Coutts targeting borrowers looking for country house mortgages and issuing 'hobby estate loans'

by Aaron Strutt

Mar 03 2024

Coutts Private Bank is one of the big lenders keen to issue country house or country estate mortgages and hobby estate loans.

A hobby estate is a landed estate, farm, or country house with large acreage or commercial use typically acquired for lifestyle or amenity purposes.

Hobby estate loans are unregulated when taken through Coutts, unlike more standard country home residential mortgages, and affordability relies on the applicant's personal income or asset base.

Coutts requires applicants planning to raise funds to purchase country estates to meet a range of requirements:

• Borrowers: individual(s), Special Purpose Vehicles or trading entities with full Personal Guarantee.
• Serviceability: This is reliant on the client’s personal income or asset base (monetisation is possible using the High Net Worth exemption), excluding any income generated by the asset taken as security.
• Pricing: each application is priced on a bespoke basis with competitive terms based on the property and client.
• Deposit: typically, a 40% deposit is required, but up to a 25% deposit is considered in some circumstances.
• Examples: Country House set in 10 acres+ with commercial use (unsuitable for mortgage book due to acreage or commercial use), country house with land for grazing/equestrian facilities, farm or Landed Estate with several properties and diverse commercial enterprises.

Country house mortgage vs hobby estate loan

Lenders tend to prefer issuing mortgages on more standard properties without let outbuildings or large-scale equestrian facilities. Although some private banks will consider applications for wealthier borrowers buying country estates generating income, some are happy if the property is used for weddings. If an estate has lots of land and a farm, they issue specialist non-residential mortgages/loans.

How much land can a property have through the most generous mortgage lenders?

Some banks and building societies are happy to issue mortgages to borrowers purchasing country homes with land. Rather than being valued on the house and the immediate garden-only basis, properties with a large acreage attached will be valued on the house and the immediate garden-only basis.

Trinity Financial has access to lenders offering properties with up to 100 acres, provided the property is not a working farm. The lender will want to understand if the property will be used for commercial purposes, like letting out buildings or land, possibly for festivals or grazing animals.

How much land can a property have through the most generous mortgage lenders?

Some lenders will cap the number of bedrooms a property can have because they are concerned the rooms will be let separately. However, they can be flexible if the borrowers have a large family or a genuine reason for wanting to buy a larger house with lots of rooms.   

Call Trinity Financial on 020 7016 0790 to secure a mortgage or book a consultation 

The information contained within was correct at the time of publication but is subject to change

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