We are delighted to share that Perenna has been awarded a banking licence with restrictions by the PRA and the FCA.

This means we are inching closer to launching flexible 30-year fixed-rate mortgages to all who can afford them and is a huge step toward realising our mission of creating a nation of happy homeowners.

Previously, we’ve talked a lot about the benefits of fixed-rate long-term mortgages, and here’s a quick reminder on why we can’t wait to offer these to everyone:

➡️ Accessible – Borrow more based on what you can afford; due to the length of the term customers are not required to be assessed under higher interest rates which in turn limits borrowing amounts

➡️ Adaptable – Our early repayment charge is short, the product is portable; the product flexes to you, not the other way round

➡️ Absolute – Payments are fixed for the whole mortgage term!

Under the flexible 30-year fixed rate product, we will be offering mortgages with up to 95% LTV. Our approach enables us to help more first-time buyers onto the property ladder, provide mortgages to people in retirement, and protect all customers against the uncertainty of increasing interest rates.

We are all experiencing significant increases in our daily costs. From steeper food prices to rising energy bills. The last thing we want to face is higher mortgage costs because of the way UK mortgages are designed – for the short-term. Perenna is the solution that will help you and your family achieve financial stability on usually your biggest outgoing – your mortgage.

We have thousands of people already signed up to the Perenna waitlist. If you want a Perenna mortgage, Click here to join waitlist

Getting on the property ladder in the United Kingdom is difficult. Having a suitable deposit and being able to borrow enough are challenges for many first-time buyers and home movers. At Perenna, our mission is to change that.

When we have secured our banking license, it’s our ambition to introduce 95% LTV (“Loan to Value”) mortgages with a fixed for life interest rate along with flexibility that puts you in control. This blog post explains what a 95% LTV mortgage is, why some lenders can’t offer high LTV mortgages, and why Perenna will be able to when we get to market.

What is a 95% LTV mortgage?

A 95% LTV mortgage is a loan where you take out a mortgage for 95% of a property’s value. This way you only pay a 5% deposit to buy a home. For example, to buy a house worth £300,000, you would only have to put down £15,000. The 95% LTV mortgage is generally attractive for first-time homebuyers who struggle to save for a deposit.

Why is there so little supply in the market?

The main reason lenders don’t offer high LTV mortgages is that they fear house prices will go down in the future. If you default and the house price falls below the loan amount, the lender cannot recoup the loan by selling the house and thus loses money.

How can Perenna offer 95% mortgages?

To offer 95% mortgages, lenders must ensure that you can repay the mortgage. At Perenna, we do that through a strong focus on affordability and by offering fixed for life mortgages.

Fixed for Life mortgages are mortgages where you pay the same amount for the entire term of the mortgage. Making it easier for you to budget payments and reducing the risk of default.

In the UK, we’ve traditionally had a preference for short-term fix mortgages. Luckily for consumers, changes are coming to the market – a fixed for life mortgage where the interest rate is fixed for the whole loan duration!

Here are 10 reasons why you should consider a a fixed for life mortgage.

1 Borrow what you can afford

Since the global financial crisis, it has become increasingly difficult for consumers to get on the property ladder. The United Kingdom is experiencing an affordability crisis and housing is expensive in relation to incomes. New regulation following the financial crisis requires that lenders ensure borrowers can afford their mortgage payments and apply strict affordability underwriting criteria. This protects the borrowers from higher interest rate environments but also restricts the amount that a consumer can borrow under a variable or short-term fixed-rate mortgage.

In contrast, a fixed for life mortgage offer consumers the same interest rate throughout the loan term. By fixing the interest rate, the fixed for life lender does not have to stress test borrowers for potential rate rises. As a result, certain borrowers can borrow more under a fixed for life mortgage.

2 Borrow with a smaller deposit

A mortgage is a loan secured by an asset – the house. To issue the loan, the lender has to be certain that a) the borrower can sustain paying the monthly payments throughout the lifetime of the loan and b) that the outstanding value of the loan does not exceed the value of the asset. Fixing the interest rate and locking in monthly payments years ahead enable the lender to gain more confidence in the repayment ability of the borrower. This enables lenders to issue loans on a higher LTV basis.

3 Never overpay

With a fixed for life mortgage, you never have to worry about adjusting to a standard variable rate which may be more costly. The standard variable rate is what a borrower is transferred onto when the short-term fix mortgage ends. The lender can set the rate at any level they want, meaning your monthly payments are uncertain. Some borrowers who are caught on a standard variable rate are unable to refinance their mortgage.

4 Don’t worry about remortgaging

Getting a mortgage can be a stressful undertaking. It’s not fun spending weekends looking through price comparison sites and evenings speaking to mortgage brokers. Many borrowers with short-term mortgages have to remortgage every 2nd or 5th year.

Luckily, with a fixed for life mortgage, you don’t have to worry about refinancing. Ever. Unless you want to.

5 Budget with confidence

A 30 year fixed for life mortgage brings certainty to expected spending and enables you to budget years ahead with confidence. Knowing your largest financial outgoing is certain for 30 years will help you plan for the other things that matter in life. Life is full of surprises but a fixed for life mortgage won’t be!

6 Make key life decisions without the baggage

Being free to make key life decisions is a must. Short-term fixed mortgages often come with early repayment charges, preventing borrowers to move and make big life decisions. An early repayment charge is a penalty applied if you repay your mortgage during a tie-in period. This will re-set after each remortgaging. A fixed for life mortgage will only have early repayment charges for the first 5 years. Hereby providing borrowers with 25 years freedom and flexibility to live their lives to the fullest.

7 Freedom to move with full portability

Another important flexibility component of fixed for life mortgages is porting – the ability to port your mortgage to a new property. Porting your mortgage means transferring the same mortgage deal to a different property – while keeping the same lender, interest rate, loan amount and rules. One advantage of porting a mortgage is that if you’re still in a tie-in period, you don’t have to pay any early repayment charges if you port. If you’re no longer in the tie-in period, you will also be a position to evaluate the market terms and see if there are better deals available. Win-win!

8 Protection against market changes

You can control many things in your life, but the economy, house prices, job market and government regulation are outside of most peoples control. Typically, if the housing market goes down in value close to your remortgaging date, the available products to you may be more expensive. or in some cases lenders may not lend to you at all if the loan to value is too high. In some cases, banks might not be able or willing to lend to you due to changes in rules. General rule changes are introduced for a good reason but might have unintended consequences. When the bank regulators changed the rules in 2014 to protect against the next crisis, many people could not refinance and were stuck on a high-interest rate, more largely known as mortgage prisoners.

A fixed for life mortgage is protection against uncertainty and events outside of your control. You will have full clarity of monthly payments for the next 30 years and will not be paying more if rates start to rise.

9 Borrow in retirement

Later life borrowers often have difficulty obtaining a mortgage. Mortgage lenders are wary that their pension incomes may not be sufficient to absorb interest rate rises. Therefore, lenders have limits on how old a borrower can be when they take out a loan and how old they will be when it ends. The closer the borrower is to the maximum age, the less time they will have to pay off any new mortgage.

A fixed for life mortgage is the solution. As long as the borrower can afford the fixed monthly payments, there is no concern of interest rate rises. Later life borrowers can get on with their lives and support their living costs in retirement, provide financial assistance to family members and live independently in suitable homes for as long as they are able and want to.

10 The right timing

The interest rate is at a historic low. If you’re too young or don’t remember the 80s it’s worth asking someone you know about their mortgage experiences back then. In 1985 the interest rate reached 17% and there was no certainty the rate was coming down. The world is different today. We’re facing great uncertainty about the future. This is reflected in the interest rates. A low-interest rate fixed for life mortgage looks like the perfect loan for borrowers who want financial stability and knowing how much money they will spend in years to come.

Sign up to our waitlist if you want to hear more from Perenna and be one of the first borrowers Join Waitlist.

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Paying off your mortgage is one of the biggest financial milestones in your lifetime. Being mortgage-free is something that most of us will have been working towards since we first stepped on the ladder. For some, it might even be synonymous with the idea of having the financial freedom to enjoy the retirement we want whether that’s renovating the kitchen, building an extension or taking a once-in-a-lifetime holiday.

Working towards paying off your mortgage is certainly no bad thing, but the borrowing landscape has now changed dramatically. Having debt in later life doesn’t have to mean you can’t live the retirement you want.  In fact, a mortgage in later life could actually give you the means to live your best retirement.

New opportunities due to low interest rates

Today, interest rates are sat near record low levels and borrowing is cheaper than ever – particularly when it comes to mortgages. At the same time, house prices have risen substantially in recent decades. According to the Office for National Statistics, prices increased by 4.7% in the year to September to reach an average of £245,000. If you’re a homeowner who has spent those decades steadily paying off the mortgage, it’s likely you’ll now have much more of your wealth tied up in the property you own – and you certainly won’t be alone in that regard.

Unlocking that housing wealth in later life through a mortgage could help you to access the funds you need to enjoy the retirement you’ve always wanted. But how can you make that wealth work to your advantage?

Making your property wealth work for you

Long-term fixed-rate mortgages, which will be launched soon by Perenna, can provide a viable option, whether you’re looking to help your children onto the ladder or enjoy your best retirement. Given the low interest rates at present, this could be a cost-effective way to release equity and, because rates are fixed, you’ll know exactly what you’ll need to pay in the future.

With a long-term fix like those Perenna will soon offer, you can use the freed-up funds to achieve the lifestyle in retirement you want, or alternatively to carry out home improvements and even pay for holidays.

Long-term mortgages are not equity release plans. They do not have compounded interest rates where the debt you owe grows quickly and which could leave you with little to pass on as inheritance to your loved ones.

The Bank of Mum and Dad

What about helping your kids too? High house prices are not just an issue that affects older generations – they can also make it difficult for younger people to save enough money for a deposit to step onto the ladder. It’s not surprising then that a growing number of first-time buyers are relying on the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad to help make their own property dreams a reality. But if you have no readily-accessible cash after paying off your mortgage, this can leave your children with limited options.

Downsizing into a smaller, less expensive property is one way of releasing these funds, or you could take out an equity release mortgage. Both can be expensive though, and from the hassle of moving to equity release eating into inheritance, there are also other drawbacks. Likewise, high-interest borrowing such as credit cards can potentially undo a lifetime’s good work of paying back your mortgage debt.

A route onto the ladder too

Taking out a long-term fix could even reduce or remove the need for you to act as the Bank of Mum and Dad for your children too. One of the greatest challenges facing younger buyers today is passing strict affordability tests when it comes to getting a mortgage. Borrowers must prove they can meet repayments if interest rates were much higher, in some cases up to 7%. This has led to first-time buyers being told they cannot afford a mortgage, even if their monthly repayments would be much lower than what they are currently paying for their rent. Yet, by taking out a long-term mortgage with a fixed interest rate, your children wouldn’t have to pass the same level of stress testing, making it easier for them to achieve their dream of homeownership without having to draw on the finances you need to rely on in later life.

If you’re interested to hear more about how a long-term fix from Perenna join the waitlist and be first to get updates: Join Waitlist