As the demand for social housing continues to rise, more private landlords are choosing to collaborate with Local Authorities to provide essential accommodation across a diverse range of community needs.
To support this growing sector, we’re enhancing our lending criteria and introducing a more streamlined legal process, which means we can support your clients with reliable and straightforward funding for this style of property investment.
We’ve simplified our legal process
Simplified lease guidance: minimum standard requirements for leases reduced from 14 points to 7, focusing on ensuring the basics are in place, such as an agreed fixed term and that the property will be used as residential accommodation.
We no longer require upfront lease reviews. Instead, they will be conducted by panel law firm JMW as part of the post-FMO solicitor instruction, with costs included in the legal quote.
We’ve enhanced our lending criteria
Social Housing available on our range of Complex Buy-to-Let and Structured Real Estate products with loans from £50k up to £50m and rates starting from 4.79%.
Our standard valuation requirements apply depending on asset type, including AVMs for single houses and flats (subject to criteria).
Acceptable security includes single residential units (including where part of a semi-commercial property), HMOs up to 10 occupants or MUFBs up to 10 flats. Loans are structured against the property’s AST market rent with valuations based on standard BTL methodology.
The property and intended use must comply with residential planning use – we’re unable to lend on care home or hotel planning use or where regulated care is required.
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We provided a £19 million structured loan with no personal or corporate guarantees, tailored to meet the needs of a complex ownership structure involving a Guernsey trust. The funding enabled the refinance of 153 houses across Greater Manchester that were mostly leased to a national Social Housing operator, helping to address the increasing demand for social housing in the North.
Further criteria updates
Large HMO & MUFB experience updates
Criteria have been enhanced to allow lending to landlords who have at least 12 months’ experience managing a similar number of tenants within their existing portfolio. This supports single‑let landlords looking to diversify into large HMOs or MUFBs for the first time.
Newly built or converted properties
We continue to expect either a new‑build warranty or a Professional Consultant’s Certificate (PCC). However, we will now consider lending on an investment basis where neither is available, provided the conversion did not require structural alterations and satisfactory evidence confirms the work was carried out in compliance with planning and building regulations.
Uplift in value since purchase
We no longer require a detailed schedule of works. Instead, we will rely on the valuation report to help us understand how the property has increased in value.