Kensington saw a 60% increase in the value of applications and a 50% increase in the number of applications received in October 2015 compared to the same month last year.
The intermediary lender also experienced a 20% increase in the value of completions, and an 18% increase in the number of completions over the same period. This marks October 2015 as the lender’s strongest month seen in terms of applications and completions since the global banking crisis.
The figures also revealed that Kensington’s second, third and fourth biggest days for new lending in recent years all fell within October 2015.
Since the purchase of the business earlier in the year, Kensington has implemented a number of product enhancements, including increasing the maximum age and mortgage term, maximum loan size to £2m, and interest-only limit to 75% LTV for higher earners.
It has also improved self-employed criteria for Ltd Company Directors and reduced buy-to-let stress rates and removed minimum income for experienced landlords.
Steve Griffiths, Head of Sales and Distribution at Kensington, said:
“These strong figures are testament to our determination to drive the growth of the business since Kensington was purchased by new owners in January.
It’s been a busy year, and we have been working hard to deliver a huge programme of change to successfully move into our new operating environment and improve our core product range.
“Alongside all of these developments, we will continue to enhance and improve our offering with some exciting developments that we look forward to talking about early next year.”
