Mortgage advice across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire

Buying your first home is exciting and, at points, genuinely bewildering. There is a deposit to pull together, an affordability calculation that seems to change depending on who you ask, and a process nobody has ever explained to you end to end.

We start by telling you what you can realistically borrow and what that means for the sort of property you should be viewing, so you are not wasting weekends on houses that were never going to work. Then we handle the agreement in principle, the full application and the lender, and we explain each stage before it happens: offer accepted, valuation, legal work, exchange, completion.

• •  What you can borrow, and what deposit you actually need
• •  Gifted deposits and family support arrangements
• •  Agreement in principle before you start viewing
• •  Someone to call when the estate agent says something confusing

Moving is harder than buying, because you are selling and buying at once and the two have to meet in the middle. The mortgage is often the piece that decides whether that happens smoothly or becomes the thing holding up a chain.

We look at whether porting your existing deal makes sense or whether a new lender serves you better once early repayment charges are counted properly. We plan the finance around your timeline, and where a chain gets awkward we can look at bridging options rather than letting a purchase fall through.

• •  Porting versus switching, with the real numbers
• •  Borrowing more to fund the move up
• •  Timing the finance around a chain
• •  Bridging where a sale and purchase will not line up

Bridging finance involves the referral to a service that is separate and distinct to those offered by St. James's Place and is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

If your fixed rate is ending in the next six months, now is the time to look. Do nothing and you will roll onto the lender’s standard variable rate, which is almost always the a more expensive option.

We compare what your existing lender will offer you against the wider market, and we will tell you plainly when staying put is the better answer. Remortgaging is also the usual route to releasing equity, whether that is for home improvements, an adaptation, clearing an expensive debt or helping a child with a deposit, and we will be honest about whether that is a sensible use of the borrowing.

• •  Start six months out and hold a rate
• •  Product transfer versus a full remortgage
• •  Releasing equity, and whether you should
• •  Fixed, tracker, and what actually suits your budget

Buy-to-let is an area where criteria, rates and rules change constantly, and where the wrong structure at the outset can cost you for years. Whether you are buying a first rental or refinancing a portfolio, the questions are the same: will it stress-test, is the structure right, and does the arithmetic still work if rates move against you?

We look at personal versus limited company ownership alongside your accountant, at portfolio and HMO lending where relevant, and at how the property sits within your wider financial plan rather than in isolation.

• •  Limited company and SPV lending
• •  Portfolio landlords and HMO finance
• •  Rental stress-testing before you commit
• •  Refinancing to release capital for the next purchase

Your home or other property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Some buy to let mortgages are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

One of the most frustrating experiences for self-employed borrowers is being told you don’t qualify for a mortgage when your finances are actually strong enough to support one. The issue is often not your income. It’s that lenders assess self-employed earnings in very different ways. A lender that relies on one calculation may decline an application, while another may be happy to lend based on exactly the same accounts.

Some lenders want three years of accounts, others will work from one. Company directors are usually assessed on salary and dividends, but a handful will use retained profit instead, which can transform what you are able to borrow. Knowing which lender does what, and presenting your accounts properly, is most of the job.

• •  Sole traders, partnerships and limited company directors
• •  Lenders who will consider retained profit
• •  One year of accounts, or a recent change of structure
• •  Contractors and day-rate income

Larger borrowing rarely stands on its own. It connects to your investments, your wider wealth and your longer-term plans, and it is usually assessed by people rather than by an automated system, which means how the case is presented genuinely matters.

We work with private banks and specialist lenders on higher-value cases, on income that does not fit a standard template, and on properties that mainstream lenders will not touch. Because we advise across your whole financial picture rather than only the loan, we can present the case in the round.

• •  Private bank and specialist lender relationships
• •  Bonus, equity, carried interest and overseas income
• •  Listed buildings, unusual construction and land
• •  Discreet, confidential handling throughout

This may involve the referral to services that are separate and distinct to those offered by St. James's Place.