How Many Buy to Let Mortgages Can I Have?
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How Many Buy to Let Mortgages Can I Have?
Anthony McQuilliam answers frequently asked questions about having multiple Buy to Let mortgages.
Podcast approved by The Openwork Partnership on 28/10/2024.
Can I get multiple Buy to Let mortgages? How many rental properties can you own in the UK?
This massively depends on the lender you’re speaking to. In theory, you could own as many Buy to Lets as you want. But when you start getting to multiple properties, it puts you in a position where you will be outside of a lot of lenders’ risk criteria.
For example, some lenders, especially those on the high street, will cap Buy to Lets at three or four properties. Once you go over that, you’re deemed a portfolio landlord, where they assess your income and your case completely differently.
When you have over 10 properties, that cuts out more lenders. You will need to go to a specialist mortgage company for a professional landlord, which is how they would class you.
How many Buy to Let properties should I have? Is there a limit on the number of Buy to Let mortgages?
A mortgage broker is always going to say you need more properties! But it depends on a couple of factors. The first thing is to understand why you’re investing in property.
For example, you might set a goal to generate £4,000 a month from your rental income. It’s then a case of working backwards to calculate how many properties you need to achieve that.
It’s really subjective – it depends on your goals and what you want to achieve. Even once you’ve got to the mark of that £4,000 income, you may well want to push forward and buy more anyway.
So how many you should have is completely subjective. You could have as many mortgages as you want, but the more properties you purchase could limit the lenders you’ve got access to.
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Who is eligible for multiple Buy to Let mortgages or properties? What criteria do I need to meet for multiple Buy to Let mortgages?
Technically, anybody could be eligible, subject to your income and credit stacking up. Remember that when you purchase more than four properties, you’re a portfolio landlord.
If you’re not classed as a portfolio landlord, lenders only assess that one property you’re purchasing. So they’ll assess whether the rental income is acceptable, and they sign everything off.
When you’re a portfolio landlord, they’ll do the same thing, but they’ll also assess the rest of your portfolio. Perhaps that one property you’re buying now is an amazing deal, but if the rest of your portfolio isn’t stacking up they could still kick the application back.
The rest of the portfolio might be pulling the overall cash flow and income down. So it’s not just about assessing one property, they’ll assess the entire portfolio.
How much deposit will I need for each Buy to Let mortgage?
It depends on the lender, but the majority will want you to have a 25% deposit. When you start becoming a portfolio landlord, some lenders may want you to put down 30%. But a 25% deposit will open the doorways up to the vast majority of lenders for you.
What other costs do I need to prepare for with multiple Buy to Let mortgages or multiple properties?
One of the things with multiple properties is the amount of time it takes to remortgage. If you end up with 10 to 15 properties, you may feel like your whole life is constantly remortgaging.
There could be a lot of extra costs with remortgaging 15 products spread across 15 properties. But some lenders allow a ‘blanket’ mortgage that covers the entire portfolio, which means that rather than having to reassess and remortgage every couple of years on each property, you could do the whole lot in one go.
There are no additional fees from buying multiple Buy to Let properties compared to buying just one. Every time you purchase, you’ve got stamp duty, solicitors, mortgage broker fees etc., and that will be the same on every property that you buy.
How many names can you have on a Buy to Let mortgage?
It depends on the lender. Some will go up to four names, while others set a maximum of two.
Can I still get to multiple Buy to Let mortgages or properties if I have bad credit?
You could. It depends on how bad the credit is and how recent it is. If you’ve got 10 properties and you’re behind on mortgage payments on every single one, you would struggle to get a mortgage with the vast majority of lenders – although it’s not impossible.
But if you’ve had a few missed payments three years ago, that’s going to have much less impact. There are lenders that specialise in mortgages for people with bad credit. It just limits your options, and the rates and product fees will be substantially higher than for someone with good credit.
Does being self-employed or contracting affect how many Buy to Let mortgages I can have?
It doesn’t, no. Lenders would still assess it exactly the same as if you were PAYE. But to prove your income you’d need to provide your most recent tax calculations and tax year overviews – for one or two years, depending on which lender you speak to.
Whether you earn £30,000 a year on PAYE, or via self-employment, the rest of the process would be identical. It’s just making sure you’ve got the minimum income to qualify for the mortgage.
How does remortgaging multiple Buy to Let properties work?
If you have individual mortgages on multiple properties, it could become very time consuming to remortgage every couple of years. Having one mortgage to cover all of the properties could save you time.
But it also has less flexibility, if you want to sell or remortgage just one of the properties to release money. So both approaches have their pros and cons in terms of time and flexibility.
How do you apply for multiple Buy to Let mortgages?
If you’re looking to go down this route, a lot of the high street lenders will cap how many properties you could have. So if you’re looking at buying multiple properties, it’d be a case of speaking to a mortgage broker who has access to niche and exclusive Buy to Let lenders.
We could have a look at your future plans in terms of how many properties you want to buy, and make sure you’re looking at lenders that will lend to you in that scenario.
What are the pros and cons of having multiple Buy to Let mortgages?
If you had or you had a £100,000 tied up in one property and over the next five years, the market went up 50%, you’d get a capital appreciation of £50,000.
However, you could use that £100,000 to buy four properties, each with a £25,000 deposit. You’ve got the same amount of the money invested, but you’ll have four amounts of rent. Also, if one person doesn’t pay, the other properties will help you out.
Again, if the market goes up 50%, your gains are spread across four properties. If you’ve bought four properties at £100,000, you get a £50,000 gain on each one – which means £200,000 in equity. That’s the big benefit here.
The downside is that if you’re running a full-time job, it could become quite time-consuming to manage multiple properties. Nothing’s completely passive – you’re still going to have to speak to tenants and letting agents. But you could alleviate a lot of that by passing everything over to a good management company, making it more hands-off for you.
What else do we need to know about buying and owning multiple Buy to Lets?
Buy to Let is not like a standard vanilla residential purchase, where you could take your pick of high street lenders and they’d accept you.
With Buy to Let, and especially at the high end with multiple properties, you could end up declined and disheartened. But speaking to somebody that has access to specialist lenders could increase your chances of getting deals over the line.
Yes, you have to pay a broker, but in the long run, they should be able to get you something that most standard banks may not be able to offer you.
YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE.
MOST BUY TO LET MORTGAGES ARE NOT REGULATED BY THE FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY.
Approved by The Openwork Partnership on 28/10/2024.
Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up with your mortgage repayments.
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