Will a high street lender provide a mortgage for a property with land, stables or outbuildings?

by Aaron Strutt

Oct 25 2020

While some of the bigger banks provide specialist mortgages for homes with land, outbuildings and stables, buyers have more options through the smaller building societies and private banks.

Most mortgage lenders will not state on their websites they offer finance on unusual properties with land or stables, but they can be flexible with their acceptance criteria. This is often provided the property is not being used for commercial purposes, and there are no aquicultural ties.

Most banks and building societies insist properties should be for personal use and set limits on the number of stables country houses can have. Some even cap the overall footprint of the property, including the stables, compared to the total acreage. 

Aaron Strutt, product director at Trinity Financial, says: "Since the lockdown, we have had more enquiries from people buying properties with stables as they look to move out of more populated places.

"We have a long list of lenders accepting rural properties, but they tend to have specific bits of criteria which can cause issues. Problems can arise if the stables are too big, or the land has grazing rights, or the property is in an isolated part of the UK."

Is it possible to get a standard mortgage if a property has outbuildings being let out? 

Trinity Financial's brokers can access lenders willing to accept a range of properties—for example, large homes with cottages or let-out buildings. We even have access to a private bank happy to provide mortgages on large and unusual properties, with commercial links like souvenir shops, tea rooms, or holiday lets on the estate. They also have access to lenders able to ease their criteria for £400,000+ properties. We recently arranged a mortgage on a large country home with stables, and it was used to host weddings a few times a year.

Mortgage agreed on quirky properties subject to valuer comments 

Mortgage lenders rely heavily on the valuers they send to inspect properties, and while you may earn enough to secure funding, the property has to be acceptable. If a valuer does not think the property is suitable security for the lender, the application will not be accepted. They are there to make sure properties meet the lender's specific rules.  

We will always ask you to send us a link to a property you are trying to purchase from the estate agent's website or get a copy of the property spec so we can run it past the lenders before an application is submitted. In most cases, we should be able to get a quick yes or no from the lender.  

Call Trinity Financial on 020 7016 0790 to secure a mortgage for properties with land or outbuildings, book a consultation, or complete our mortgage questionnaire. 

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

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