Bridging finance specialist Market Harborough Building Society has made a host of changes to start the new year. This includes lowering its standard variable rate (SVR) by 0.20% to 7.99% and further reductions across its fixed and variable mortgage rates, meaning residential rates dropped by up to 0.40% and let rates by 0.20%.

Market Harborough has also made enhancements to its criteria, including amending the interest stress rate across its residential solutions and lowering the minimum equity required for interest-only deals within London and the south east to £300,000.

Commenting on the changes Market Harborough’s head of mortgage distribution Iain Smith said: “These latest rate and criteria enhancements mean that our range of specialist lending solutions for loans up to £5m are now even more accessible to brokers and their clients. As always, we let our partners know about these rate reductions ahead of time.”

Following the changes, the society’s rates now start from: 5.29% fixed and 5.84% variable for residential tier one cases up to 75% LTV with a £1,495 product fee.

Also 5.55% fixed and 6.10% variable for let tier one cases up to 75% LTV, including top-slicing and lending into retirement as standard.

Its monthly bridging finance rates now start from: 0.61% variable and 0.65% fixed for up to 50% LTV 0.67% variable and 0.71% fixed for between 50.01% – 60% LTV    0.73% variable and 0.77% fixed for between 60.01% – 70% LTV.