Helping an investor bring an uninhabitable property back to life

Loan Amount:
£496,000

Property Value:
£663,000

LTV:
75%

Refurbishments can be relatively straightforward to assess. A cosmetic upgrade to raise a portfolio’s value is easy enough to underwrite. But where a property needs a complete overhaul to be habitable, more robust reviews are needed.

A borrower turned to us with an investment in a debilitated property. They needed our funds to acquire the home, while putting in plans to get a refurbishment started ahead of renting it out.

Our underwriter needed to make sure this deal fitted in with our parameters. To do this, they’d need to thoroughly go over the details.

Making sure the refurbishment matched up with the exit strategy

The borrower planned to cover most of the refurbishment with their own resources. As such, we determined as soon as possible that this was feasible, allowing us to focus on the acquisition.

For the exit strategy, the borrower planned to refinance with a long-term lender. Given the state of the property at the time, it may have been difficult to find another lender who’d be willing to work with the investor.

Fortunately, the underwriter confirmed that there were plenty of lenders that would be able to help once the work was done, reassuring us there’d be a way forward once the property was fully refurbished and gaining interest from tenants. Despite the risks involved, we found that the investment held a lot of long-term potential, which allowed us to deliver funding.

There’s a lot of properties out there in need of some TLC

Refurbishment, renovations, and conversions hold a lot of potential in our market. There has been a clear and accelerating rise in the number of empty residential buildings in England. The pressure is on to utilise these assets properly.

We’re ready to help investors who realise this. Our loans can help with refurbishments (including those that need planning permission), conversions of all kinds, development exits, and more.

For anyone who looks at a rundown home or an empty store and sees opportunity, we’re here to facilitate action.