Howard Reuben - mortgage and insurance broker

85% LTV Buy-to-Let F1 product for Landlords: Foundation Home Loans

85% LTV Buy-to-Let F1 product for Landlords: Foundation Home...

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the buy-to-let mortgage market, you’ll know that products allowing you to borrow at 85% loan-to-value (LTV) are very rare nowadays. Well, things have just got interesting.

Your chance to help design a new Serco style BTL mortgage product and strategy

Your chance to help design a new Serco style BTL mortgage product...

Many property investors and BTL landlords have had to negotiate costly reviews over the last few years, and we have worked with many property business owners who are pursuing other rental strategies to...

Aldermore Bank’s multi property portfolio mortgage product saves time and money

Aldermore Bank’s multi property portfolio mortgage product...

Aldermore’s new proposition helps a portfolio landlord to refinance, cut remortgaging costs, simplify the Direct Debit management and manage the LTV across all assets. Submitting multi property buy to...

What puts mortgage applications outside of ‘standard’ criteria?

What puts mortgage applications outside of ‘standard’...

What makes a case complex compared to simple? Let’s start off by explaining what a simple case looks like: An employed person, who has been working at the same place and in the same role for around...

A Bridge Over Troubled Water?

A Bridge Over Troubled Water?

Bridging is one of those things that people sometimes struggle to understand how it works. Especially those new to this business. Simply put, it’s a mortgage to use on an unmortgageable property!

Lowered Stress Test Rates for BTL Remortgages

Lowered Stress Test Rates for BTL Remortgages...

Foundation Homeloans has released improved criteria updates that can help if you are a Higher-Rate Taxpayer. Previously, you would have to look at a lower loan due to the 145% stress rate knocking you...

Foundation – The Lender with many criteria quirks!

Foundation – The Lender with many criteria quirks!

Foundation Homeloans, are one of the more flexible lenders and recently had a bit of a shake-up.  Landlords will be interested in some of the quirks: They have a ‘solution’ based approach...

Purchasing auction property with Bridging finance

Purchasing auction property with Bridging finance...

If you are interested in purchasing property at auction and you are looking to finance this through a bridging loan, there are some considerations to make before application. What is your exit strategy?

New 85% LTV bridging loan product

New 85% LTV bridging loan product...

A Loan to Value of 85% is now possible with Lendinvest, including fees and 12-month roll-up interest of 1.09% per month. Below is a recent case study for this product that also incurred a 2% lender fee...

Buy a vacant BTL and have up to 6 months to refurbish it using final rental figure for affordability

Buy a vacant BTL and have up to 6 months to refurbish it using...

A brand new product was launched on the 17th of January for landlords who want to carry out light refurbishments. Light refurb means new bathrooms, kitchens, and non-structural redecorations. These new...

5 year fixed rate Paragon mortgages from 5.25% with ZERO arrangement fee

5 year fixed rate Paragon mortgages from 5.25% with ZERO arrangement...

Paragon Bank has cut rates on five-year fixed-rate buy-to-let mortgages by up to 0.7%, reduced its reference rate and also made changes to minimum and maximum loan term criteria. The new rates WITH NO...

BTL Mortgages starting below 4%

BTL Mortgages starting below 4%...

CHL Mortgages has expanded its product range, and now includes standard buy-to-let two-year fixed-rate mortgages up to 65% loan to value that start at 3.65%! Now that is attractive compared to recent rates.

£ for £ remortgage with NO Interest Cover Ratio

£ for £ remortgage with NO Interest Cover Ratio...

In the current market, some landlords are struggling to meet the lender’s requirement for rental income to be 125% – 145% of the mortgage payment. This can leave some stuck on the lenders standard...

Landbay break the sub 5% BTL barrier!

Landbay break the sub 5% BTL barrier!

Landbay, the BTL powerhouse taking on the bigger lenders in the fold have released a 4.75% mortgage rate! This is undercutting a huge amount of other products currently available and will see them edge...

Are you a Birmingham Midshires customer?

Are you a Birmingham Midshires customer?

We remember the times when Birmingham Midshires allowed us to submit 100+ mortgage applications for one Client, in one week. Those were the days, but even now, with all of the new stress testing calculations,

Stop, read, contact – if you don’t there is a cost of delay!

Stop, read, contact – if you don’t there is a cost...

Unless you’ve been travelling around on Jeff or Elon’s space rockets recently, you would not have missed the chaos and turmoil in the mortgage market. In just the last week or so, major lenders pulled...

Coutts mortgages now available

Coutts mortgages now available...

Our high-net-worth Clients and Property118 members can now have access to Coutts via my team of Brokers. Coutts mortgages and services can be seen by clicking here The Key criteria for Coutts include a...

Life insurance, what types are they and what do they do?

Life insurance, what types are they and what do they do?

You may be surprised to know that life insurance isn’t always about death. There are several different types of insurance, they all do different things and are made to cover certain aspects of finance.

Why do I consider Landbay a specialist BTL lender?

Why do I consider Landbay a specialist BTL lender?

Landbay’s Buy to Let Mortgages proposition is new and improved for 2023 and their criteria list below shows why they should be considered a serious specialist lender for the property rental market.

Buy-for-Uni: How to be a student student landlord

Buy-for-Uni: How to be a student student landlord...

It’s that time of year when students will be looking to sort out accommodation for the upcoming year, so what better time to learn more about our Buy-for-Uni proposition? A Buy-for-Uni mortgage allows...

12:54 PM, 15th January 2020, About 6 years ago

R2R challenges?

Reply to the comment left by Richard Peeters at 15/01/2020 - 12:22

Hello Richard. We work on a specific, personalised and case-by-case basis, so please contact me for advice on which lenders and products you may be eligible for.

There is no one-answer-fits-all in this particular strategy (so many other factors are crucial too, eg portfolio size, experience, assets / liabilities, age, net income, credit status etc), so whereas there may be an agreement to lend by a commercial mortgage lender, or holiday let lender etc, they may say yes to some people and no to others. Same as all mortgage applications of course.

In my experience there is absolutely no benefit to anyone for a list of lenders to be banded about, because the lenders only want to receive properly packaged cases from experienced brokers who carry out a lot of the initial underwriting and due diligence up front for them, and not to be bombarded by tyre-kicking enquiries (which happens a lot) that take up a huge amount of their resources for no return.

Our lender partners would not take kindly to me listing them in this type of 'quirky' discussion.... Read More

12:09 PM, 15th January 2020, About 6 years ago

R2R challenges?

"..... recommend ANY mortgage lenders who are happy to lend on R2R properties?" .... simply, no.
Sub letting is a non allowed activity and is stated in mortgage product criteria and reiterated in the mortgage Offer (ie the legally binding contract between lender and borrower).
Unencumbered properties may be ok for R2R, because only you own it. Mortgaged properties are of course also 'owned' by the bank due to the charge secured on the property, and the T's and C's of the Offer must not be breached.
Unless a prior agreement is formally confirmed by the lender, the property (irrespective of whether it is a single let, holiday let, HMO or otherwise) must only be let out as per the product criteria stipulations.
As also mentioned in earlier posts, having the wrong mortgage in place may also invalidate the property insurance in place too.
We are a very busy property investor focused mortgage Firm, and yet we do not get involved in funding R2R schemes at all. We have never knowingly enabled a new mortgage for a property that was subsequently sub let out.
So, to conclude, there may be lenders and insurance companies providing solutions for R2R scenarios, but be wary of the legal position for you, and the people who live in your property. The occupants deserve a peaceful enjoyment of your property and should any misfortune arise and a claim is made against your insurance, you need to make sure that the policy is not null and void due to an occupancy which breaks the mortgage terms.
caveat emptor... Read More

15:52 PM, 12th November 2019, About 6 years ago

Bare Trust as IHT mitigation tool?

This is a matter for a tax adviser, however I also have a couple of notes, too.

Firstly, because of the additional IHT relief for main residence (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-main-residence-nil-rate-band-and-the-existing-nil-rate-band/inheritance-tax-main-residence-nil-rate-band-and-the-existing-nil-rate-band) I think (if this can indeed be applied) then the sum is;

£1.5m (higher value used as 'worst case scenario')
divide by 2 (each sisters share)
= £750K

£750K - £325K (nil rate) - £150K (19/20 - additional rate) = £275k.

£275k x 40% = £110k. = IHT liability

And so it's the £110k which needs 'repaying' / protecting.

(ps the £150k relief is increased to £175k for the 20/21 tax year)

There are so many ways to reduce / mitigate / eradicate and also repay this sum, and here is another one;

* whole-of-life life insurance policy, written in to Trust, for £110k, for a non smoking 'late 60's' person, could be arranged at a (standard rate) monthly premium of approximately £300pm.

For a 59 year old £180pm
For a 49 year old £125pm
For a 39 year old £85pm

And WOL life insurance policies are extremely flexible so as regular reviews are carried out and adjustments to sums assured are required, it's simply an internal amendment and no fees or professional charges are necessary. In fact, we don't charge to set them up in the first place either.

Now, for some people, the immediate thought is that £300pm (for a 'late 60s' policyholder) is a lot of money. However, the actual fiscal balance is > pay out £110,000 (at any time from today onwards) .... or £300pm. If - in the worst possible situation - the lady died one day after the policy started, all that has been paid out is £300. And in return, her Trustee would then have the full £110,000 to pay the tax man.

Insurance is a risk and there are balances to consider.

So, this is just another option, in addition to the estate planning Trusts, loan arrangements, investment bonds, etc.

The above is not personalised advice but simply a generic overview of possible options (which will only be formalised after our Advisers have carried out a proper Fact Find, received the specific IHT tax liability from a professional tax adviser, and we then provide recommendations and insured advice).... Read More

10:11 AM, 22nd August 2019, About 6 years ago

Mortgage with a council grant?

An interesting conundrum.

1) "The main condition surrounding the grant is that you must rent the property to LHA tenants for 5 years or ‘lease’ the property to the council for 5 years once the council gives you the grant and you finish the work."

This is the first quirk - most BTL lenders require a straightforward 6 or 12 month tenancy agreement (some up to 36 months) and of course there are still some lenders who won't lend on a property with 'DSS'/LHA tenants. So straight away the quantity of lenders that you would otherwise have access to, has significantly shrunk.

2) "If you wish to dispose of the property within those 5 years, you are simply required to repay the grant in full, otherwise the grant is just free money."

How is the grant money 'contracted' to you? Is it a charge on the property? This may be a consideration (issue) for the lenders too. A copy of the grant conditions would need to be reviewed before presented to any lenders.

so, taking the above in to consideration ....

3) "My concern in how mortgage companies will view the situation and whether it would reduce my chance of getting a, good rate, mortgage."

..... it won't be straightforward, and of course there are all of the other factors to assess as well, such as size of existing portfolio, aggregate LTV's, required LTV, rental income stress calculations etc.

We can possibly assist on a case by case basis, and so to contact my Team of Brokers, click on my profile link above.... Read More

17:26 PM, 16th August 2019, About 7 years ago

Landlords - what would YOU like to see in a training course?

Property owners being informed about the appropriate mortgage products for the type of tenancies they operate.

Renting a property out whilst having a resi mortgage in situ (without consent to let) is a breach of the terms
Standard BTL for AirBnB is a breach
Multi letting a property when the BTL mortgage only allows a single AST tenancy is a breach
Expired consent to let (they only usually last for 12 months) is a breach
.... And so many more.
Training a landlord to adhere to laws and rules should at least touch upon these subjects, but they are rarely included.
Happy to offer my 26+ years of experience as a Broker (not to mention my circa 20 years as a landlord too), Tessa.... Read More

14:52 PM, 7th August 2019, About 7 years ago

Lifetime fixed buy-to-let mortgages where max LTV increases the older you are

I'm looking at a deal for a Client at the moment - not necessarily using the product above, but of course it would be remiss not to offer as an alternative option for consideration - and he has a £1m property in west London, and needs a £200k mortgage. The (standard) mortgage would be approx £500pm / £6k pa, but this outgoing is of course a reduction in his cashflow and when the tax bill arrives, if he decides that this strategy is right for him, then he will have the £6000 'saved' to use towards the tax. Just one of the many features and benefits of this product. So, not just for the 'miserable peasants' Mick ( 🙂 ) and not just to put towards holidays etc., but also clever financial planning for future cashflow and business strategy arrangements... Read More

10:22 AM, 7th August 2019, About 7 years ago

Lifetime fixed buy-to-let mortgages where max LTV increases the older you are

This is not new. Canada Life is the new trading name for Retirement Advantage and I / we / Property118 published the launch of that product a couple of years ago > https://www.property118.com/buy-let-equity-release-retirement-advantage-launched/
The concept may now be years old, but the principle is still fantastic for the right borrower.
And available via my specialist / Lifetime Mortgage brokerage, which is authorised to advise in the areas. Contact details via my profile link above.... Read More

Registered with Property118.com
Friday 7th June 2013

Total Number of Property118 Comments:
373

Bio

Principal of H D Consultants - national award winning Buy To Let Mortgage Broker of the Year - www.hdconsultants.net/awards

Mortgage adviser specialising in Buy To Let finance, HMO mortgages, portfolio funding, residential mortgages, life insurance and estate planning, since 1993

MD of Assured Funding Ltd., - specialist finance brokerage providing commercial mortgages, development finance, bridging loans, expat mortgages and also providing our Clients with access to private bank finance, peer to peer funding, pension fund lending

MD of Assured Protect - specialist landlords insurance Firm - Rent Guarantee Insurance, portfolio insurance cover, buildings, contents, holiday let, life insurance, business protection

And in my personal life ..... husband, dad (3x children), granddad, rugby fan, sausage maker, 80's synth electronic fan, bass guitar player, and custodian of a tortoise called Percy (think of Blackadder - and the long necked Lord Percy :-) )

H D Consultants is proud to have worked very closely with Mark, Neil and Mike for many years, and is a recommended mortgage broker on Property118.com