Let to Buy Mortgages UK: A Guide to Moving Home and Renting Out Your Old One

As a homeowner in the UK, are you facing this "happy problem"?

After a few years, you're ready to move to a larger house or into a better school district. But your current home is in a great location with strong potential for growth, and selling it feels like a missed opportunity. Or perhaps the market is slow, making it difficult to sell, but you've already found your dream home and are worried you'll lose it. 😩

This is where a clever financial strategy comes into play: the Let to Buy Mortgage. It can help you achieve two goals at once—moving to a new home and becoming a landlord.

H2: What is a Let to Buy Mortgage in the UK?

A Let to Buy is a coordinated financial manoeuvre that involves two mortgage applications happening at the same time:

1. Remortgage Your Current Home: Your existing residential mortgage is switched to a Buy-to-Let (BTL) Mortgage. During this step, it's often possible to release equity—raising cash from the property's increase in value.

2. Purchase Your New Home: You use your existing savings, plus the cash released from your first property, as the deposit for a new Residential Mortgage to buy your new home.

Once completed, you will simultaneously own a new property to live in and an investment property that is rented out, with the tenant's rent covering the BTL mortgage.

What if I Own My Current Home Outright (Cash Buyer)?

If you originally bought your current property with cash, a Let to Buy strategy is even more powerful.

Because your home is "unencumbered" (mortgage-free), you can simply apply for a new BTL mortgage on it to release equity as a large cash sum (often up to 75% of the property's value). This perfectly transforms your "brick-and-mortar" asset into flexible cash to fund the deposit on your new home and expand your property portfolio.

The Critical Factor: Calculating Stamp Duty

This is an extremely important point that you must budget for carefully.

As you will own two properties at the end of the transaction, your purchase of the new home will be subject to the Higher Rate of Stamp Duty for Additional Dwellings. This is a significant additional cost, and you must have the funds set aside to cover it.

How a Specialist Broker Can Help

A Let to Buy Mortgage UK application involves coordinating two applications, often with two different lenders, which requires meticulous timing and document management. High-street banks may not be familiar with this type of complex transaction or may not be able to offer the best BTL and residential rates simultaneously.

Our role is to:

✅ Strategically plan and manage both mortgage applications to ensure a smooth process from start to finish.

✅ Accurately calculate how much equity you can release from your current home and how much you can borrow for your new one.

✅ Search the entire market to find the lenders and products with the best rates that are perfectly suited to your Let to Buy scenario.

Ready to upgrade your home while taking your first step into property investment?

A Let to Buy mortgage could be your answer.

Contact us today for a free assessment of your situation to see if this strategy is right for you.