Secured loans on a buy-to-let property

How lenders typically treat it

A general guide to how the market behaves, not a promise about any lender. Criteria change and every case is assessed individually. See the lender criteria database for named lenders.

Can you get a secured loan on a buy-to-let property?

You can, although the market is narrower than for a loan on the home you live in. A secured loan on a rental property works in the same mechanical way as any second charge: the lender registers a charge at the Land Registry behind the existing buy-to-let mortgage, and is repaid from the sale proceeds after that mortgage if the property is ever sold or repossessed. The difference is who lends and how they assess it.

High street lenders rarely offer this. The names that do are specialist second charge lenders such as Together, United Trust Bank, West One and Shawbrook, most of which only take applications through a broker. Each has its own view of what a lettable property looks like, what tenancy it expects to see, and how much of the rent it wants left over after the payments. Our lender criteria pages set these policies out with the date they were last checked.

Landlords use these loans for several purposes: raising a deposit for another property, funding refurbishment, and, increasingly, consolidating unsecured debt. FLA data shows the second charge market as a whole wrote 44,725 new agreements worth £2.4bn in the twelve months to June 2026, with loan consolidation making up at least 60% of new business. Buy-to-let is a small slice of that, but a real one.

One point to be clear about from the start: the loan is secured on the rental property, and that property can be repossessed if the payments are not kept up. The tenant's rent is what makes the loan affordable, so a void period or a non-paying tenant puts the loan, and the property, at risk.

How do buy-to-let secured loan lenders assess affordability?

In one of three ways, and the route matters because it determines how much you can borrow. The first is a rental income assessment. The lender takes the rent, often verified by the tenancy agreement and bank statements, and asks whether it covers the buy-to-let mortgage payment plus the new loan payment by a set margin. That margin, called the interest cover ratio, is commonly 125% for a basic rate taxpayer and can rise to 145% for higher rate taxpayers, mirroring the way buy-to-let mortgage lenders work.

The second is a personal income assessment. Some lenders ignore the rent for affordability purposes and instead treat the loan as they would a residential secured loan, checking that your salary or self-employed income covers it alongside your own mortgage and commitments. This suits landlords whose rent is tight against the mortgage but who have strong earnings elsewhere.

The third is a blend: rent covers the buy-to-let mortgage, and the surplus rent plus personal income covers the new loan. A broker will know which lender uses which method, and will steer you towards the one that produces the best result for your circumstances.

Whichever method applies, the debts you are consolidating are normally treated as repaid in the calculation, because they are settled from the loan on completion. That often makes the difference between passing and failing affordability, especially where credit card minimum payments have grown large. Where the rental property is your only source of income and the numbers are tight, it is worth speaking to MoneyHelper or StepChange before borrowing more against it.

How much can you borrow against a rental property?

Less, as a proportion of value, than against your own home. Combined loan to value means the buy-to-let mortgage plus the new secured loan, expressed as a share of the property's value. On an owner-occupied home many secured lenders go to 85%. On a buy-to-let the cap is commonly 65% to 75%, with the top of that range reserved for clean credit and a straightforward property.

Take a rental flat worth £220,000 with a £140,000 buy-to-let mortgage. At a 75% cap the lender could allow total borrowing of £165,000, leaving £25,000 available. At a 65% cap the total falls to £143,000 and the available amount to £3,000, below most minimum loan sizes. The equity you hold in the rental property is the constraint, and it bites harder than on a home because the caps are tighter.

Valuation matters too. Lenders value a buy-to-let on its open market value, sometimes with a separate rental valuation, and a downward valuation reduces the available amount pound for pound. Where you own several rental properties, a lender may look at your whole portfolio rather than one property, and some restrict the number of mortgaged properties they will consider.

If the equity in the rental property is thin, the alternative is to secure the loan on your own home instead, where the LTV caps are more generous and the rate is usually lower. That trades a risk to a rental property for a risk to the home you live in, which is not a small thing, and an adviser should walk you through both options before you choose. Our borrowing guide covers the residential calculation.

What does it cost to consolidate debt with a buy-to-let secured loan?

Buy-to-let second charge rates sit above residential secured loan rates, because the lender is relying on a tenant and a property it cannot see the inside of every month. Fees follow the usual pattern: a lender arrangement fee, a valuation, any broker fee and a small legal charge, generally added to the loan. The example below uses the fixed illustrative secured loan rate used across this site, so a buy-to-let quote may well be higher; the adviser will show you the actual figure before you commit to anything.

The monthly outgoing on those debts drops from £532 to £190 in the example, freeing up cash each month. The total repaid, £34,196, is well above the £20,000 borrowed, because the loan runs for 15 years rather than the five or so the original debts would have taken to clear. A shorter term reduces the total and raises the payment; the right balance depends on how much headroom the rent leaves.

Think about tax as well. Interest on borrowing against a rental property only attracts the finance cost tax credit if the money is used for the rental business, so interest on money raised to consolidate personal debt is usually a personal cost in full.

Do you need your buy-to-let mortgage lender's consent?

Almost always, yes. A second charge cannot be registered at the Land Registry without the first charge holder agreeing to it, and buy-to-let mortgage terms typically say you must not create a further charge without the lender's permission. The secured loan lender or your broker writes to the mortgage lender asking for consent, and the mortgage lender checks that the account is up to date and that the combined borrowing sits within its own limits.

Consent is not a formality to skip. Registering a second charge without it puts you in breach of your mortgage conditions, and the secured loan lender will not complete without written confirmation in any case, so the step protects everyone involved.

Most buy-to-let lenders grant consent as a matter of routine, sometimes for a small administration fee. A minority refuse second charges as a matter of policy, and a broker will know which those are before an application is made, which avoids wasted valuation fees. Our guide on whether your mortgage lender needs to know explains why going around this step is not an option.

If consent is refused, the options are to remortgage the buy-to-let with additional borrowing when the current deal allows, to secure the loan on your own home instead, or to look at unsecured borrowing. Each has a different risk profile and cost, and if the underlying issue is that the debts have become unmanageable, free advice from Citizens Advice or StepChange is the better first call than any new borrowing.

What improves your chances

• Have the tenancy agreement, rent schedule and the last three months of rental bank statements ready before you enquire.
• Check the buy-to-let mortgage is up to date; arrears on the first charge close almost every door.
• Confirm your buy-to-let lender's policy on second charges early, so you do not pay for a valuation a lender will never agree to.
• Work out the interest cover on the rent yourself: buy-to-let mortgage payment plus the new loan payment, against the rent received.
• Keep the property in good order and lettable; a valuer's comments on condition feed straight into the loan to value.
• Be upfront about your full portfolio, since lenders will find every mortgaged property at the credit search stage anyway.

Alternatives worth considering

A second charge on the rental property is one of several ways to raise money for consolidation. If the buy-to-let mortgage deal is ending, a remortgage with additional borrowing may cost less than a second charge, and some landlords prefer to keep everything under one lender; our secured loan versus remortgage comparison sets out how to weigh the two. Securing the loan on your own home instead usually means a lower rate and a higher LTV cap, at the cost of putting your home rather than an investment at risk. For smaller sums, an unsecured personal loan avoids any charge on property at all, and our secured loan versus personal loan page shows when that makes sense.