Specialist semi-commercial mortgages across the United Kingdom

A semi-commercial mortgage funds property that is part commercial and part residential: a shop with a flat above, an office with residential upper floors, a pub or guest house with accommodation, a parade of shops with flats, a mixed-use block. The question that decides everything is the split between the commercial and residential parts. As a rule of thumb, once the residential element passes roughly 40 percent of the property a lender starts to treat it as residential. A genuinely mixed asset sits in the semi-commercial bucket, where the right lender matters most.

We help three kinds of borrower. Investors and landlords buying or refinancing a mixed-use asset, where the loan is sized on the combined commercial and residential rent at an interest cover ratio of 125 to 140 percent. Owner-occupiers buying premises they will trade from, often with a flat above or attached, tested on business affordability. And portfolio landlords and developers holding several mixed-use units who want one facility across the lot. Term mortgages run at 6.5 to 8.5 percent a year to 70 to 75 percent of value, with deposits of 25 to 30 percent; bridging runs at 8.5 to 11 percent a year for purchases that need to move quickly.

Because we sit across more than one hundred lender relationships, we match each property to the lenders that actually want it. High street banks, challenger banks and specialist lenders all treat the residential element differently. Knowing who lends on mixed-use, at what loan to value and on what stress, is the work.