Semi-Commercial Advice Needed!!

NW24

Any help and advice gratefully received!

A year ago I moved back to my home town to set up a specialist education service.  My business is a Ltd co (by shares) and I am the sole Director/proprietor. I rent a property in which I both live and work (I work with children who are unable to attend school, and providing a 'home-like' environment is very effective). My partner still lives with his children in the property we co-own in a town an hour away. It is valued at around £335k with around £60k equity. 

As business is taking off I am now looking to expand. As part of these plans I would like to look at buying a larger property in my home town and lease part of it to my business. However, I do not have access to a large deposit, only the equity in my house in which my partner lives.  Therefore, I am looking for advice so I can plan accordingly. 

My preference would be to not sell the property I co-own, so would my partner have to buy me out? This would only provide me with half of the equity, and the properties I am currently looking at are around the £400-£450k mark, so what are lenders considering in terms of LTV currently? Alternatively, I have read that it may be possible to use the equity in my house as security, is this accurate? Could an option be that my partner and I buy the second house together? I am also keen to understand the conditions for lending for semi-commercial mortgages, as I have read that business viability plans are taken into consideration (not simply affordability). I am particularly interested if there is a turnover threshold/calculation, for example. 

Any advice you could offer at this stage would greatly help my planning!!

Many thanks in advance!

ACG

Speak to a mortgage broker. This is quite niche and complex. I think you will need a normal mortgage broker rather than a commercial one as there is the residential element which would mean it is regulated (commercial lenders wont normally lend on those properties).