Helping an Ageing Couple Find a New Lease in Life

As an elderly couple living in a large house in an expensive part of London, Helen and David had finally decided that enough was enough. They could not afford to run or maintain the property correctly, nor did they have enough ‘day-to-day’ income to live as they would like, which included occasional holidays and visits to their children and grandchildren who had left London some years beforehand.

Helen and David had calculated that for a quarter of the price of their London property, they could sell up and buy a virtually identical house in the Midlands, within two streets of their close family. This would leave Helen and David with a property similar in stature to their current home but with lots of extra cash in the bank to enjoy the remainder of their lives and vastly improve their living standards.

Unfortunately, however, the property in the Midlands had received much interest from other potential buyers, and as Helen and David had a house to sell that was not yet even properly marketable, they were unable to make an acceptable offer on the property. They did not have access to cash, which would enable them to purchase the new house outright, and additionally, just as importantly, they had many memories of the London property, having lived in the house for over 40 years, and many sentimental objects that they wanted to carefully sort through before selling, so a quick move was not really an option for them.

UK Property Finance was known to the client’s son as he had used our services in the past when arranging development finance, and as such, he asked us to speak with his parents. We met with Helen and David, and after a brief discussion, we showed them how we could raise the full purchase price of the new property without them having to sell their current London home to arrange the funds. We would also be able to raise extra funds for a much-needed ‘tidy-up’ prior to marketing. They were overjoyed with our proposal and asked us to proceed as a matter of urgency. A ‘Decision in Principle’ was immediately presented to the selling estate agent, allowing the offer of Helen and David to be formally accepted by the seller.

The finance was available within 2 weeks of our initial discussion and at a market-leading bridging loan rate. Helen and David now had 12 months in which to move properties and sell up, but in an organised way that suited them. The finance arrangement had no monthly payments and no exit penalties if repaid within the 12-month term. The sale of Helen and David’s property happened 7 months and 6 days after the finance was issued, and as such, when the loan was repaid, interest owed was calculated to the day for the time that the loan was active.

Helen and David could not be happier about how things have turned out.