Digital mortgage lender Perenna has opened its waiting list after being been awarded a restricted banking licence by UK regulators.
The startup, founded by two former BNP Paribas bankers, Arjan Verbeek and Hamish Peacocke, alongside ex-Interbay executive Colin Bell, says it already has "thousands" of people signed up to the waitlist.
The first product to be rolled out will be a lifetime 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with up to 95% LTV. Other products in the pipeline include loans for remortgages and later life borrowers.
Mortgages will be financed by issuing covered bonds on the London Stock Exchange, with the lender taking a charge over the property as security for repayments.
The lifetime fixed rate product is a break from mortgage industry norms, in which lenders typically provide mortgages with fixed rates of up to 10 years, with the most popular products lasting two and five years.
"Our approach enables us to help more first-time buyers onto the property ladder, provide mortgages to people in retirement, and protect all customers against the uncertainty of increasing interest rates," says the Website blurb. "We are all experiencing significant increases in our daily costs. From steeper food prices to rising energy bills. The last thing we want to face is higher mortgage costs because of the way UK mortgages are designed - for the short-term."
Separately, GB Bank, a new bank providing property development loands of between £500,000 and £5 million, has also had its banking licence approved by the FCA. The Teeside Pension Fund is GB Bank's cornerstone investor, pumping £48 million in capital to get the startup off the ground. The bank has set a target of lending £3 billion over three years.