Ex Council High Rise Mortgage problem

andy1832

Apologies if this has been asked before - my daughter has had her ex council flat on 10th floor for around 9 years and has a mortgage with Mortgage Express (Bradford and Bingley) She is in the process of selling as she now has a baby and needs a house. Having found a buyer and accepted their offer a while ago it now transpires that they cannot get a mortgage on this type of property. Estate Agent can't help - no surprise there! A search of Google indicates that no one is now offering mortgages on this type of property and have not done so for several years. She is therefore stuck and probably unable to rent it out as mortgage conditions will not permit this.

Any thoughts out there?

kingstreet

There are various issues surrounding former council property. The construction method used, the height of the block and the floor the flat is located, percentage of block in private/public ownership.

Then you have the loan to value issue. What percentage the buyer needs to borrow.

Frankly, I don't know if there's anyone out there willing to lend on ex-council high-rise at the moment. The buyer would need to seek out a broker who may be able to give a definitive answer.

Jimbo1976

How high is the block? That's the main question rather than which floor its on.

if she cannot sell it, she would have a good chance of being given consent to let.

andy1832

Sorry should have said it's 10th floor of 10. I have read that most lenders put a limit at 5 storeys!

Also majority of residents are still council tenants.

I can understand the issues here as daughter has in her time there copped for high shared costs of lift repairs, fire doors, entryphone replacements etc.etc.

Dave_Ham

Whenever this question crops up, typically there are 2 lenders that will consider the application.

Both will mark as subject to valuers comments and will depend upon the geographic location and the factors Kings. mentioned earlier.

As stated, buyer will need an experienced broker and usually not the Estate Agent one..

Conrad

I now find no lenders will touch many a high rise block, even when there's only 7 or so stories.

Certainly in my area these properties are strictly cash buyers only.


I am currently trying to buy a couple of buy to lets and have been offered these properties but have decided the risks are too great.
For a start, many of these are being torn down as they generally get beyond the point of repair and the concrete becommes dangerous. Therefore I would be concerned what would happen to my investment in that case.

Another issue is block insurance as some of these places are becomming uninsurable.

My honest thought is just to let it out for life or take a hit now and sell it for a low price to a cash buyer, but you have to understand that this buyer will have a choice of buying non high rise so to buy this place the investor needs a very low price.

ACG

Where is the property based?
Its going to be a very difficult mortgage to place.

Ive seen one in a 16 story block on the 9th floor go through. However it was about 15% LTV and in a pretty nice part of manchester (yes there are a few nice areas).

LTV and Area are possibly going to be key.