by high street lenders.

“These new criteria improvements are clear evidence of our desire to grow our specialist mortgage lending substantially in 2018. Don’t forget that we also support our intermediaries with a full set of online tools to make dealing with Vida easy, including a 10 minute DIP, residential and buy-to-let affordability calculators and a criteria search look-up facility.”