Budget 2021 - Comments on mortgage guarantee scheme

03 March 2021

Patrick Bamford, Business Development Director at AmTrust Mortgage & Credit – providers of private mortgage insurance:

“We welcome the introduction of the Government’s guarantee which we hope will bring 95% LTV mortgage products back to the market quickly. There has been a dearth of such products over the last year and that needs to be rectified. A number of larger lenders have already signalled their intent to be involved, but as with the Help to Buy guarantee scheme last time, a significant amount of high LTV mortgage lending was actually done by lenders outside the scheme, taking advantage of private mortgage insurance which is more flexible and cheaper. Indeed, you might well argue that, with a private solution available, why is the Government using taxpayers’ money to entice lenders into this product space? The Government scheme will act as a catalyst though and we believe that borrowers should hopefully see a much more diverse higher LTV mortgage market in the months ahead, which is clearly good news.”