Affordability outcomes seem to vary more between lenders than they used to. Two applicants with similar income and expenditure can now be offered materially different loan amounts depending on how a particular calculator treats their profile.
Some questions to open the discussion:
- Where have you seen the widest variation in affordability outcomes recently?
- Are lender calculators giving results that match documented decisions?
- How are you managing client expectations when the range is wide?
General observations and anonymised patterns are welcome. Please avoid identifying clients or firms.
One request before you reply: please describe what you have actually seen rather than what is generally said to be true. Broad claims about what advisers think are far less useful than a specific, anonymised observation, and firms should always take their own compliance view on anything discussed here.