They're a tiny lender by national standards, but Chorley & District Building Society's best-buy mortgages have attracted national attention.
Unfortunately for the majority of mortgage applicants, they're not always available nationwide!
Although Chorley & District will lend up to 75 per cent loan to value anywhere in the country, some of its most appealing deals are only available to those living in the North West. This isn't a precisely defined geographic area; it's probably safe to say that if you can find a branch, you're close enough...
An example of an interesting mortgage that's only available locally is the 1-year fixed rate with maximum 90 per cent loan to value. Although it's only fixed for one year, the rate is 4.99% - almost unheard of in the rest of the marketplace for a 90 per cent deal.
If you're based outside the area, there are still interesting products to choose from.
There's a 2.00% discounted variable rate available up to 75 per cent LTV, which is a 'stepped' discount over three years. In year two the interest rate moves to 3%, in the third year to 4% before reverting to Chorley's standard variable rate (currently 5.49%). There's also a 1-year fixed rate deal at 3.25%.
Upsides: you can blend their products. They allow you to take out your mortgage across different 'schemes' as long as each portion is at least £25,000. So you can have part tracker, part fixed rate if that's what you want.
Downsides: Chorley's mortgages still have a higher lending charge, so if you want to borrow over 75% of property value there is an additional amount to pay, between 5.5% and 7.5% of the difference between 75 per cent of the property value and your actual loan. I appreciate that's confusing, so as an example, if you were borrowing 100,000 on a 120,000 property (83% loan to value), you'd pay 6.5% of £10,000, or an extra £650.
Summary: if you're Lancastrian with a high loan to value, if you're looking for an ultra low first year rate with gentle increases (and don't mind facing a 2.49 per cent early repayment charge), Chorley Building Society could be well worth a look.
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