Remortgaging property with land - any pointers?

[soloequestrian]

We have increased our land from 6 to 8 acres. I thought this would give us a good chance of also improving our loan:value ration with lenders but have just spoken to a mortgage advisor and most lenders will only take 2 acres into account (i.e. they just totally ignore the value of any additional land). This seems insane to me. Does anyone know of lenders who would be more useful in this sort of situation?
Many thanks in advance.

 

[spacie1977]

You're lucky yours will take 2 acres into account. We've just bought a house with 8 acres and the surveyor sent by the mortgage company would only value the property on one acre(!) Imagine our stress waiting to hear whether the mortgage company thought it was worth what we had offered for it all. It might be a good idea to look for a specialist mortgage broker experienced with dealing with farms as they'll have a list as long as your arm of people they can approach.

 

[Swirlymurphy]

It is a bit of a problem unfortunately. You could try Virgin Money or possibly Kensington Mortgage Company although I couldn't say for certain if they will consider your case.

 

[soloequestrian]

Thanks, I will look at those. I'm baffled by this attitude - I thought that the 'value' of the property would be what someone would pay for it it if it were to be sold....

 

[Pearlsasinger]

We had a large deposit from the sale of a previous house when we bought our small-holding, so weren't really aware that the value of the land wasn't considered by the mortgage company but when we remortgaged later, the surveyor made it very clear that only the house was to be valued for YBS.

 

[Asha]

We had a large deposit from the sale of a previous house when we bought our small-holding, so weren't really aware that the value of the land wasn't considered by the mortgage company but when we remortgaged later, the surveyor made it very clear that only the house was to be valued for YBS.

This ^^. Bought house and 14 acres, not an issue as sold in separate lots. Come to remortgage thinking value would have gone up, but no. Wont take the extra land into account. It seems crazy. I would suggest going through a broker who can advise you

 

[soloequestrian]

Thanks, I've contacted a few so will see what they say... Virgin Money will only give a mortgage for up to 5 acres, any more land and they're not interested. Gah.

 

[Polos Mum]

HSBC/ First Direct on their normal residential mortgages will include land up to 12 acres no problem.

 

[soloequestrian]

HSBC/ First Direct on their normal residential mortgages will include land up to 12 acres no problem.

Just tried them both - FD said yes, up to 15 acres; HSBC said they wouldn't consider ANY land.... may try them again tomorrow and see what a different advisor says?

 

[catembi]

That's odd re HSBC...we have 2.5 acres... remortgaged in 2007 to put in the school & they insisted on sending round a specialist valuer at great expense as the property had land & they couldn't value it without their 'specialist' examining the land... I was furious at the time cos it's 2 flat fields of grass...they already have the plans...what is there to see, exactly...IT'S TWO FIELDS OF GRASS!!

Maybe they've changed their rules as so much has changed in the world of mortgages.

T x

 

[Dry Rot]

Try a Gogle of "agricultural mortgages"? I suspect you might have to be running a business though.

 

[Polos Mum]

Just tried them both - FD said yes, up to 15 acres; HSBC said they wouldn't consider ANY land.... may try them again tomorrow and see what a different advisor says?

Sorry - mine is with FD - I assumed as they were owned by HSBC that they would have the same rules clearly not !! I've bought 2 properties with FD - 1 with 12 acres and one with 10 - no issue at all

 

[Merlin11]

We have 6 acres and remortgaged with hsbc a few years ago. They definitely took the value of the land into account.

 

[pootleperkin]

Try NatWest and Handelsbanken; the latter make decisions in branch rather than a central office.

 

[soloequestrian]

Thanks - I will try them. It would be nice to feel I was talking to a person was using their brain rather than reading off a computer screen!

 

[case895]

When we got our first mortgage, we had several companies refuse to lend against an "equestrian property" and none of them would lend against the land. Hence, I paid cash for the land (2 seperate titles) and had therefore a bigger mortgage on the house and field 1 (third title). Stupid really.