BTL Second Charge Mortgages / No Monthly Payments

BTL Second Charge Mortgages / No Monthly Payments

21:59 PM, 30th October 2013, About 11 years ago 145

Text Size

No this is NOT a wind up, it’s 100% genuine and is important that you know how it works so that at the very least you can make an informed decision about new financing choices which until now have been unavailable to buy to let landlords.

It really is a fantastic way to improve cashflow and rental profits or increase gearing without the need to remortgage.

A very credible mortgage lender (Castle Trust) is offering second charge buy to let mortgages with no interest charges and no monthly payments based on 20% of value subject to both the first and second mortgage combined not exceeding 85% LTV on BTL deals and 80% on your own home.

You can use the money in whatever way you wish, for example:-

  1. You can use it to pay down existing mortgages
  2. You can save the money for a rainy day
  3. You can use the money to buy more property
  4. In fact, you can blow it all at the local casino if your daft enough too!

So what’s the catch?

With no monthly payments or monthly interest charged, the lender must get paid somehow. This product works with a profit share basis, in that you borrow 20% of the value of your property the lender will take 40% of any increase in value – on sale or refinance.

You will also need to obtain permission from your existing mortgage lender for a second charge to be added.

Given that your equity in the property may represent as little as 15% of the value of the property and you will receive 60% of the capital appreciation you don’t need to be Einstein to work out that it’s better to use their money than yours, especially if you use the extra money raised to purchase more properties. Remember, you will not be making any payment or incurring any interest whatsoever until you sell or refinance.

Imagine if somebody put this deal to you …. I want to buy a property, you put 20% of the money and I will put in 15% and borrow the remaining 65%. I take all the rental profit/losses and when we eventually sell the property I will get 60% of the capital appreciation and you will get 40%. Oh and by the way, I will decide when we sell, OK? You would probably say no wouldn’t you? Well if you put that deal to Castle Trust, chances are they will say yes providing you have a good credit rating. It really is that good.

Basic criteria

The loan term can be up to 30 years if the equity loan is secured against your own home, 10 years if it’s a rental property.

Your total LTV must not exceed 85% on a rental property, 80% if the loan is secured on your own home..

There are no limits on the number of properties the lender will consider lending on per borrower and their maximum loan exposure to any one client is £1 million.

The minimum advance is £10,000.

For rental properties there is no requirement to have a first mortgage.

You must be able to prove that you have been a landlord for at least six months to qualify and you also need a decent credit score.

Pros and cons?

I can see several reasons why this will be attractive to landlords and I will be using this product myself for the following reasons …

  1. Deals may not stack up on rent to ordinarily qualify for an 85% LTV mortgage but may do so on this basis
  2. It’s a relatively easy way to raise capital against the security of your existing rental portfolio or your own home
  3. Improved cashflow when compared to a conventional mortgage for a higher amount
  4. Raise money without paying off an amazing tracker or fixed rate deal arranged pre-credit crunch
  5. Avoid potentially extortionate fees associated with refinancing
  6. Increase borrowing without affecting cashflow
  7. Use of other peoples money to increase leverage and returns on capital invested
  8. Castle Trust do not legal or valuation fees to arrange finance on your own home and their arrangement fees are only 1% of the advance. Valuations on rental properties cost £195+ VAT and conveyancing costs £216. This means that total fees are likely to be significantly less than arranging a conventional remortgage.
  9. Some landlords will wish to borrow 20% LTV via Castle Trust to partially redeem their mortgage with another lender and thus benefit from improved cashflow.
  10. Some landlords will wish to utilise this product to borrow more money
  11. Some landlords will wish to mix and match, i.e. reduce existing interest bearing debt and increase overall gearing to 85% LTV

Downsides

  1. Your risk is higher than that of Castle Trust because they get paid back before you do on the basis they have second charge over the property. Therefore, if the property decreases in value then you carry the majority of the risk. However, unless you’ve come to the end of the loan term it’s up to you to decide when you sell, they have no say in it.
  2. Future remortgaging may prove more difficult
  3. No new build property, i.e. properties built in the last two years
  4. The product is only available on properties located in England and Wales (not Scotland or Northern Ireland)
  5. 40% reduction in any future capital appreciation but you do need to consider that you may well be able to use the money to make a better return elsewhere
  6. The improved cashflow, in comparison to an higher traditional mortgage, will increase taxable income. However, many will see that it’s better to pay tax on profit than to have no profit at all
  7. Early repayment charge of 5% in year one
  8. If you wish to repay the loan without selling the property then you are committed to proving Castle Trust a return equal to the greater of 2% per year for the period which the loan has run or 40% of the rise in property price
  9. You will need to contact your existing mortgage lender before progressing matters to establish whether they will allow a second charge to be taken

We have no idea how long this funding will be available for so if this is of interest we recommend you to get in quickly. BTL Further Advances No Monthly Payments

We will be arranging introductions to brokers on a panel of specialist advisers which I have personally hand picked. The role of the adviser will be to review your portfolio and provide you with bespoke advice and quotations based upon your personal circumstances.

We are also considering the demand for free of charge introductions to a non-advised mortgage packager service. However, unless you consider yourself to be a sophisticated investor and in need of no advice and associated protection we strongly recommend you to obtain professional advice from our carefully selected panel of advisers.

Obviously we want to make some money out of this too so we are charging a fee of for introductions to our panel of professional advisers. By charging for the introductions we, and the advisers we are referring to, recognise that only serious enquirers will progress matters. This is a good way to ensure that our advisers are not bogged down answering questions from time wasters and also provides a very a good reason for our recommended advisers to prioritise our referrals.

Our fee for arranging an introduction to a professional adviser, who will visit you to provide face to face advice if that is required, is £200, payable to Innovative Landlord Solutions LLP (the legal owner of Property118.com) either by credit/debit card or via PayPal. You will then be contacted within 7 days.

Professional Adviser Introduction Request Form

  • Fees are non-refundable


Share This Article


Comments

Neil Patterson

18:30 PM, 2nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "P Y" at "02/11/2013 - 15:02":

The version for rental properties has only been released through a very limited panel of brokers in the last few days. It is top up finance, primarily to be used for capital raising against a property already owned. However, funds may also be used as a partial debt for equity swap , for example, refinancing 20% of an existing 85% LTV deal down to 65% by replacing part of the interest bearing loan for an equity loan secured on a second charge basis. Castle Trust are working on a purchase based product which is expected to be launched in the new year. The existing product sits over and above existing mortgage facilities.

helena dolisznyj

20:48 PM, 2nd November 2013, About 11 years ago

em sounds very interesting!

im will watch comments and questions with intrigue.

Maninder Gujral

11:48 AM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Mark, Interesting to note some of the updates since you originally posted this article, re: we would need to seek consent from an existing lender for a 2nd charge to be obtained, and it's a 10 year term available where the 2nd charge is taken for a BTL property.
Does anyone have any experience of approaching Mortgage Express and asking them about the 2nd charge? I don't like speaking to them as they're out to convince BTL investors who enjoy good "pre credit crunch" terms with them, to "settle" their loans.
Also if I take out the Castle Trust loan and want to settle this with them before the expirary of the term, or before I sell or re-finance, who/how conducts a valuation?

Howard Reuben Cert CII (MP) CeRER

14:00 PM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Maninder Gujral" at "04/11/2013 - 11:48":

Hi Maninder

The product details (and processes) are available to be presented 'as is', but I strongly recommend that NO mortgage / loan / 1st or 2nd charge, is implemented without a borrower taking (face to face, where possible) mortgage advice (and poss tax, legal and accountancy too) in the first place.

Castle Trust is NOT a direct to consumer proposition and is only available via a limited panel of Brokers and distributors.

Because there are still the usual 'hoops' to jump through (and a few others when applied as a 2nd charge - by the way, this can be a 1st charge product too in the right circumstances) I therefore recommend that any borrowers work with an impartial, whole of market (and NACFB member) Broker, for professional, qualified and expert advice.

Maninder Gujral

14:41 PM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Howard Reuben" at "04/11/2013 - 14:00":

Thanks Howard
Having registered my interest for this, I trust that an impartial, whole of market (and NACFB member) adviser, giving professional and expert advice is what I'll be getting when one of Mark's panel of professional advisers contacts me.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

14:50 PM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Maninder Gujral" at "04/11/2013 - 14:41":

Hi Maninder

Howard is one of our recommended advisers, however, it was only today confirmed by his regulatory network that his firm are able to refer business to Castle Trust. Therefore, given that your enquiry was received last week we referred you to an alternative whole of market NACFB member firm on our panel and they should be in touch very soon.
.

Andy Boothman

15:51 PM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Checking I have understood correctly:

£600,000 Current value prop (current casual Estate agent valuation)
£250,000 Existing mortgage (42% LTV)
£200,000 Castle Trust equity loan (33.3% of value) + increases overall LTV to 75%

5years later, property sold at £750,000
£200,000 Castle Trust equity loan returned
£99,990 paid to Castle = to 66.6% of the increase in property value

If the above is correct then it looks expensive for that particular example to borrow £200,000 and end up paying near on £100,000 back, of course if the property sold in 5 years time with no appreciation = £600,000 then you'd have to pay Castle just 2% pa of the equity loaned = £4,000 x 5 = £20,000

It begs the question of how many ways people might try to abuse the system, either Castle trying to downvalue the initial valuation (to increase the later uplift) or the owner selling to a 'friend' at a lower than market value to minimise the uplift in value (am I right in assuming it's the actual sold price that would be used rather than a valuation carried out by Castles panel valuer just prior to sale?)

I'm trying to understand the basic mechanics of the deal pior to spending £200 to apply.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

16:28 PM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Andy Boothman" at "04/11/2013 - 15:51":

Hi Andy

The maximum exposure Castle Trust would take is 20% of valuation. Therefore, I have re-worked your figures as follows:-

£600,000 Current value
£250,000 Existing mortgage
£120,000 Castle Trust equity loan (20% of value being the maximum allowable)

5years later, property sold at £750,000
£120,000 Castle Trust equity loan returned
£60,000 return paid to Castle = to 40% of the increase in property value (i.e. £150,000 gain X 40% = £60,000)

If you were to borrow the £120,000 at say 5% per annum serviced monthly in the normal way then interest would be £30,000 and hence, yes it could considered to be an expensive option, i.e. double what you might have paid. However, it's not good to compare apples with eggs. The costs of raising the extra £120,000 would probably incur more fees and may well require you to refinance onto a less attractive rate than you are currently paying for the existing finance so both of these factors need to be taken into account. Further, you may not be able to raise the extra £120,000 via conventional interest bearing mortgage finance and if that's the case you may miss out on other highly lucrative investment opportunities. As you have correctly surmised, the more capital appreciation, the greater the cost.

I trust that helps.
.

Howard Reuben Cert CII (MP) CeRER

17:24 PM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Andy Boothman" at "04/11/2013 - 15:51":

Hi Andy

To add a further answer; there is NO redemption penalty payable if the property is SOLD AND the value did NOT increase (or was reduced) at the time of sale.

There is only a redemption charge (of 2%) at the natural end of the term.

If however the property is sold during the term, the charge does not apply.

This is called a waiver of the MRA (Minimum Repayment Amount) and so I can confirm that the 2% per annum only applies on all repayments at the end of the mortgage term itself, not on sale during the term

Yes, in that instance, the lender more or less does the whole deal for nowt (except the up front arrangement fee).

Howard

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

18:05 PM, 4th November 2013, About 11 years ago

Reply to the comment left by "Howard Reuben" at "04/11/2013 - 17:24":

Howard

I agree but the property MUST be sold before the loan term ends for this to apply, otherwise see my comment of 31/10/2013 at 16:11 quoting Paul Howard, the Castle Trust MD

"..... In the instance you mention i.e. not selling, there is a minimum repayment amount equivalent to 2%pa simple. This provides us with some cover in the event of minimal increase in the property value. I set out below the wording from our loan document addressing a dispute.

If you disagree with a Written Valuation of your home instructed after the Partnership Mortgage has been advanced, you may dispute it with us. In this case, you will need to pay for us to instruct a second Written Valuation to be carried out by a different valuer from our approved panel.

If we agree with the second Written Valuation, we will use this value instead and you will not be able to choose to use the first valuation. If we disagree with it we may arrange, at our expense, for a third Written Valuation by a valuer from a third firm on our approved panel and we will resolve the dispute by using the average of the two closest Written Valuations."
.

Leave Comments

In order to post comments you will need to Sign In or Sign Up for a FREE Membership

or

Don't have an account? Sign Up

Landlord Tax Planning Book Now