Keystone Property Finance has launched a range of green mortgages at a 15bps rate reduction on the lender’s core range.

The products are designed to reward landlords with energy efficient homes that are five years or older, with an EPC rating of A to C.

The specialist lender’s green range starts at 3.04 per cent for a two-year fixed rate, with five-year fixed rates starting at 3.19 per cent.

The green range is available for purchase or remortgage and on all properties, including HMOs and multi-units, with a maximum loan size of £1m.

The green range will not initially be available on sourcing systems at launch, so brokers can find out more about the products by getting in touch directly with Keystone.

Alongside the range, Keystone will also partner with environmental group Make it Wild, which will plant trees to offset the carbon footprint created by the lender’s office in Kent.

The green mortgage launch coincides with an extensive overhaul of Keystone’s core and larger loan mortgage ranges.

The specialist lender is also revamping its core and larger loan mortgage ranges.

Rates on its core range will be reduced by up to 20bps, now starting at 3.19 per cent.

The lender will also now accept HMOs with up to 10 bedrooms, up from eight before, and will advance up to £3m to any one landlord, up from £2m before.

Keystone Property Finance chief executive David Whittaker says: “The climate crisis is the greatest challenge of our, or indeed any, generation and the only way we can solve it is if we all play a part, including the mortgage and property sectors.

“At 14 per cent of total emissions, the UK’s ageing and inefficient housing stock has a far greater carbon footprint than the farming industry in this country and nearly as much as its shops and offices.

“Therefore, it’s clear we need to do something – and urgently. Going out and buying a new build with an A or B EPC rating is not an option for most and won’t solve the problem. So what we need is a retrofitting programme on existing properties the likes of which we have never seen before in this country.

“That’s why we launched our green mortgage range, to play a small role incentivising landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency ratings of their properties now, not tomorrow or the day after.

“If we can persuade even a few landlords to make their homes greener – and lower the energy bills of their tenants in the process – then this range will have achieved everything we wanted it to achieve.”