ModaMortgages has removed the application fee on its limited edition two- and five-year fixed rate products.

The removal of the fee comes after the lender reduced rates across its range, with two-year fixes starting from 3.34% and five-year fixes being available from 4.94%.

ModaMortgages also offers free valuations across its entire buy-to-let (BTL) range, including HMOs and MUFBs, with products available for individual and limited company landlords up to 80% LTV.

Shepherds Friendly has appointed Laura Gauden as head of sales.

She brings 20 years of financial services experience to the role, joining the mutual society from Newcastle Building Society, where she served as national sales manager. She has also held roles at the Chartered Insurance Institute, Paymentshield, CHL Mortgages, Virgin Money and Northern Rock.

In her new role, Gauden will oversee the sales team to deliver strategic sales leadership, drive revenue growth and support the development of the society’s proposition.

REIM Capital has joined the Bridging & Development Lenders Association (BDLA) as a lender member.

The specialist bridging finance lender provides flexible short-term funding solutions to property investors across England and Wales. It also offers first and second charge bridging loans secured against residential, semi-commercial and commercial property assets to support a range of property finance requirements, including purchases, auction finance, development exits, rebridges and light refurbishment projects.

The BLDA represents the interests of bridging and development lender and their customers, with its membership now comprising more than 100 organisations, with lender members holding combined loan books totalling £11.5bn.

Paragon Bank has expanded its bank base rate (BBR) tracker BTL mortgage range with the launch of new switch and further advance products.

The switch products are available at up to 80% LTV, with further advances up to 75% LTV, with both available for single self-contained (SSC) properties, HMOs and MUBs.

On its 75% LTV range, rates start from 5.10%, while for HMOs and MUBs are available from 5.45%.

Masthaven Finance has announced a series of enhancements to its proposition, including rate reductions across its product range, increased maximum LTV limits and updated criteria to support self-employed borrowers.

The changes apply to both first and second charge products, spanning the lender’s residential and BTL ranges. Its enhancements include a number of price changes across all products, with its headline rates being reduced by 0.35%.

It has also raised its maximum on selected products from 65% to 75% LTV, and now takes retained profit into account for affordability for self-employed borrowers.

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