The most romantic mortgage in the world!

Love is in the air with a mortgage designed exclusively for couples.

When you think about mortgages I bet you don’t swoon, feel your heart pounding in your chest or your pulse racing (if you do you are either slightly weird or in serious arrears).

Most of us don’t come over all flustered at the mere thought of a mortgage, because arranging and repaying your homeloan is frankly, neither romantic nor sexy.

Let’s face it, it’s the home we really want, the dream property we fantasise about, and the boring old mortgage is just a long means to an end. We need one, so we get one.

But for many people taking out a mortgage with a partner could be the first big commitment they make in a relationship. Indeed, some would argue that it’s as big a pledge as marriage (of course, many would disagree).

So it shouldn’t come as such as surprise that one mortgage lender has launched a ‘couples-only’ mortgage.

Pucker up

Platform, the intermediary mortgage lender of The Co-op Bank, has just launched what it claims is the UK’s first dedicated couple’s mortgage.

The deal is designed exclusively for those men and women (or men and men, or women and women) who want to buy a property together.

Getting married soon? Follow our top tips to keep costs to a minimum!

And it has been launched through a limited number of brokers to test the mortgage market’s appetite for such a product.

The lender is innovating here by launching a specific risk-adjusted deal. In plain English that means it can offer the deal on different terms than its normal mortgages because it has looked at the risk that joint buyers pose. It has worked out they are less likely to default on their monthly repayments than single applicants, so it can afford to price the joint mortgage more attractively.

It’s the same theory as offering better rates to those with a bigger deposit, or a steady well-paid job, but Platform has taken the concept one step further.

The lender believes there’s a strong argument for lenders to reflect their actual experience of arrears into pricing so that lower risk applicants benefit from lower rates, and it wants to test demand for this with its couple’s mortgage.

All well and good, but what about the product?

Labour of love

The couple’s mortgage is a two-year fixed rate available at three different loan-to-value (LTV) tiers, for couples with different deposit sizes.

The cheapest rate for those with 30% upfront is 2.99%. Then there is a deal for couples with a 25% deposit at 3.29%, and finally those who can only muster 20% will pay 4.29%.

First flames of passion?

Standard mortgages are usually open to single or joint applicants, although the affordability criteria may be different when the lender comes to working out what it will lend. What makes the Platform deal different is that it isn’t open to both channels and is exclusively for couples. As far as I know it’s the first of its kind (please correct me if you know of others though).

However, it’s not the first ‘joint applicant only’ mortgage. Indeed, there is another firm that currently specialises in shared applicant mortgages, Share to Buy, and its mortgages are funded by none other than Platform’s sister lender Britannia Building Society (part of Co-operative Financial Services along with The Co-op Bank).

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Its lends mortgages through its affinity partner Britannia to a minimum of two applicants, but differs from the Platform deal in that it isn’t just for couples -- friends and family can also apply, plus up to four applicants are allowed. Share to Buy will ensure you have ticked all the legal boxes to safeguard yourself when buying jointly, or with friends or family (it’s wise to have a signed plan of action for what to do when someone wants out).

What about standard mortgages?

The only downside to the Platform couples deal is that the rates can be beaten on the wider market. Don’t get me wrong, they are competitive enough, but they are not market-leading.

So if you are in a couple and want to apply for a joint mortgage you might as well look at the whole market, especially as the couple deal is currently being piloted through a limited number of intermediaries.

For example, the 2.99% and 3.29% two-year fixed rates on offer from Platform (at 70% and 75% LTV respectively) can both be bettered by Yorkshire Building Society at 2.89% up to 75% LTV with a lower fee of £995.

John Fitzsimons looks at the dos and don’ts of arranging a mortgage over the internet.

And the 80% LTV deal at 4.29% is handsomely beaten by ING Direct’s two-year fix at 3.49% with a cheaper £945 fee.

Nevertheless, it’s great to see a lender being flexible and innovative about its underwriting, and looking at ways to adapt its products to more closely fit its borrowers’ risk profiles.

While the mortgage market is unlikely to move to tailored underwriting for risk in the same way the insurance industry has (just look at the all the information you need to give for car or life insurance), taking a fuller look at the applicants’ circumstances is a step in the right direction. Those who are less at risk of default should be rewarded with better rates, so it’s refreshing to see a lender develop products in this direction.

Finally, if you are in the market for a short-term fix, below are some of the best current two-year deals, across all LTV tiers:

Lender	Rate	Fee	Max LTV
HSBC	2.69%	£1,499	60%
Yorkshire BS	2.89%	£995	75%
Market Harborough BS	2.89%	£1,295	70%
Santander BS	2.90%	£1,995	60%
Britannia BS/The Co-op Bank	2.95%	£999	75%
ING Direct	2.99%	£945	75%
ING Direct	3.49%	£945	80%
Post Office	4.29%	£999	85%
Yorkshire BS	4.25%	£995	85%
Britannia BS/The Co-op Bank	4.49%	£999	85%
Post Office	5.45%	£999	90%
Britannia BS/The Co-op Bank	5.49%	£999	90%

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If you need help getting the best mortgage use our resources.

First, adopt this goal: Cut the cost of your mortgage and pay it off early

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Mortgages suitable for first time buyers with a maximum 15% deposit, sourced based on lowest payrate. Where a provider's logo is displayed products may be applied for directly.

Offset

Mortgages with an offset facility attached, sourced based on lowest payrate. Where a provider's logo is displayed products may be applied for directly.

At lovemoney.com, you can research all the best deals yourself using our online mortgage service, or speak directly to a whole-of-market, fee-free lovemoney.com broker. Call 0800 804 4045 or email mortgages@lovemoney.com for more help.

This article aims to give information, not advice. Always do your own research and/or seek out advice from an FSA-regulated broker (such as one of our brokers here at lovemoney.com), before acting on anything contained in this article.

Finally, we tend to only give the initial rate of a deal in our articles, but any deal which lasts for a shorter period than your mortgage term will revert to the lender's standard variable rate when the deal ends. Before you take out a deal, you should always try to find out from your lender what its standard variable rate is and how it will be determined in the future. Make sure you take all this information into account when comparing different deals.