Clearing the Loan on Your Retirement Holiday Let – A Plan That Holds Even in a Flat Market
Buying your future retirement home now and letting it as a holiday let in the meantime solves one problem: it locks in today’s price before the property you want moves out of reach. But it raises a fair question of ...
Case Study: Securing a Future Retirement Home with a Holiday Let
Client A married couple in their early fifties, both employed and around twelve years from their intended retirement. They had holidayed in the same coastal area for years and had a clear picture of the home they wanted to retire ...
Buying Your Future Retirement Home Now – Using a Holiday Let to Get There
Many people picture a specific home for their retirement. A cottage by the coast, a place in a favourite corner of the countryside, somewhere they have holidayed for years. The instinct is usually to wait: keep working, keep saving, and ...
Buying a Holiday Let in Personal Names and Leasing It to Your Company: Good Idea?
Personal-name mortgage rates look cheaper on paper. The lease that makes the tax work can make you a mortgage prisoner. Buying a Holiday Let in Personal Names and Leasing It to Your Company: Why We Advise Against It The question ...
Case Study: Expat Holiday Let Mortgage in Scotland
Securing a lending decision in principle for a British expat purchasing an established Scottish holiday-let business The Client Our client is a British citizen who has lived in Chicago, Illinois, for 14 years. He is employed full-time as Chief Operating ...
Bridging the Deposit Gap on an Unmortgageable Probate Property
How a client bought a run-down probate cottage through an estate agent, funded the true deposit rather than the headline figure, and exited onto a holiday let mortgage agreed in principle before completion. The client Our client was an experienced ...
Buying a Property That Needs Converting Before You Can Let It
Why a holiday-let lender will not fund a conversion, and how a two-stage bridge-to-let structure solves it. It is a common and understandable plan: find a property with potential, buy it, convert it, and let it out as a holiday ...
Top Slicing Secures a High-End Lake District Holiday Let
How surplus personal income unlocked the loan Matt needed when the holiday let rental cover assessment fell short. The Client Matt approached Drake Mortgages looking to purchase a high-end holiday let in the Lake District. He was a strong applicant ...
Top Slicing on Holiday Let Mortgages: When the Rental Cover Assessment Falls Short
How surplus personal income can bridge the gap between the loan a holiday let can service on paper and the loan you actually need – including for limited company applications. For most holiday let mortgages, the size of loan a ...
England’s Short-Let Register: What Landlords Need to Know Before March 2027
After years of consultation and repeated changes to the timetable, the government has now confirmed a firm date for England’s national register of short-term and holiday lets. Speaking in Parliament on 3 September 2026, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told MPs ...
The Cumberland Holiday Let Index 2026: A Resilient, Maturing Market
The holiday let market has been the subject of plenty of speculation over the past couple of years. The abolition of the Furnished Holiday Let (FHL) tax regime, the prospect of tighter planning rules and rising operating costs led many ...
From Unlettable Purchase to Trading Holiday Let: A Bridge-to-Holiday-Let Exit
Our client found the right property in a strong holiday letting location, but it was not fit to let, so no holiday let lender would offer a mortgage on day one. Drake arranged a bridging loan to buy it and ...
Releasing Equity from a Mortgage-Free Holiday Let to Buy the Next One
Our client owned a holiday let outright and wanted a second one, with the deposit coming from the equity in the first. The sticking point was not how much equity was available, but why the money was being raised. Not ...
Expat Mortgage Case Study: How a Dubai-Based Buyer Secured a Devon Cottage Without the Holiday Let Restrictions
Expat clients often assume that buying a UK home to live in part-time and let the rest of the year only leaves one route open: a holiday let mortgage. The case below shows why that isn’t always true, and why ...
Expat Buy to Let vs Holiday Let Mortgages
An expat buy to let lends against long-term rent, and the mortgage terms stop you staying there yourself. An expat holiday let lends against seasonal bookings and usually allows 30 to 60 nights of your own use. Holiday lets lost ...
Expat holiday let mortgages: how many nights can you stay?
A dedicated holiday let mortgage caps your own use of the property, usually somewhere between 30 and 90 nights a year, set out in the mortgage terms. An expat residential mortgage with letting permitted has no fixed cap, because the ...
Buy to Let vs Holiday Let Mortgages
A clear, straightforward guide from Drake Mortgages Choosing between a Buy to Let (BTL) mortgage and a Holiday Let mortgage can feel complicated, especially following recent tax changes. Below is a simple, updated comparison to help you understand how each ...
Incorporating a Personally Owned Holiday Let: Essential Considerations for Property Owners
As the holiday-let market evolves, many property owners are exploring whether transferring a personally owned holiday let into a limited company could offer long-term tax or operational benefits. While incorporation can be attractive in some circumstances, the process is often ...
Using an SPV Ltd Company for Your Holiday Let
The Director’s Guide to Tax‑Efficient Funding with Intercompany Loans For UK director-shareholders, holding a holiday let inside a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) limited company can be an efficient way to invest, manage risk, and optimise tax. A powerful, often overlooked ...
Holiday Let Mortgages for the Self Employed
Are you a self-employed individual who is looking to buy a holiday let property? Well, you’re not alone. The number of self-employed people has been steadily rising over the years, but despite this growing trend, securing a mortgage as a ...
Holiday Let Mortgages for First Time Buyers
Are you a first-time buyer dreaming of owning a holiday let property? You might think it’s as simple as buying a property and renting it out, but beware of the risks lurking behind ‘back door residential transactions’. Lenders are on ...
Can we get a mortgage for a holiday let business?
A holiday let business is more than just a single rental property. It typically includes multiple units or even an entire holiday park. If you’re looking to finance a holiday let business, specialist commercial finance is the way to go. ...
Purchasing a Guest House or B&B
We receive many early stage enquiries from the travel and tourism sectors. A popular approach is to purchase an existing or start-up guest houses and B&B’s. Here are just a few of the questions we are asked that might be useful ...
What are holiday let occupancy clauses?
To own and run a UK holiday let you need to be aware of the occupancy rules and restrictions that apply to such properties. These will vary depending on the location, property type, usage and also the mortgage finance needed. ...