Case study: Capital raise for US lawyer for residential refurbishment

The borrower

We recently worked with a broker who was sourcing funding for a Partner at a US law firm, residing in London. The client was looking to re-mortgage their primary residence to raise capital for extensive refurbishment on their home. 

The problem

Although the client’s income was substantial, they had been with their current firm for less than a year and their net asset value (NAV) was fairly low. As such, it was important for us to get a good understanding of their income to ensure we were comfortable with it as a means of repayment. Furthermore, the client earnt their income in USD, which can prove challenging when sourcing a GBP mortgage.

In terms of the property itself, the house was within a conservation area so works would need to be sympathetic to the surroundings. 

The solution

Working with foreign income is something we’re comfortable with at Investec. By consulting our credit team and enlisting a trusted surveyor to confirm the projected costs and timelines for the work were feasible we were able to come up with a solution that enabled the client to realise their goal.

By requesting an amount be held as an emergency deposit and looking at the client’s liquidity on completion of the works we were able to offer the client an interest-only mortgage for the length of the refurbishment, followed by an amortising loan on a tracker basis on completion of the works.

Important information

Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Investec residential mortgages are only available for residential properties in England or Wales and are primarily available to UK residents and subject to eligibility.