Can I remortgage my house to raise a mortgage for a buy-to-let property?

Q I am intending to buy a property for buy-to-let purposes. I wonder if (apart from special buy-to-let mortgages) I can remortgage my own house to raise a mortgage for a buy-to-let and what implication this would have? I am in a fortunate position in that I don't at present have a mortgage on my own property.

MH

A Let me first declare an interest - l am currently engaged in a rather similar exercise, raising money on my home to be let, and using the mortgage money to buy another property in which to live.

What you have in mind seems perfectly feasible except for the fact that, like me, you have no existing mortgage on your present property, so it is difficult to remortgage.

This being the case, you have to apply for a mortgage on your property using a solicitor who will basically beworking on behalf of the proposed lender, to carry out searches and suchlike to reassure the lender that your house is a "secure" property with no nasties.

I am choosing that route because there are better terms, based on different criteria, compared with a buy-to-let mortgage where the potential rental is taken into consideration. The downside from your point of view is that you will not be able to use the interest payable on the mortgage to offset the tax due on the rent because it is a different property - in which case you would perhaps do best with a normal buy-to-let on the new property.

This is one of the cases where it really is sensible to use a specialist mortgage adviser - they can offer a much wider choice.