Buying a ‘House’ currently used as a commercial premises

weddingringman

There is a house near us that has been used as an office for decades. It’s in a residential area, and still has a bathroom and kitchen etc, and you’d actually be forgiven for thinking it was just a family home. 

It just needs gutted of all the office-like stuff, like the stud partition walls thrown up to form smaller rooms. Blocking off the surplus doorways and upgrading the wiring which is trunked like an office. 

It has planning permission to be re-classed as a house, but thats subject to a rationalisation of the layout and digging up the entire back garden which is a car park. 

So the crux of my question is how do I buy this? All mortgage lenders I’ve approached have said no because it’s not actually a house. 

Would any lender do a ‘business’ loan that can be converted to a mortgage in 6 months once the building work is complete and it’s signed off as a ‘house’?

Is this all going to be far more expensive than had it just been a house house? 

user1977

weddingringman said:

Would any lender do a ‘business’ loan that can be converted to a mortgage in 6 months once the building work is complete and it’s signed off as a ‘house’?

Yes, but it would need to be some form of development finance (i.e. for a project which is mostly going to be a building site, not standard business lending for an occupier). Which will be more expensive and difficult to get than any "normal" mortgage.