Leeds Building Society to stop offering mortgages for second homes

[BreadInCaptivity]

AIBU to suggest this is a good thing?

Essentially, they have said it's not consistent with their core value and purpose in making it possible for more people to be able to buy their own home.

They are the 5th largest U.K. Building Society so this is no small thing and I wonder if others will follow.

’not consistent with their core values’. Ha. Sure it’s not.

Most likely, their rates are so uncompetitve that it’s not a product worth selling since customers go elsewhere. Makes a nice soundbite though.

When corporations try and get all political, they just make themselves look silly.

This is very good news indeed.

I hope that this is a turning point and that other lenders will follow suit.

Buy to let mortgages have been instrumental in the housing crisis that we're now in.

About bloody time. When they started offering mortgages so you could buy a house to rent out was when prices started to spiral. Not the only reason but added to it. If you can't afford to buy your second house outright you shouldn't be able to.

Probably pays to read the original post properly before commenting. It’s only 2nd homes they aren’t lending on so they do still lend on B2L and holiday homes. Personally in all my years of renting before I was ready to buy a house I was very glad there were landlords out there or I would have had to live in a tent.

I don't think that's the case here, even if I understand your cynicism.

Here's the article.

Brilliant news. Now let them get started on bloody BTL and Airbnb. I am sure that this will become a bigger and bigger political issue as the younger generation gets more voting power and are sick of being screwed over by boomers. Time to rebalance the economy.

Then buyers will just carry on going to companies that only do buy to let mortgages!

They’re still lending to holiday homes which are second homes just with another label. They’re products are just uncompetitive.

True - but it has to start somewhere and potentially more lenders might follow their example.

Then the less options in the marketplace will drive up the cost of such mortgages, hopefully making them less attractive???

Not sure if this includes B2L but I'm pretty sure it's covering holiday homes and AirBnB as per comments above.

Everyone i know with a second home has bought it cash or remortgaged their main home to free up cash and bought it that way.

Won't that mean that people will just remortgage their first homes to buy a second?

I think it's a good policy BTW, but even if all lenders do it, people will find ways around it.

Possibly and I'm not suggesting it's a panacea but it feels like a step in the right direction.

Why is it a step in the right direction? Who is to judge who can have more than one home? So sick of seeing people complain about people having a second home when no one ever consider the impact of, for example, divorces leading to one family 'needing' two family homes. Why is that more valid than people who choose to have two homes? (disclaimer I am not referring here to abuse situations just situations where people drift apart and divorce but then both end up needing 'family homes' to accommodate the kids.

I don't think it's a problem people having two homes tbh. Only if it's a holiday home. What's wrong with someone who works away from their family buying a home to live in for the week instead of commuting.

Yes exactly. My irritating neighbor who seems intent on buying up half the street has just remortgaged her home to buy one across the road for her sister to now rent from her ! She didn't take out a BTL mortgage just remortgaged her original home.

Why would you need two homes because you get divorced ?

So how many people does this actually affect?

Call me naive, but I would have assumed most second homes were buy to let or holiday homes? What other purpose does a second home have if you're not renting it out or spending time in it?

In my experience most couples who divorce don't continue to live together so where a family of four might have had 1 three bedroom house, on the divorce they often end up wanting/needing 2 three bedroom houses as the children split their time between the two parents

Of course yes sorry I misinterpreted your original post. Apologies.

That’s one home each, though. They don’t both swap between the two.

no worries, perhaps i wasn't very clear :)

Yes but it's still two homes for one family. I have no problem with people having multiple homes, I was just flagging up that whilst some families are attacked for having two homes, other families have two homes and no one mentions it.

Hopefully this becomes mainstream.

Again, why would you see this as a positive? What if the next step is that they won't offer mortgages to single parents because it doesn't fit with their values? Would you also celebrate that?