Secured loans with low equity (90% to 95% combined LTV)

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 with only 5% to 10% equity?

Sometimes. Secured loan lenders express their appetite as a maximum combined loan to value, and the great majority of the market stops at 85%. That leaves anyone with less than 15% equity, which includes many people who bought with a 5% or 10% deposit in the last few years, outside the main market. It does not leave them outside the whole market.

A small number of lenders publish criteria that go beyond 85%. Some allow 90% for applicants with a clean credit file and a standard property, and one or two advertise higher still, occasionally up to 100% for very specific cases. These products exist because the security still has value when the cushion is thin, provided income and record are strong. Our lender criteria pages show which lenders go where, with the date each was checked.

The trade-off is that everything else tightens. The maximum loan is smaller, the rate is higher, the credit criteria are stricter and the affordability calculation is more conservative. FLA figures put the market at 44,725 new second charge agreements in the year to June 2026, and high LTV lending is a modest fraction of that.

The one thing that does not soften is the risk. A secured loan is secured on your home, and if you cannot keep up the payments the lender can seek possession and you could lose your home. With a thin equity cushion, a forced sale can leave you owing money after the property is sold, which is the worst outcome of all. Before borrowing at high LTV, free advice from MoneyHelper or StepChange is worth an hour of your time.

What does combined loan to value mean?

Combined loan to value, sometimes written CLTV, is the total secured borrowing against your home as a percentage of its value. Add your mortgage balance to the secured loan you want, then divide by the home's current value. It is the number a second charge lender uses to decide whether to lend, how much, and at what rate.

Take a home worth £250,000 with a mortgage balance of £212,500. That is already 85% loan to value before any secured loan. A lender whose limit is 85% has nothing to offer. A lender whose limit is 90% could allow total borrowing of £225,000, so a secured loan of up to £12,500. A lender at 95% could go to £237,500, leaving £25,000 of room. The difference between those two lenders is £12,500 of borrowing on an identical property.

Notice how sensitive this is to valuation. If the valuer puts the home at £240,000 rather than £250,000, the 90% lender's ceiling drops to £216,000 and the available loan falls to £3,500, below most minimum loan sizes. At low LTV a £10,000 valuation shortfall is an irritation; at high LTV it can end the application. Lenders know this, which is why they tend to insist on a full physical valuation rather than an automated estimate when the numbers are tight.

The mortgage balance matters just as much. Every pound you overpay on the mortgage is a pound of extra equity, and it works at the margin where it counts. Our guide to how much equity you need to consolidate debt sets out the bands lenders use and what each one unlocks.

Why does a small equity cushion limit the amount and raise the rate?

Because equity is the lender's protection. If a property has to be sold to repay the debts secured on it, the mortgage lender is paid first, the second charge lender second, and the costs of sale come out along the way. A property worth £250,000 might sell for £235,000 in a forced sale, and legal and estate agency fees reduce that further. With £212,500 owed on the mortgage, there is very little left for anyone else.

A second charge lender at 90% combined LTV is therefore lending into a position where a small fall in prices, or a disappointing sale, means it recovers nothing. It prices for that risk with a higher rate, and it limits the risk by lending less. Both fall on the borrower.

The same logic explains why credit criteria are stricter at high LTV. At 70% LTV a lender can tolerate a default from three years ago because the equity would cover a loss. At 90% there is no such buffer, so the lender wants the strongest possible evidence that payments will be made: a clean file, stable income and a sensible loan to income ratio. Adverse credit and high LTV rarely coexist in any lender's criteria.

The practical upshot is that the same £12,000 loan can cost noticeably more at 90% than at 75%. If a year of overpayments or a modest rise in values would move you into the lower band, the saving in interest over the life of the loan can be worth the wait. Our guide on consolidating debt with a 90% mortgage looks at the same question from the remortgage side.

What does a high LTV secured loan cost to consolidate debt?

More than the same loan at lower LTV, and the amount available is smaller. The example below uses the £12,500 of borrowing room from the 90% scenario above and the fixed illustrative secured loan rate used across this site. A genuine high LTV quote is likely to be higher than the illustrative rate, and the adviser will show you the real figure before anything is agreed.

The monthly cost of the card debt falls from £350 to £114 in the example. The total repaid over 15 years, £20,518, is well above the £12,000 borrowed, because the term is long and interest runs for the whole of it. A shorter term raises the payment and cuts the total, and at high LTV lenders often require one anyway.

Fees deserve a closer look at high LTV, because they are often added to the loan and count towards the LTV cap. A £12,500 ceiling with £1,500 of fees added leaves £11,000 to reach the debts. Ask the adviser to show what actually reaches the cards after fees. Our guide on the maximum LTV for a secured loan covers how fees interact with the limit.

When is it better to wait rather than borrow at 90% plus?

When the wait is short and the improvement is real. Three things move your combined LTV: repaying the mortgage, repaying other secured borrowing, and the value of the home. Most repayment mortgages reduce the balance by 2% to 3% of the original loan each year in the early years, so twelve months of normal payments plus a few hundred pounds of overpayments can shift a 90% position to 87% without any help from house prices. If you are close to a band edge, that alone can open up several more lenders and a lower rate.

Waiting also makes sense if the debts are still manageable. If you are paying the cards on time and the interest is painful but not unaffordable, a year at the higher cost may be less than the extra interest you would pay over fifteen years at a high LTV rate. The secured loan calculator lets you compare the two.

Waiting does not make sense if the debts are getting worse each month, if minimum payments are only covering interest, or if you have started missing payments. In that situation the cost of delay is the cost of falling behind, and the right first step is free, impartial debt advice from StepChange, Citizens Advice or MoneyHelper, who can look at options that do not involve borrowing at all.

Most people sit between those two positions, and the honest answer is to ask. A qualified adviser can tell you whether a lender exists for your numbers today, what it would cost, and what a year of waiting would change.

What improves your chances

• Get an up-to-date estimate of your home's value from recent local sales, and be realistic; the valuer will be.
• Make mortgage overpayments in the months before you apply, since every pound reduces your combined LTV directly.
• Keep your credit file spotless: high LTV lenders generally want no missed payments in recent years.
• Ask for a smaller loan than the maximum; leaving a margin below the cap widens the lender choice and can lower the rate.
• Consider paying fees upfront rather than adding them to the loan, so the full amount reaches your debts.
• Have proof of income ready, because the affordability check is stricter at high LTV than at lower bands.

Alternatives worth considering

With little equity, the alternatives deserve as much attention as the secured loan. A remortgage with additional borrowing is possible with some lenders up to 90% LTV, though usually for clean credit and often at a higher rate than lower bands; our guide to consolidating with a 90% mortgage covers it. For card debt, a 0% balance transfer card clears the interest without touching the home, provided you can repay within the promotional period. An unsecured personal loan avoids any charge on the property, and our secured loan versus personal loan comparison shows when it wins. Where the debt is unmanageable, a debt management plan through a free charity may be the better answer.