The Mortgage Works relaxes limited company and foreign national lending criteria

The Mortgage Works has expanded its limited company buy to let criteria, allowing directors and shareholders to have more than one special purpose vehicle (SPV) financed through the lender.

The change, effective from 22nd October, means landlords who are already directors or shareholders of an SPV with an existing The Mortgage Works mortgage can now apply for finance through another SPV.

The revised criteria are intended to give landlords greater flexibility when structuring property portfolios across multiple limited companies.

The update follows previous changes to the lender's limited company proposition, including the acceptance of intercompany loans, revisions to its shareholder policy and improvements to the application process.

The Mortgage Works has also recently updated its lending criteria for foreign nationals, reducing the minimum remaining visa validity requirement from 30 months to 12 months for applicants without indefinite leave to remain (ILR).

The lender has also aligned its list of acceptable visa types with Nationwide's criteria.

In addition, foreign nationals with ILR are no longer required to have owner occupier status when applying jointly with a UK citizen or another applicant who holds ILR.

All other lending criteria, including loan to value (LTV) limits and address history requirements, remain unchanged.

Dan Clinton, head of buy to let mortgages at The Mortgage Works, said: "Landlords increasingly need greater flexibility in how they structure and manage their property portfolios, and this change gives them exactly that. We’re giving limited company landlords more choice over how they organise their investments and plan for the future.

"Together with our changes for foreign national applicants, these enhancements demonstrate our ongoing commitment to strengthening our proposition to meet the needs of today’s landlords."