Overview

Location : Hyde Park, London

Loan Type : Residential

Loan Size : £ 7.7m

Loan-to-Value : 70%

The Situation

Our client had refurbished a property that had gone over budget and taken much longer than planned. The loan from his existing lender had expired, and they were putting pressure on him to re-finance before the property was finished. Furthermore the clients income was a fraction of the mortgage requirement, and was spread across multiple jurisdictions.

The Challenge

Normally a situation such as this can be solved by pledging AUM (Assets Under Management) alongside the mortgage. In this case there was no AUM, so the pool of available lenders was small and the client had links to the US, so the pool of lenders shrunk further. As a Private Equity Partner, the clients income was complicated, and based on carried trades that wouldn’t mature for several years.

In addition the fact that the property wasn’t finished, and wouldn’t be completed until 2 months or more after we wanted to complete, we really were asking for a lot.

The Outcome

By giving complete transparency on global assets and income, together with an in-depth understanding of the underlying investments within the fund, we were able to demonstrate that the mortgage interest was affordable now, and furthermore that future liquidity events would enable the client to pay down the debt.

The bank gave us access to the valuer panel, and we were able to speak with 3 different firms and explain the work to date, and confirm the schedule of works to completion. The firm we selected did a huge amount of background work before visiting the property, and were able to support the valuation we needed to complete.

By giving the existing lender weekly updates by email, they were happy to remain patient, and we managed to complete the mortgage within 6 weeks from the initial enquiry.