Portfolio and buy to let finance guides
Plain-English answers on portfolio mortgages, limited company buy to let, interest cover and stress testing, and refinancing a portfolio, from a specialist broker.
Straight answers to the questions professional landlords and property investors ask before they refinance or grow a portfolio. Written by Matt Lenzie, who has arranged more than £500 million of property finance over 25 years. This is buy to let and portfolio lending for landlords and investors, predominantly unregulated, not a regulated home loan.
Limited Company Property Finance
Buying and refinancing property through a limited company changes almost everything about how a landlord is lent to and taxed. This is the map of that decision, and the route into every part of it.
Read the guide → Limited companyCan a Limited Company Get a Mortgage?
A limited company can absolutely borrow to buy property. The lender panel is different, the deposit is fixed and the directors sign a guarantee, but the door is wide open for a company set up the right way.
Read the guide → Limited companySPV vs Trading Company for a Mortgage
The type of company you buy property through decides which lenders will even look at you. A clean special purpose vehicle opens the market; a trading company narrows it sharply and costs more. Here is why, and what to do about it.
Read the guide → Limited companySIC Codes for Property Companies
A SIC code is a small detail that quietly decides whether a lender will look at your company. Get it right when you incorporate and it is a non issue; get it wrong and it becomes an avoidable decline you only discover at underwriting.
Read the guide → Limited companyTransferring Buy to Let to a Limited Company
Moving a personally owned buy to let into a company is not a transfer at all in HMRC's eyes. It is a sale, and pricing that sale correctly, stamp duty, capital gains and new finance, is the difference between a smart restructure and an expensive mistake.
Read the guide → Limited companyLimited Company Buy to Let Stamp Duty
A company always pays the higher rates of stamp duty, from the first pound and on every property. There is no first purchase relief for a company, so pricing the stamp duty correctly is part of every company buy to let decision, not an afterthought.
Read the guide → Limited companySection 24: Landlord Mortgage Interest Tax Relief
Section 24 quietly changed the maths of being a landlord. Mortgage interest is no longer a deduction against rental income, only a basic rate tax credit, and for higher rate taxpayers that shift is the reason companies now dominate new buy to let.
Read the guide → Limited companyLimited Company Director Mortgages
Company directors earn in a way high street systems struggle to read: a small salary, dividends on top and profit left in the business. The right lender looks past the payslip and sees the whole picture, which is where directors so often get a better answer.
Read the guide → Limited companyPersonal Guarantees on Company Mortgages
Behind almost every limited company mortgage sits a personal guarantee. It is the reason lenders are willing to lend to a company at all, and understanding exactly what you are signing is one of the most important things a director does.
Read the guide → Limited companyDeposits and Directors Loans
The deposit for a company buy to let almost always starts as the director's own money. Getting it into the company as a directors loan, and knowing how to draw it back out later, is one of the quiet advantages of the company route.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsPortfolio Landlord Finance: The Complete Guide
Once you hold four or more mortgaged buy to lets, lenders stop looking at each property on its own and start underwriting the whole portfolio. This is the guide to how that works and how to work it in your favour.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsWhat Is a Portfolio Landlord?
The label sounds like a lifestyle. It is actually a precise regulatory threshold that changes how every mortgage you take is assessed. Here is what a portfolio landlord really is.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsWhat Is Portfolio Finance?
Portfolio finance is what happens when a landlord stops being treated as the owner of several separate properties and starts being funded as a single, connected business.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsThe Buy to Let Stress Test Explained
Every buy to let application lives or dies on one calculation: does the rent cover the mortgage by enough, at a rate higher than you will actually pay? This is the stress test, explained in full.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsTop Slicing Explained: Using Income to Boost a Buy to Let
When the rent is close but not quite enough to pass the stress test, top slicing can bridge the gap using income the property does not produce itself.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsThe Portfolio Remortgage Guide
As fixed rates roll off across a portfolio, remortgaging is where a landlord either quietly loses margin or actively wins it back. Here is how to do it well.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsReleasing Equity From a Buy to Let Portfolio
The equity locked in a portfolio is dead money until you put it to work. Releasing it, carefully, is how most landlords fund their next purchase without reaching for new cash.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsBusiness Plans for Portfolio Lenders
For a larger portfolio, the business plan is not a formality. It is the document that tells an underwriter whether you run a property business or just own some houses.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsWhat Is a MUFB? Multi Unit Freehold Block Explained
MUFB is one of the most common acronyms a growing portfolio landlord meets, and one of the most misunderstood. Here is exactly what it means and how the finance works.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsWhat Is Bridge to Let?
Bridge to let is the finance for a property you cannot buy on a normal mortgage yet, but fully intend to keep and let once you can.
Read the guide → Portfolio landlordsBest Rental Yields in the UK: 248 Towns Ranked
We ranked 248 UK towns on gross rental yield using Land Registry sold prices and ONS private rents, so you can see where the numbers actually stack up before you buy.
Read the guide →Refinancing or growing a portfolio?
Send us the portfolio and how it is held and we will come back with a view on fundability and likely terms within one working day.