Accord Mortgages has cut rates on both its residential and buy-to-let (BTL) product ranges again this week.

As a result, a two-year fix at 95% LTV for house purchase starts at 6.15%, which comes with a £495 fee and standard valuation, and an additional £500 cashback for first-time buyers, while its fee-free five-year fix at 6.34% for FTBs with a £5,000 deposit.

For landlords, a two-year house purchase 80% LTV fix starts from 5.79%, with a £995 fee, £250 cashback and standard valuation. Meanwhile, its five-year remortgage fix at 80% LTV starts from 5.66%, with a £995 fee, £250 cashback and a standard valuation.

Target Group has appointed Melissa Moran as its new head of people.

She brings more than 20 years of people leadership experience across the UK and internationally, having worked in a variety of sectors and spent the past decade in legal and professional services. Prior to joining Target, Moran was HR director at Geldards LLP.

In her new role, Moran will work closely with colleagues across Target and its parent company, Tech Mahindra, to support the company’s people, strengthen its culture and help deliver its wider business ambitions.

Andy Rowe has joined CAL in the newly created role of distribution director.

He joins the conveyancing services provider with nearly 30 years’ experience in the financial services industry, having started off as a BTL adviser. He previously launched and scaled his own adviser business and was most recently head of sales at Zephyr Homeloans, where he has worked for the last eight years.

As distribution director, Rowe will use his property transaction knowledge to help CAL in its mission to make conveyancing and the whole property transaction process as seamless as possible.

Vida Homeloans has made significant enhancements to its residential lending criteria, increasing the maximum LTV to 90% for purchase at undervalue cases.

As a result, the lender will increase the maximum advance to 100% of the discounted price for landlord-to-tenant purchases, subject to a maximum of 90% of the open-market value. This change has been made to make this type of transaction more accessible to people.

Furthermore, Vida has strengthened its income criteria by increasing the proportion of Universal Credit that can be considered for affordability from 50% to 75%, excluding any housing allowance or any child element where the child/children are over 12 years old at application.

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