Currently, some individuals and families have been impacted under the existing AST policy in the UK, which enables landlords to increase rent after six months of a tenancy. Santander’s announcement is designed to support renters, with the potential to enable them to better budget, without the fear of rental increases, leaving a local community – friends and schools or having to find a new property.
Landlords also benefit from the new policy, with a secure, regular income and the knowledge that their property will not be empty for any prolonged length of time while tenants move out and new ones are found.
Miguel Sard, Director of Mortgages at Santander said: “In areas such as London and the South East, property prices continue to rise and outpace wage growth significantly. Many renters aspire to take a step on the property ladder, but are resigned to ploughing their money in to rent, unable to save for a deposit.
“We hope these changes in policy will go some way to helping people budget and potentially save towards a deposit for their own property, supporting the first time buyer market and enabling social mobility, while also helping to prevent the risk of homelessness. Meanwhile, it also ensures landlords have a guaranteed rental income and don’t have to worry about loss of income with an empty property.”
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About Us
Santander UK is a financial services provider in the UK that offers a wide range of personal and commercial financial products and services. It has brought real competition to the UK, through its innovative products for retail customers and relationship banking model for UK SMEs. At 30 June 2017, the bank serves around 14 million active customers with c19,500 employees and operates through 826 branches (which includes 61 university branches) and 65 regional Corporate Business Centres. Santander UK is subject to the full supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in the UK. Santander UK plc customers are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the UK. All accounts opened with Santander UK plc, Isle of Man Branch have sites in the Isle of Man and therefore are covered by the Isle of Man Depositors’ Compensation Scheme as set out in the Isle of Man Depositors’ Compensation Scheme Regulations 2010 and not covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Banco Santander is a leading retail and commercial bank, founded in 1857 and headquartered in Spain. It has a meaningful market share in 10 core countries in Europe and the Americas, and is among the world’s top banks by market capitalization. At the end of June 2017, Banco Santander had EUR 1.65 trillion in managed funds, 131 million customers, 13,800 branches and 200,000 employees. Banco Santander made attributable profit of EUR 3.6 billion in the first half of 2017, an increase of 24% compared to the same period last year.
Media Enquiries
Cecilia Cran cecilia.cran@santander.co.uk 0778 965 1947 020 7756 4209
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