Latest / Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights / Holiday Let Mortgage Reality Check | What Lenders Want

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Holiday Let Mortgage Reality Check | What Lenders Want · Host Planet: Airbnb, Holiday Let, and Vacation Rental Insights

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  Securing a holiday let mortgage in 2026 could be expensive,
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  complicated, and restrictive if you don't understand what
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  lenders are really looking for. In this episode of Host Planet
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  Bite Size, powered by Host Fully, I'm joined by Joe
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  Stallard from House and Holiday Home Mortgages.
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  Whether you're purchasing your first holiday let, expanding
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  your portfolio or refinancing an existing property, Joe shares 5
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  essential mortgage tips you need to know this year year.
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  Let's get straight into it Joe Welcome to House Planet Bite
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  Size. What's your top tip to somebody
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  who needs to get a holiday let mortgage in 2026?
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  I think the most important thing, James, is understanding
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  that these mortgages are assessed differently to other
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  mortgages. They're different to residential
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  mortgages, but crucially they're also different to buy to let
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  mortgages, which tends to be people's default and go to when
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  they're thinking of a property investment.
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  So with the holiday let's there are very specific set of lenders
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  and these lenders are going to assess it based on the holiday
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  rental potential of that property.
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  So understanding the seasonal variances, the void periods, the
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  occupancy, all of those aspects are going to come into how that
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  mortgage is assessed and it's very different to a vital app.
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  Yeah, different to a buy to let and different to a residential.
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  I think here the the lenders, they're not so concerned with
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  how much you earn personally. They're interested in the
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  potential of how much that holiday let property is going to
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  earn, right? That's it.
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  Yeah, absolutely. And you know, they will still
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  look at your circumstances. They do still have to make sure
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  that they're lending responsibly.
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  But typically for most holiday let's the the borrowing figure
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  is going to be driven by that that rental potential.
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  Your your income is kind of a check box for certain lenders to
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  make sure they want you as that sort of profile of client.
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  But how much you can borrow with most lenders is going to be down
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  to that rental potential. And this is precisely why a lot
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  of lenders, they want to get a assessment of the potential
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  income of the property from a local property management
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  company. Exactly that, you know their
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  valuers they send out don't have the expertise in this, so they
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  put that trust in holiday letting agents and who know the
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  area, have data on the area and are willing to put their name to
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  a set of figures that that property can expect to do when
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  managed properly. Fantastic.
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  OK, so tip #1, it's not like other products.
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  What's tip #2? Tip #2 then is it's also not
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  like other lenders. So you're not going to get your
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  High Street lenders lending on these type of properties.
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  Holiday letting is a small nichy area of lending in the UK.
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  So it's not going to be your HSBCS and your Halifax do going
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  to be offering those products at this moment in time.
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  I'd love it if they came into the market, but I don't believe
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  there's any plans for them to do so.
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  So specialist lenders support this this market.
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  So you've got to be aware that you know, you're going to have
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  to dive a little bit deeper with your research.
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  Perhaps you want to come and use a specialist brokerage like ours
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  to find them. But it might be lenders that
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  you're not familiar with and you've not heard of before who
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  are going to lend on that holiday property.
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  And why is it that the bigger lenders, the ones that we all
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  know, for example Halifax or HSBC for example, why do they
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  not traditionally get involved in the holiday LED market?
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  I think traditionally it's a volume piece, you know, holiday
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  that's have made a lot of noise in the news over recent years,
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  rightly or wrongly, But is it is a very, very small area of the
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  UK housing stock, a very small proportion of the UK housing
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  stock, sorry. And as a result, these guys who
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  are dealing with massive volumes, who are really rape
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  driven, driving their, their business through, you know,
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  small margins but high volume, it's just not an area they need
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  to play in. So instead they're concentrating
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  on areas they do know and, and they do lots of business there
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  day in, day out. Then there's these other
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  specialist lenders who come in and offer these type of
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  solutions for us. Yeah, and the specialist
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  lenders, often they're not that easy to find.
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  And I found this, you know, years ago when I was starting
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  out buying my first holiday let. You might do a Google search and
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  a few kind of brands come up. But everybody who's involved in
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  lending in the holiday let space, then they're not going to
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  come up in a Google search or maybe an AI search.
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  Now if you if you go and ChatGPT or something like that.
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  So I think that this is really a good plug for for you guys for
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  using a broker because you do have access to all of these
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  specialist lenders. Yeah, I mean, I'd like to think
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  so, but you know, if you, if you're willing to put enough
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  time in, like anything, you will get there.
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  You will dive around, you will find lenders who are going to do
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  this, but you know, will you find the best lender for you and
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  your circumstances nice and quickly?
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  It's not always obvious. So I like to think that we can
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  help people shortcut that journey and really make it, you
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  know, a good experience whilst also getting them the best
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  product for them and their circumstances.
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  Yeah, I would definitely encourage anybody, I think if
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  you are looking for a holiday let mortgage certainly work with
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  a broker because often a lot of these lenders, they only work
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  through brokers, they won't actually accept applications
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  direct from the applicant. So yeah, do try and use a broker
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  like Joe of course at Triple H Mortgages.
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  Quick one now before we get to tip 3.
• 5:40
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  All right, back to it then, Joe, what's tip #3?
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  Tip #3 is then considering that location and regulation might
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  matter more than you think. So I mean, the best example I
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  can give for regulation, other than the fact that people need
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  to be on top of it for reasons other than mortgages, is looking
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  at Scotland's licensing rules and requirements.
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  And actually that has a knock on impact as and when you get that
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  license and can evidence the license and the application as
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  to whether a mortgage is going to be available.
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  Now a little bit more generally is this idea of location and not
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  all lenders will lend to all locations.
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  The City Breakers really grown recently I think in the in the
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  country and not all lenders are comfortable with lending on
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  those type of properties. Some of them are very
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  traditional holiday let area focused and centric.
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  So you'll Cornwall's, Devons, Lake Districts and that side of
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  things. So that's really again
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  understanding that lender, how they're going to see it and
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  their appetite really for the type of property you're buying
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  and who you're going to be renting it out to.
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  Yeah, it's so important to do your research because every part
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  of the UK has different rules and regulations.
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  England is different to Wales, it's different to Scotland and
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  even on a really macro local level things can be a little bit
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  different as well with things like council tax and and all the
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  rest of it. So yeah, I think really I the
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  point I stress here, just really do your research about the area
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  where you're thinking about investing.
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  Yeah, absolutely. It's, it's fundamental.
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  It's it's, it has an impact for yourself as an investment, but
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  it's also really then going to impact your lending options as
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  well. 100% OK then, Joe, so tip #4.
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  Tip #4 is that different lenders have different deposit
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  requirements and different stress testing abilities.
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  So that basically means the amount of money you're going to
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  need to put down as a deposit is going to vary from lender to
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  lender. And then also how they treat
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  those figures we mentioned previously in terms of the
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  rental forecast, they're all going to come out with slightly
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  different borrowing figures. You know, some will default to
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  using 30 weeks a year, some might go beyond that if we can
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  provide evidence, which is then going to boost up your borrowing
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  figure. Some might stress it a little
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  bit more aggressively than another.
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  So again, if you're finding that one lender is not lending you
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  enough, doesn't necessarily mean that's going to be the situation
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  across the market. It's about, you know, knowing
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  who to go for and what to do in that requirement.
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  On the deposit side of things as well, James, you know, until
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  this year, there were only about 3 lenders who would do a 20%
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  deposit. Most lenders were coming in from
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  25%. We've already seen two or three
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  new lenders launch 80% mortgages in the holiday let space this
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  year. And I know from talking to
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  others that is on their radar as well.
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  So I think that's a real vote of confidence, I guess for the
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  holiday let sector and how actually they're looking at
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  these back books they've got now.
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  People are paying their mortgages, they're not
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  defaulting, OK, what can we do to make our criteria better?
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  Some of them are coming out with these now lower level deposit
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  products, which is a really good sign for the sector I think.
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  Yeah, definitely a good sign. Yeah.
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  I mean, I remember the the first product I got was with a 30%
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  deposit. So yeah, to hear of 20%, it
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  means, yeah, it opens, opens the lending up a little bit.
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  And I think as well, if you're if you've got a few properties
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  and you're looking to remortgage, that potentially
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  gives you more money to invest in, in future purchases as well.
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  So yeah, that's, that's interesting and good news that
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  that's happening. All right then, Joe, so tip #5.
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  Tip #5 then is just really you can't prepare too early for this
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  stuff. A bit like this is more of a
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  general mortgage application point, I think, but being really
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  aware of your credit file, what it's saying about you, your bank
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  statements, all of these things. Getting these fundamentals in
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  place is going to make your life so much easier when it comes to
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  a mortgage application. So, you know, credit files, make
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  sure you have a look at it and review it regularly.
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  There's often things on there that we might not be aware of or
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  we might not have updated addresses and it's not telling a
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  true picture. Lenders can't find you.
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  They're not going to be that open to lending to you.
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  So really getting your ducks in a row, making sure that you're
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  presenting yourself as the strong applicant that you are
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  and that your documentation tells that story is really
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  important. Really good tip.
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  OK then, Joe. So give us the lowdown on Triple
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  H mortgages and where people can find you.
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  Yeah, we're at hhhmortgages.com. We are a specialist holiday
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  letting mortgage broker who help people here in the UK, right
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  across the country. We're completely remote based so
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  we will deal with you like a Zoom call or a team school and
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  really try and take the hassle out of this process for you and
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  help you find the mortgage that you need.
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  Fantastic, and we'll put all the links to Joe and Triple H
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  mortgages in the show notes. Joe, it's been a pleasure as
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  ever. Thanks for joining us on host
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  Planet Bite Size. Thanks, James.
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  Now, if you're applying for a holiday let mortgage in 2026,
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  whether you're buying, refinancing or expanding, drop a
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  comment and tell us what's your biggest mortgage concern right
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  now. The chances are you're not the
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  only one thinking it. All right, that's it for this
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  episode of host Planet Bite size.
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• 11:53
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• 11:56
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• 11:59
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