The government has pledged to make sure homes constructed offsite will be as mortgageable as their traditional counterparts.
In the housing white paper, Fixing our broken housing market, the government pledged to support a joint working group with lenders and valuers to make sure mortgages are readily available.
It will also support the sector with its £3bn Home Builders’ Fund and Accelerated Construction programme unveiled in October, while it will consider helping offsite firms gain innovation and growth funding.
The white paper read: “To underpin the growth of this sector we must ensure that homes built offsite can access finance on the same basis as traditionally built homes.
“We will… support a joint working group with lenders, valuers and the industry to ensure that mortgages are readily available across a range of tested methods of construction.
“This will include encouraging industry and lenders to develop a stronger set of core data to measure the use and performance of different technologies to encourage good decision-making.”
As it stands the government said there is limited lender take-up of the Buildoffsite Property Assurance Scheme, which provides assurance to lenders on methods of construction, because of a lack of data to support them in making decisions.
The planning system also will be scrutinised to see if it works with modern methods of construction.
Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the Building Societies Association, said: “It is encouraging to see the government pledge support in today’s White Paper for offsite construction, in particular modern methods of construction as we have called for. A cross-party approach is needed to practically deliver this.
“It’s time to turn plans into action. We will continue to work closely with government to help provide more UK homes and ‘fix’ the broken housing market.”
Original link - Mortgage Introducer
