Kensington Mortgages partner with Kamma to deliver a data-driven antidote to greenwashing

Published 18th October 2022

Partnership will match market-leading green data with market-leading lender
Deal ensures access to far wider inventory of green data, including corrected and calibrated EPC data, for every Kensington origination
Geospatial technology will now ensure Kensington’s green mortgages are validated across multiple datapoints and benchmarked against the market, offering a data-driven antidote to greenwashing

Geospatial technology firm Kamma have announced a new partnership with UK market-leading ESG RMBS issuer, Kensington Mortgages. The partnership ensures Kamma’s climate property profiles will be applied to every mortgage origination, providing green credentials and validating data for all new loans.

Kensington, the home of the specialist mortgage, are known for pioneering moves. Finsbury Square 2021-1 GREEN was, in June 2021, the first green residential mortgage-backed securitisation in the UK market. Since then they’ve been using the proceeds of that refinancing round solely on green projects, with 77% already allocated (the equivalent of £490 million green loans financed). As Alex Maddox, Capital Markets and Digital Director at Kensington Mortgages explained: “The UK faces a huge challenge to achieve Net Zero and energy efficiency goals in the next decade and beyond. Kensington has led the charge on green lending, developing a series of solutions that offer tangible benefits to both our customers and our investors. As a data and analytics driven lender we’re delighted to be supported with market-leading green data.”

Kamma has built industry-leading tools to support homeowner and landlord decision-making such as www.PropertyZero.io. With an estimated cost of £29 billion to ensure the BTL sector achieves new Minimum Energy Efficiency goals of grade C, however, more needs to be done. As Kamma CEO, Orla Shields, explained “With such a huge challenge facing the sector, it’s vital that we deploy the best available technology to produce the best available data. By accurately qualifying loans as green, compared to ICMA criteria and industry benchmarks, we can deliver transparency to the market, supporting at multiple stages. Accurate property data helps create a positive circle that incentivises customer and landlord action through better rates, lender refinancing through more efficient routes and investor rewards through lower risk”.

About Kensington Mortgages

With a 25-year heritage, Kensington has long been one of the UK’s leading specialist mortgage lenders. They serve fast-growing segments such as the self-employed, those with multiple incomes and the over 55s – people the high street is not always set up to cater for.