Open deck access (bank valuation and ability to sell)

xpi

Hi

We have 10% deposit for the house we want to buy. We are joint buyers and one of us is on Tier 2 visa. House price is a bit less than 3 joint annual salaries. This house has is a nice ex-council house with open deck access, but with a locked entrance and in a nice zone 2 area in London.

Our mortgage advisor (A) told us to not try to go with it because NatWest who can work with clients on visa won't give us a mortgage.
We asked advice of the sales agent company. They gave us the contacts of another mortgage advisor (B). Advisor B says that with our circumstances there is a bank which will give us the mortgage and the interest rate will still be normal.

We have concerns that we can easily fail the house valuation check because of [ex-council house] + [open deck access] + [visa] + [low deposit].
And the second concern is that it would be hard to sell this house because of the [ex-council] + [open deck]. It also looks like the house haven't received many offers.

Could it be a good deal to buy an open deck access flat?

David_White

I've had a similar case not so long ago and placed it without any real issues so I'd expect Advisor B knows where to go.

In regards to re-sale, that is a great point and it's good that you've considered it already.

If it's a property which is potentially awkward to get a mortgage on and no one up to now has made an offer on it then it stands to reason that it wouldn't be easy to sell in the future as your pool of potential buyers may be smaller.

amnblog

VISA issues depend a lot on loan to value and time in the UK.

You are correct in spotting that Deck Access is a no for some Lenders.

A good broker will sort this for you.

ACG

Im with Advisor B and David on this.

It can be done. The bigger issue is when you come to sell your buyers may have limited options, but in high demand areas of London a lot of lenders are prepared to make exceptions.

xpi

(continue the story)

We spoke with broker B. We were expecting he proposes us some exotic bank. However it was Halifax with 3.8 / 4.25 % rate.

Definitely A knows about Halifax. We told B that our current broker knows about it and didn't recommend us to take the mortgage for this flat. B answered smth like "we (agency) have more weight for the bank than an independent broker".

3.8 / 4.25 is not very good, of course. However we can bargain for that amount thinking that after 2 years with higher deposit we can remortgage to the typical rate 2.25.

Our main concern is that we will take a high risk and may receive refusal after the valuation. Please write if we can do anything to increase our confidence for that house?

David_White

Sounds like you're heading in the right direction.

Ok, if this was my case I'd phone Colleys (your broker should know) and simply ask them the questions regarding this property.

If it's an outright no they will say and you've avoided the pain of an application. More than likely they'll say it's down to "valuers comments" at which point you need to choose whether to roll the dice or not.