Hodge Bank has made changes to its lending criteria by increasing loan to values for remortgaging and debt consolidation.

The specialist lender will now allow debt consolidation up to 90% loan-to-value (LTV) up from 85% and remortgaging up to 95%, up from 90% across its Hodge Resi and Hodge Resi Retire product ranges.

Hodge Bank business development director Emma Graham says: “Data from UK Finance shows us debt consolidation continues to rise in line with on-going cost of living challenges and our own data mirrors this as we are seeing an increase in customers looking to capital raise to reduce their outgoings and simplify their monthly repayments.”

“With 1.8 million fixed rate deals expiring during the course of this year, there’ll be many customers, specifically those who were first-time buyers, maturing out of their first fixed-rate mortgage looking to free-up some of the equity in their property for home improvements, so there is demand for higher loan to value remortgage options.