What Is a Portfolio Landlord?

The definition of a “portfolio landlord” is someone with four or more mortgaged properties. This definition applies to sole and joint applications, including those owned privately or through a limited company. Landlords with 3 or less mortgaged rental properties are often classified as private landlords and only require normal buy-to-let mortgages. If you already have buy-to-let mortgages on existing properties, you could choose to remortgage them onto multiple portfolio products which is designed for buy-to-let landlords with multiple investment properties and It allows them to take out a single mortgage to cover all of their properties, rather than have multiple mortgages to service. It allows them to hold all their buy-to-let mortgages under one umbrella. 

Key Points:

• Lenders normally check spreadsheet documents such as Property portfolio, Cashflow forecast and Income and expenditure. They might also require Business plan, 3 months bank statements, SA302s and tax overviews from HMRC and Tenancy agreements for all properties.
• You’ll be subject to the new portfolio mortgage underwriting checks known as portfolio mortgage stress testing.
• To check if you are in stable financial position, Lenders are likely to consider your experience as a landlord, all of your buy to let mortgaged properties, your assets and liabilities and your income both from the property and other sources.
• There’s no strict limit to the maximum number of buy-to-let mortgages you can have and different lenders have their own rules about the maximum number of loans they can advance to an individual.
• Homeowners need to pay an extra 3% Stamp Duty Land Tax if they are buying an investment property.
• It may be beneficial for tax reasons for buy to let investors to finance through trading company or a special purpose vehicle (SPV) and lenders for limited companies will often apply a lower minimum rental stress test because of the tax advantages associated with buying and managing through a limited company.

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