The Client
A landlord easing into retirement, with an existing Buy to Let portfolio that made up most of his income.
The Objective
Another portfolio of properties had come onto the market, and he needed his current holdings refinanced fast enough to fund the purchase before the opportunity slipped away.
The Situation
Remortgaging looked like the natural first move. Multiple properties meant multiple valuations and a separate cost attached to each one, and once we laid that out against his budget and his timeline, the arithmetic didn’t hold up.
The Challenge
Second charge lending seemed like a reasonable fallback, until we started digging into who actually held the existing mortgages. A number of them sat with lenders that had since stopped operating, and getting sign-off for a second charge from a lender that no longer exists in any functioning sense is not straightforward.
What We Did
We turned to our specialist panel and found a lender willing to take one charge across the whole portfolio, rather than treating each property as its own separate transaction.
The Solution
One charge meant one legal process and one round of costs, priced competitively, and it cleared far faster than either a full remortgage or a series of individual second charges would have.
The Outcome
Everything completed in time for the client to go ahead with the second portfolio, with fewer costs overall and a pace that matched the deal in front of him.
Conclusion
Speed on a portfolio deal doesn’t have to come at the price of a worse rate or whichever lender happens to answer first. Placing this with a lender open to a single cross-portfolio charge, rather than the usual property-by-property approach, was the piece that turned a tight opportunity into a completed buy to let purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I get a mortgage that continues into retirement?
Yes. Many lenders will lend past standard retirement age, particularly where the income supporting the loan comes from a property portfolio rather than employment, since portfolio income doesn’t necessarily stop at retirement the way a salary does.
Can one lender take a charge across multiple Buy to Let properties?
Some will, through what’s known as a portfolio or cross-charge facility. Rather than arranging separate lending against each property, one lender secures the borrowing across the whole portfolio, which can mean fewer costs and a faster process than dealing with each property individually.
What happens if my existing mortgage lender no longer operates?
It can complicate raising further borrowing against that property, particularly second charge lending. The original lender needs to consent, and a defunct or inactive lender may be slow or unable to respond. A broker familiar with these situations can identify lenders and structures that work around the issue.
Is a portfolio refinance faster than remortgaging each property separately?
Often, yes. Where a lender is willing to work across the portfolio as a whole rather than requiring individual valuations and legal processes for every property, which is where much of the time and cost in a multi-property refinance tends to sit.
Final Thoughts
UK Mortgage Broker is a whole-of-market broker helping clients throughout the UK and globally to secure funding on UK property. We are directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a loan secured against it. Buy-to-let and business-purpose lending secured against investment property is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Call: 01628 969 500
Email: info@uk-mortgagebroker.co.uk
Related Pages
- Buy to Let Mortgages – whole-of-market advice for landlords and property investors across the UK.
- Second Charge Mortgages – raising further funds against a property without disturbing the existing first charge.
- How Lenders Actually Check Your Income – how portfolio and rental income gets assessed differently to salaried income.
- Can I Get a Mortgage in the UK? – how deposit, income and credit profile determine eligibility.
- Residential Mortgages – whole-of-market advice for main home purchases across the UK.