Difficulty securing mortgage on concrete construction

Aaroncity · 25 July 2017 at 8:16PM

I'm in the process of purchasing an apartment on the ground floor within a 7-story building, having already paid a large reservation deposit. This building used to be for offices, but is now being converted to apartments so is not purpose built originally for apartments.

All was going well until the lender has come back saying the application has been rejected as the property is of: 'large panel concrete construction'.

My concern is now should I look for another lender? My LTV is 90% and I've been informed before my options will be very limited on a new build, particularly as I've now found out it's of concrete construction, which I wasn't informed of before.

If I was to pull out would I have a right to my reservation deposit back? Seeing as I wasn't informed of the construction, and I haven't been given any T&C's or had to sign anything with the developer yet.

What's the best thing to do? Continue or withdraw? The property is in an affluent and popular area, but if I struggle to resell later on due to general lack of unavailability of lenders due to concrete construction, then this is another concern!

glosoli · 25 July 2017 at 9:27PM

Putting aside the concrete construction of the property, another problem you may have is securing a 90% LTV mortgage on a "new build" flat.

How much of a deposit have you put down? Did you receive any legal advice before hand?

Aaroncity · 25 July 2017 at 9:33PM

Yes, securing a 90% LTV mortgage on a new build was never going to be easy, unfortunately I didn't find this out until I was already in mortgage securing territory.

The reservation was £2000 hence why I am slightly concerned about recovering it, no legal advice beforehand...