Bluestone Mortgages has reported that the number of cases it received from individual female applicants between October 2020 and March 2021 increased by 38% year-on-year.

The complex credit mortgage lender also revealed that applications from joint female borrowers followed a similar trend, increasing by 37% at Bluestone over the same period.

Bluestone said its figures indicate a growing number of women experiencing financial complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic, either due to impaired credit or problems with employment, which could be excluding them from the mainstream mortgage market.

Coronavirus has disproportionately impacted women’s financial security, Bluestone added, with figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealing that women are more likely than men to have been furloughed during the pandemic, while unemployment among women rose by 174,000 between March and December 2020.

“These factors have the potential to significantly impact an individual’s credit score which could, in turn, mean that they are unable to access mainstream lending,” Bluestone managing director, Steve Seal commented. “Today’s figures highlight this fact, and we foresee this reality lasting for some time as women navigate the fallout of the crisis and look at alternative ways of securing financing.

“This signals a major opportunity for the complex credit lending market to evolve and develop, and lenders and advisers in this industry must work together to capitalise on the growth in demand that is expected from female borrowers over the coming years.

“Ultimately, lenders and advisers serving the complex credit lending market will need to support a growing cohort of underserved borrowers over the long-term, so now is the time to prepare accordingly.”

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