Self-Employed Remortgage with a Holding Company
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The latest industry news and guides from Active Mortgages.
Our client was a successful self-employed business owner operating multiple companies through a newly established holding company structure.
They had owned their residential property for five years and were approaching the end of their fixed-rate mortgage with a famous Building Society.
The property was jointly owned with the client’s mother following a previous transfer of ownership after a relationship separation. The client was now exploring several options, including:
The client had been referred to Active Mortgages after another broker struggled to place the case due to the holding company structure.
The main issue centred around the client’s newly formed holding company.
Although the client still owned and controlled the trading business entirely, the shares had recently been transferred into a holding company structure. The existing broker had advised that many lenders were unwilling to proceed because the holding company itself did not yet have two years of trading history.
This created a frustrating situation for the client because:
Additional complexity included:
Many high street lenders take a rigid “computer says no” approach to company restructures, even where the overall financial position is strong.
As specialist Self-Employed Mortgage Brokers, we reviewed the full company structure rather than focusing purely on the age of the holding company.
The client’s trading business showed strong profitability, with net profits increasing from approximately £70,000 to over £115,000 within a year.
We identified that the key to the case would be finding lenders willing to:
We also explored multiple remortgage scenarios, including:
Rather than dismissing the case based on automated underwriting criteria, we focused on lenders with a more manual and common-sense underwriting approach.
Following the initial consultation, we confirmed the case appeared significantly stronger than the client had previously been led to believe.
The client’s strong business profitability, low loan-to-value position, and established trading history created multiple potential avenues despite the holding company complication.
We began researching lenders capable of:
The client also gained a clearer understanding of their future borrowing potential and the steps required to eventually move towards sole ownership of the property if desired.
This case demonstrates a common issue faced by self-employed business owners — where business structures evolve faster than lender criteria.
Many lenders automatically reject cases involving new holding companies without considering whether the applicant’s underlying trading business, ownership, and profitability remain unchanged.
At Active Mortgages, we specialise in complex self-employed mortgage cases involving:
By understanding both the mortgage market and company structures in greater detail, we can often identify lending solutions where standard approaches fail.
Book a call with one of our team to talk about your requirements.
