HSBC has reassured brokers that the bank remains open for business, with mortgages across all loan-to-values still available during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a note to its 180 broker partners and 13,500 individual brokers with access to its mortgages, the bank confirms that it is continuing to lend.
HSBC UK head of buying a home Michelle Andrews says: “The financial services industry and property market are facing challenges that we haven’t seen before. But buying a home is still important to many people, as is remortgaging if people are coming to the end of a fixed rate deal.
“We remain open for business and we want to support our customers and the housing market. Our mortgage range across all LTVs is still available and open for applications, and we aren’t seeing upward pressure on pricing. We will look to make the most of technology and utilise desktop and automated property valuations where we can, and where this is not possible due to limitations on physical valuations, such as lending above 90 per cent LTV and new build properties, these applications will be put on hold until we can take them forward.
“In order to ensure that we stay within our operational capacity, we may need to limit the amount of business we can take each day, which means that once certain daily limits are reached, we may need to limit our range for the rest of that day. By doing this, we can continue to support our broker partners, their customers and the housing market. We will, of course, continue to review the situation regularly and hope it isn’t too long before the market returns closer to normal.”
