Hinckley & Rugby Building Society has launched a range of mortgages to help skilled foreign workers in the UK own their own home.
The mutual’s latest innovative mortgage solution for Skilled Worker and Health & Care Worker visa holders overcomes three significant barriers: no minimum income is required, no minimum UK residency is necessary, and no minimum duration remaining on the current visa is required.
In addition, the society offers up to 95% LTV (capped at 90% if UK residency is less than 12 months).
This new product range features two-year fixed deals at 6.49% up to 90% LTV and 6.79% up to 95% LTV, and five-year fixed deals at 5.99% up to 90% LTV and 6.39% up to 95% LTV.
With almost 20% of NHS staff not being UK nationals, and with around a third of a million skilled worker visas issued in 2023, there is a growing need for housing solutions for this vital and neglected segment of the UK workforce. This new mortgage offering will help brokers who struggle to help foreign workers who, despite meeting affordability criteria, simply have not been in the UK long enough to apply.
Laura Sneddon, Head of Mortgage Sales, says: “Bringing their essential skills to the UK, and committing to a new life here, skilled foreign workers deserve the opportunity to feel they truly belong, and owning their own home is a big part of that. They’re vital to the national interest, contributing much-needed skills to essential services like the NHS, and we feel that enabling them to own their own home sooner rather than later is incredibly important.
“What’s more, with demand for rental properties seriously stressed, and in some areas almost at breaking point, helping foreign workers onto the property ladder has a positive knock-on effect for everyone in the UK who needs a home.”
Christopher Holmes, Products Senior Manager, comments: “We spend a lot of late nights coming up with new products and making adjustments to existing products, for the single purpose of delivering what homebuyers really need in today’s world. We live in an inclusive country, and it’s time the UK showed its skilled foreign workers how much we value them being part of our society. In our own small way, that’s what Hinckley & Rugby has set out to achieve with our new mortgages for skilled foreign workers.”
