Mortgage products · portfolio
Limited company portfolio mortgages from portfolio specialists.
A limited company portfolio mortgage is buy-to-let finance underwritten against a company's whole holding, four or more mortgaged properties, rather than one asset at a time. The lender reads the entire rental schedule; we make sure it reads well, across 100+ lenders.
Advice from
Matt Lenzie · 25+ year career banker (Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group). £300m+ raised for property clients.
25+ year career banker (Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group). £300m+ raised for property clients.
The threshold
What changes at the fourth mortgaged property?
The underwriting widens. From four mortgaged buy-to-lets, counted across everything the directors control, personally held and company-held alike, regulators expect lenders to assess the whole portfolio every time the company borrows. A purchase or remortgage that was previously judged on one property's rent now also answers for the aggregate: total debt, blended rental cover, overall loan to value and the spread of property types. Some lenders respond by declining portfolio business altogether; the ones that remain, the names this page is really about, have built their criteria around it.
The aggregate test
How is a whole portfolio stress-tested?
Two layers. The subject property still has to pass the standard limited company buy-to-let assessment, rent covering stressed interest at 125%, typically stressed at 5.5% or the pay rate on five-year fixes. On top sits the portfolio test: every property in the schedule, its rent, its mortgage and its value, rolled into a blended cover ratio and an aggregate loan to value that most lenders cap between 65 and 75%. The blending is the opportunity. A portfolio with strong performers can absorb an asset that would fail in isolation, which is why how the schedule is presented, and to which lender, moves real outcomes.
Stress-test individual assets here · method in the ICR stress tests guide.
The evidence pack
What does a portfolio lender want to see on paper?
Four documents decide most portfolio applications: a property schedule listing every holding with rent, debt, value and lender; a business plan covering acquisition and exit intentions; a cashflow statement showing the lettings genuinely wash their face; and an assets-and-liabilities statement for each guaranteeing director. Underwriters read them for coherence as much as content, a schedule that disagrees with Companies House filings or the bank statements invites questions that stall completions. We keep these packs current for portfolio clients between transactions, so the next deal starts packaged rather than from scratch.
Structures
How do groups, holding companies and intercompany loans place?
Portfolios outgrow single companies. Some investors run multiple SPVs to separate strategies or contain risk; others sit their property companies under a holding company for consolidated accounts and cleaner succession; many fund new vehicles with intercompany loans from a trading business. Every one of these structures is financeable, and every one of them shrinks the lender list in a different way. One lender will not accept holding-company shareholders, another insists the intercompany loan is subordinated to its mortgage, a third wants guarantees from the parent as well as the directors. The packaging job is matching the structure you have, or better, designing the structure before it exists, to the underwriters who accept it without exceptions. Setting up an additional vehicle correctly takes a day; see the SPV setup guide for the registration detail.
The refinance rhythm
How should a portfolio manage its fix-end calendar?
Deliberately. A company with eight mortgaged properties faces a remortgage decision every few months, and each one is a chance to reprice, capital raise for the next acquisition, or consolidate loans onto a single facility. Some operators deliberately stagger fix ends to spread rate risk; others align them to create a clean refinance event every few years. Neither is wrong, but drifting onto reversion rates because nobody was watching the calendar is, and at portfolio scale the cost of one missed fix end can exceed a year of broker fees. We hold the product end dates for portfolio clients and open each decision six months out, with the aggregate position already updated.
The single-property mechanics are on the limited company remortgages page.
Lender appetite
Which lenders genuinely want portfolio business?
The dedicated portfolio names are Paragon, Landbay, Foundation Home Loans, Shawbrook: large-loan appetite, block facilities, and underwriters who read a twenty-line schedule without flinching. Around them, the wider specialist and challenger panel takes portfolio cases selectively, often with sharper pricing on the vanilla end. At scale, terms stop being a rate card and start being a negotiation, which is where whole-of-market leverage earns its fee.
Refinancing at fix end is covered on limited company remortgages, room-let stock on limited company HMO mortgages, and the structure itself at the limited company buy-to-let hub. Comparing company and personal holding for future purchases? Run the limited company vs personal calculator, or browse local market data across our 244 town pages.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a company a portfolio landlord?
Four or more mortgaged buy-to-let properties, counted across the directors' whole interest: personally held stock, properties in this company and properties in any other company the directors control all add up. Once the threshold is crossed, lenders must review the entire portfolio when underwriting any new loan, not just the property being financed. It is a Prudential Regulation Authority expectation, so no mainstream lender waives it.
Can strong properties carry weaker ones in the assessment?
With most portfolio lenders, yes. The aggregate test looks at blended cover across the whole rental schedule, so a high-yielding HMO can offset a low-yielding flat that would fail the 125% test on its own. Lenders still set per-property minimums and an overall loan to value ceiling, typically 65 to 75% across the aggregate, but the portfolio view is usually friendlier than asset-by-asset arithmetic would be.
Do I need a business plan for a portfolio application?
Most portfolio lenders ask for one, alongside a property schedule, cashflow statement and an assets-and-liabilities summary for each guarantor. It rarely needs to be elaborate: acquisition intentions, how voids and maintenance are funded, and the exit thinking. We maintain these documents as a living pack for our portfolio clients, so each new application starts from an updated schedule rather than a blank page.
Can one mortgage cover several properties?
Yes. Portfolio loans can be written as a single facility secured across multiple properties, which simplifies administration and can unlock negotiated pricing at scale, or as individual mortgages per property, which preserves the flexibility to sell or refinance one asset without disturbing the rest. Both structures are available across our panel and the right answer usually follows the company's disposal plans.
What does it cost to refinance a whole portfolio?
Lender arrangement fees at portfolio scale are usually percentage-based, and valuation costs multiply by the number of properties, though block deals are often negotiable. Our fee is the same as on any case: 1% of loan on successful drawdown, lender proc fee first, client top-up only if proc < 1%.
Enquiry
Talk to the portfolio desk
Send the schedule, we will return the aggregate position and the strongest lender fits from the 100+ panel. Initial consultation fee-free.
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