St. George Reverse Mortgage No Longer Available

St George has announced it is dropping mortgage and equity-release products after Westpac made a high-level review of their product range and underwriting standards. The review is set to reexamine loans and lending packages under current market conditions. Consequently the St George Reverse Mortgage product has been removed from sale.

The review came at a time when the other four major banks continue to increase the required deposit for home loans and apply strict requirements for interest-only loans and other credit-related products.

In a confidential memo sent to mortgage brokers, St George said that Westpac (owner of St George bank) reviewed their suite of home loans to simplify their systems and increase productivity in operations.

Aside from withdrawal of equity release products such as their reverse mortgage product, the Senior’s Access Loan, St George is also dumping equity access low documentation loans and some fixed rate low documentation home loans.

Equity access low documentation loan is a revolving line of credit secured against the borrower’s property. A low documentation loan is perfect for those who are self-employed who cannot provide usual loan requirements such as tax returns and other financial statements.

Lenders in general face new challenges as new record levels of household debt arise versus static income. An independent analysis suggests lenders to review their underwriting standards in order to deal with changing market conditions.

Are Reverse Mortgage Loans Still Available from Seniors First?

Yes. There is no need to worry about this news. If you are over 60 years and you need to release home equity, a reverse mortgage loan from Seniors First is still a great option. As a leading reverse mortgage broker, we work with some of the biggest names in home finance such as IMB Bank, Bankwest, and Heartland so we can provide you with enough options to find the equity release solution you need.

You should also note that this recent move from Westpac does not only isolate reverse mortgage products for cancellation. The bank is also reassessing other lending packages such as insurance and credit products, as the bank tries to adjust its lending criteria to changing market conditions.

Westpac might ditch their reverse mortgage loan packages, but the need by senior Australians for great equity products still persists and in fact growing.

Many of our reverse mortgage borrowers use their equity fund retirement living, refinance their debt, renovate their homes, buy a more practical vehicle, or take a holiday after years of hard work.

To help you learn more about reverse mortgages, you can download our FREE REVERSE MORTGAGE GUIDE.

You can also call Seniors First Finance at 1300 745 745 or post your comments below.