Cash Buyer. No Lender Restrictions.
If a mortgage lender has declined to lend on your flat, or a buyer's mortgage application has failed because of a survey or valuation, we can help. As cash buyers we are not subject to any lender's requirements.
A flat becomes unmortgageable when mortgage lenders, either all of them or the majority, will not advance funds against it. This can happen for a range of reasons, some related to the physical property, some to the leasehold title, and some to the building it sits in.
The result is always the same: the pool of buyers for your flat shrinks to those who can buy in cash. That means fewer people, lower offers, and often a much longer time on the market, or no sale at all.
We buy all types of unmortgageable leasehold flat. We have been buying properties that lenders decline since 2003, and that specialism means we can assess quickly whether and what we can offer.
Each case has its own complications. We assess them all before making an offer.
Since the Grenfell Tower fire, many lenders require an EWS1 (External Wall System) certificate before advancing funds on blocks with combustible cladding. Where no certificate exists, or where the certificate indicates a remediation requirement, mortgage lending typically stops. We buy these flats without requiring EWS1 sign-off.
Below 70 years most lenders will not lend. Below 80 years many lenders start to pull back. A short lease is one of the most common reasons a flat becomes cash-only. We buy short lease flats without requiring an extension first, our offer factors in the lease cost transparently.
Lenders may consider certain lease clauses onerous: rapidly doubling ground rent, unusually short service charge review periods, or restrictions on subletting or occupancy. These can make a flat unlendable even with a long lease, and are typically flagged by the buyer's solicitor late in the process, causing sales to collapse. We assess the lease before making our offer.
Concrete-framed, steel-framed, or large-panel system buildings are common in post-war housing stock. Many lenders will not advance on these construction types at all, or will only do so with a structural survey that throws up further complications. As cash buyers, construction type is not a barrier.
Subsidence, damp, failing roof structures, or other defects identified by a surveyor can lead lenders to withhold funds or release them only after specified remedial work is completed (a retention). Properties with known structural problems are difficult to sell conventionally. We factor in the cost of remediation and buy as-is.
Sellers of unmortgageable flats typically have three routes: the open market with an estate agent (private treaty), auction, or direct sale to a cash buyer like us. Each has trade-offs, and the right one depends on whether the priority is the highest possible price, a fixed completion date, or removing the lender-collapse risk entirely.
The open market is largely closed to mortgage buyers but still works for cash buyers and investors who happen to find the listing; the trade-off is a narrow buyer pool, longer marketing time, and the risk that any mortgage offer that does come in falls through at survey or valuation. Auction works particularly well for unmortgageable flats because the buyer pool is investor-led and expects difficult titles: contracts exchange when the hammer falls, completion follows within 28 days, and lender-related collapses are removed because the buyer commits unconditionally; the trade-off is a price typically below open-market value. Selling direct to us is the simplest route when a previous sale has already collapsed: no lender, no surveys, no chain; the trade-off is the lowest headline price, reflecting the risk and complexity we absorb.
If you have time and want the highest possible price, the open market is the usual answer, though the cash-only buyer pool keeps it slow. If you want a fixed completion date and an investor-aware buyer pool, auction suits unmortgageable flats well. If a sale has already collapsed at survey or valuation and you want certainty, sell direct: what we offer after our initial assessment is what we intend to pay, and anything material that emerges during due diligence is discussed openly rather than used to chip the price.
The absence of an EWS1 certificate or the presence of non-compliant cladding prevents mortgage lenders from lending, but does not prevent us from buying. As cash buyers, we are not subject to lender requirements; we assess the likely remediation cost and factor it into our offer.
We make our own assessment and do not rely on a mortgage valuation. A down-valuation by a surveyor acting for a lender tells us what a lender's criteria will and will not accommodate, but we are not bound by those criteria. We assess the flat directly and make an offer based on our own valuation.
This is one of the most common reasons sellers contact us. A sale that has collapsed because of an EWS1 issue, a defective lease clause, or a lender refusing to lend can often be resolved quickly with a cash buyer. We can move quickly once we have assessed the flat.
We assess all issues together and make a single offer that reflects the whole picture. A short lease and a cladding issue in combination will reduce the offer relative to a flat with neither issue, but the combination does not make the flat unsaleable to us.
