We recently secured a buy to let purchase at 75% loan to value (LTV) for a first time buyer client on a 25-year repayment term. My client was a League 1 professional football player in France who was a French resident, yet held a foreign passport. He wanted to purchase a new-build property in the UK.
One particular challenge we faced with this case was that as a professional footballer, our client’s career was generally expected to be quite short-lived. Because of this, the majority of banks were only happy to offer a short-term of five to 10 years on interest only, yet our client specifically wanted a 25-year term.
The client was a foreign national with no footprint in the UK which made things more difficult, as he had no UK mortgage or credit history. Additionally, the client’s football contract was in French and needed to be translated into English by a third party for the lender, adding further complications and threatening the timescale for this case.
Despite this, we were able to persuade a private lender to take a view on our client, partly because of our longstanding business relationship, but also due to our client fitting with their preferred criteria. Private banks will nearly always use a case-by-case approach rather than the stringent lending criteria found on the high street, meaning they are much more open to considering a client for as much of their personal situation as their financial situation.
Although 75% loan to value (LTV) is fairly average for a new-build, the fact that he was a foreign national first time buyer for a buy to let purchase made this an excellent result. We were able to secure this at a very competitive rate, allowing the client to achieve exactly what he hoped for.
