A bank Survey Suggests That Starling Mortgages Are On The Way

“If Starling were to launch a mortgage product would that be of interest?”

Yesterday, a customer survey  revealed that Starling Bank is working on a mortgage product that it will sell directly to its retail customers.

Starling sent an email to some of its customers asking for feedback on “new products and services we are looking to offer.” The email had a survey with five questions all about mortgages attached.

One of the questions asked if the respondent would be interested “if Starling were to launch a mortgage product.” Other questions asked what factors customers use to choose a mortgage and where they would shop if they wanted to remortgage.

By buying buy-to-let lender Fleet Mortgages in 2021 and a book of mortgages from Masthaven in 2022, Starling quickly built up a $2 billion-plus portfolio of specialized mortgages.

But the bank hasn’t started offering its own retail mortgages yet, even though it has more than 3 million customers who would probably be interested.

It’s not a surprise that Starling wants to offer mortgages, but this is the first time the bank has said they are actively working on it.

CEO Anne Boden told that it was “inevitable” that Starling would offer its own mortgages one day, but she warned that given the bank’s high-end customers, any mortgages would “have to be superb.”

None of the questions in yesterday’s survey hinted at whether Starling is working on a specific feature or offering that would make it stand out in the UK’s highly competitive property lending market.