Coventry BS confirms portfolio BTL lending criteria including max LTV and min ICR rules

The lender said all of its existing buy-to-let (BTL) criteria would remain intact, however it has also added further portfolio-wide requirements.

These include:

• Assessing all the properties in the applicant’s portfolio. A downloadable portfolio form will be introduced to capture information including the value of each mortgage, monthly mortgage repayments, monthly rental amounts and estimated property values;
• A maximum loan to value (LTV) of 65% across the whole portfolio;
• A minimum income coverage ratio (ICR) across the whole portfolio, including properties mortgaged with other lenders, of 125% (based on a reference rate of 5.5%);
• No single property below an ICR of 100%;
• Portfolio landlords must have acquired their first BTL property more than 24 months before the current application. No more than three properties (prior to the current application) should have been acquired within the last 12 months with any lender.

Be prepared

Coventry committed to the portfolio buy-to-let market in May.

Coventry for Intermediaries director of intermediaries Kevin Purvey said: “We want intermediaries to be fully prepared, so we’re announcing our approach to portfolio landlords well in advance.

“The good news is that all of our existing buy to let criteria will still apply to the property being applied for, such as minimum ICR, maximum number of BTL properties per household and LTV limits. However, there are some additional criteria that we’ll implement from 14 September.

“While intermediaries are adjusting to our new approach to portfolio landlords, we will of course be here to help. Brokers can visit our website for full details of the changes to lending policy and the application process, or call the intermediary support team,” he added.