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Block of flats / Over-exposed / Lender decline
Block of flats / Over-exposed / Lender decline
Lender: “We’re overexposed and we can’t lend you anything”.
Borrower: “You’re WHAT?”
The challenge
When you’re buying a new build flat in blocks of 6 or more, always be mindful of ‘exposure risk’.
This is more problematic when you get to larger blocks of flats.
Our client was buying a flat in a block of 200 flats.
What is an ‘exposure risk?. It’s when a lender can only lend on a finite amount of flats in the block they can lend on, irrespective of who is borrowing the money.
Some have a maximum number, and many more have a percentage of flats in a block they will go to before they will decline every other mortgage above this.
The solution
To find out which lenders will lend in a particular block is not a straightforward or quick exercise. A huge amount of time is spent talking to the estate agents and valuers, as well as lenders to deduce how much exposure they have in a block. You then need a lender who is ok with the individual circumstances of the borrower in order to get the mortgage lending required.
In this particular example, having spent dozens of hours researching a lender who could support the application, we found one who could.
After thought
A broker’s work doesn’t start at the application. This is a great example where a huge amount of hours is spent before any application is submitted to a lender. However, it’s the work we do in advance of this which ensures the greatest chance of success for you, the borrower, and our client.
Other case studies
David was absolutely amazing, from helping us find the right mortgage, to advising us, to being on hand for silly questions we had. Nothing was too much trouble for him. I will absolutely be recommending him to our friends.
Frederica Turner