London-based fintech Perenna aims to represent the next stage in the UK mortgage market journey by delivering the fixed-for-life mortgage lending model’s advantages. In an attempt to bring the fixed-for-life mortgage model into the UK, now the company has bagged fresh funding.
Mortgages at competitive rates
Now recently, Perenna bagged $10M (nearly £7.3M) funding from a group of investors including former Deutsche Bank Head of Structured Product Syndicate and MD Kevin Flaherty, Capdesk founder Casper Arboll, Star Capital managing partner Tony Mallin MBE, and other notable city VCs and family offices. The fintech will use the investment to obtain a banking licence and bring its technology-centric lending proposition of fixed-for-life mortgages to the UK housing market in summer 2021.
Furthermore, Perenna is building a mortgage lender, which will use long-term covered bonds to finance its products, taking inspiration from the Danish mortgage model. This innovative approach to lending in the UK points out that Perenna will issue 30-year fixed-rate mortgages at highly competitive rates. It will also give customers the flexibility to port their mortgage if they want to move and offer early repayment charges that only cover the first five years of the product.
Arjan Verbeek, CEO and Co-Founder of Perenna said: “This latest investment is a powerful vote of confidence from a high-quality investor consortium in Perenna’s proposition. It puts us on target to launch our innovative range of long-term fixed-rate products, which we really believe could transform the UK mortgage market for consumers, allowing them to borrow what they can actually afford and creating a nation of happy homeowners.”
Former Deutsche Bank Head of Structured Product Syndicate and MD, Kevin Flaherty said: “Perenna’s proposition is truly innovative and will transform mortgages in the UK from a product, funding and technology perspective.”
Focuses on the UK market
Perenna’s products will be available to a wide range of borrowers including first-time buyers, who can take out a mortgage with just 5% deposit and those who want to move or take out a mortgage at a later stage. The company invests heavily in building its proposition around technology to provide a better customer experience for UK borrowers.
Currently, the mortgage market in Britain has nearly £1.5T in outstanding loans. Perenna believes that its different mortgage lending approach will help many first time buyers and release equity from existing homeowners. This could increase the UK mortgage market by £500B over the next five years. Eventually, it will not only fix the broken housing market but also boost GDP.
Customer-first approach
Founded by Arjan Verbeek, Colin Bell and Hamish Peacocke, Perenna’s mortgage lender has a customer-first mindset. The company intends to provide fair and flexible mortgages that meet the needs of borrowers across the UK and works with the mission to create happy homeowners by making mortgages more accessible via innovation. It will help everyone who can afford a home get one, and borrowers never have to worry about refinancing or interest rates rising ever again.
The post Flexible mortgages on rise: London fintech Perenna secures £7.3M funding appeared first on UKTN (UK Tech News).
