Staycations are rising in popularity driving an increase in demand for holiday rental mortgage products, with a marked increase in the number of first-time landlords looking for finance.
While many lenders are uncomfortable lending to first-time landlords, West One do not require any previous holiday let experience. Instead, we treat every client and case as an individual, this approach allowed us to successfully help our client to convert their 17th century Somerset barn into a high-end holiday rental.
The client owned a barn in Somerset that they wanted to convert into a holiday let.
The client owned a 6 bedroom, listed 17th-century barn in Somerset with an internal swimming pool.
The client wanted to convert the barn into a holiday let however the property had been newly refurbished and not yet let, so there was no track record of holiday let potential.
Other lenders had assessed the AST rental potential and failed to make the deal work coupled with the borrowers being the first time holiday let landlords they could not get comfortable.
We assessed the AST income and could use the pay rate on the five-year fixed product to secure the borrowing the client required.
We also allow first-time landlords across the majority of our products, so lack of experience was not an issue for us.
West One are experts in complex holiday let property transactions. Our expert team are committed to delivering cases with speed and flexibility.
We apply an individual approach to underwriting to ensure we review each case on its merits, ensuring we support clients with the smooth and secure purchase or re-mortgage they require.
The remortgage of their property allowed the client to upgrade their barn conversion to a high specification holiday let, enabling the client to charge a premium.
By taking a common-sense approach to lending, we were able to lend based on the AST rental and were not restricted by the client being a first-time landlord.