Cash Buyer. No Lender Restrictions.
If a mortgage lender has declined to lend on your flat, or a buyer's sale has collapsed 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.
Clauses that lenders consider onerous, rapidly doubling ground rent, unusually short service charge review periods, restrictions on subletting or occupancy, can make a flat unlendable even with a long lease. These 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 request retention. Properties with known structural problems are difficult to sell conventionally. We factor in the cost of remediation and buy as-is.
When a flat is unmortgageable, the problem is not that there are no buyers, it is that most buyers need a mortgage. Remove that requirement and the restriction disappears. As a cash buyer, we are not subject to lender surveys, lender valuations, lender criteria around lease length, construction type, or cladding. We make our own assessment of the flat and offer on that basis.
We are transparent that our offers are below open market value. That gap reflects the risk we are absorbing and the cost of whatever work or legal complexity the flat involves. For sellers who have already seen a sale collapse because of an unmortgageable issue, the certainty of a cash offer, one that will not fall apart at the survey stage, often has more value than trying again on the open market.
We do not make a speculative offer and then reduce it after our solicitors have reviewed the title. What we offer after our initial assessment is what we intend to pay. If something material emerges during due diligence, we discuss it openly before deciding how to proceed.
Yes. The absence of an EWS1 certificate or the presence of non-compliant cladding prevents mortgage lenders from lending, but it 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.
Yes, and 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.
