Penny House

04/09/2026

Lower valuation ≠ automatic dead end. A client needed £150k extra borrowing, but the lender’s interest-only LTV ceiling left room for only £75k of it on interest-only. The solution was to split the new borrowing: part interest-only, part repayment, while leaving the existing mortgage untouched. Structure can matter more than the headline valuation.

01/09/2026

When somebody asks me for bridging finance, one of the first things I want to understand is how we're paying it back.

Not because I’m trying to ruin the excitement of buying the property.

Because the exit is arguably more important than the bridge itself.

If we're refinancing after refurbishment, I want to understand: What should the finished property be worth? What rent should it achieve? What LTV could the refinance realistically support? Will the finished property meet the intended lender's criteria? And — importantly — how much cash should actually come back out?

Because getting into a bridge is usually the easy bit. Getting out on the terms you expected is where a poorly structured deal can become painful.

My preference is to work backwards. Start with where we need to be in 6–12 months, then structure today's finance to get us there.

A bridge should solve a timing problem. It shouldn't create another one.

30/08/2026

One of the most frustrating sentences in property finance: “But I know what the property is worth.”

You may well be right. Unfortunately, the lender still needs its valuer to agree.

And with unusual properties, HMOs, commercial investments, mixed-use buildings or properties where the value is heavily influenced by income, that can become much more complicated.

The important bit is that a disappointing valuation doesn't always mean the deal is dead.

Sometimes the issue is the evidence. Sometimes it’s the valuation methodology. Sometimes it’s the lender’s policy. And sometimes that particular lender simply isn’t the right home for that particular property.

That’s why with more unusual assets I think about the valuation strategy as part of the finance strategy — not after the application has already gone in.

A property can be perfectly good security — and still be a poor fit for a particular lender.

27/08/2026

Sometimes a mortgage with a higher interest rate can actually be the cheaper option.

Sounds completely backwards, but this is why I’m slightly obsessed with looking at the whole cost rather than one percentage.

Imagine you already have a large mortgage on a good fixed rate. You need another £100,000.

Remortgaging the entire balance might mean giving up that cheap rate, paying an ERC, putting the whole mortgage onto today’s pricing and potentially paying another set of fees.

Alternatively, you might leave the existing mortgage exactly where it is and raise only the additional money separately.

Yes, that smaller loan could have a higher rate. But that doesn't automatically make the overall structure more expensive.

This is why I never want to answer “What’s the cheapest rate?” until I’ve answered “What’s actually the cheapest way of achieving what you want?”

They’re not always the same thing.

25/08/2026

Being self-employed doesn’t necessarily mean your mortgage affordability starts and ends with the salary and dividends you’ve drawn.

This comes up all the time with business owners.

You might deliberately leave profit in the company rather than extracting everything personally. That can make perfect commercial sense — but it also means the income visible on the surface doesn’t always tell the whole story.

Different lenders can look at business-owner income differently, depending on the circumstances and the evidence available.

That’s why I’d always rather understand the business before deciding what someone can or can’t borrow.

Sometimes the problem isn’t affordability. It’s approaching the wrong lender with the wrong interpretation of the income.

If you own a business and have been told you don’t draw enough to get the mortgage you need, it may be worth another look.

10/11/2023

Well done Nationwide Building Society 👏🏻

15/02/2023

House Price Index 🏡

“I think we will see less of a property crash than many have been predicting”

Read our MD, Sofia Jones’ comments here:

Sofia Jones, Managing Director at London-based independent mortgage broker, Penny House: “Though annual price growth is now back in single digits,