Enabling borrowers to downsize

Our customers had owned a country estate for more than 30 years. The estate, valued at over £7m, was no longer appropriate for them and they found a more manageable property which suited their lifestyle. They were very keen to secure it in the face of competition but their existing property would require prolonged marketing, so they realised they would be very unlikely to sell it in time to buy the new property.

Our customers took advice from their accountants and approached us to fund 100% of the purchase price and associated costs, over 12 months, to be secured against the existing property. We advanced £2,214,000, enabling our customers to buy the new property. They were then able to market the estate, so they could use the proceeds to repay our loan.