How a 75% mortgage supported a London second-home purchase for US buyers

Strong wealth did not create a standard mortgage application.

The couple wanted a long-term London base that they could use regularly while keeping their principal residence in the United States. They had a 25% deposit available, substantial income, strong assets and little debt beyond their existing home mortgage. The difficulty was finding a lender whose criteria matched how they lived and earned.

• Overseas residency and second-home use The clients were US nationals who expected to spend only part of each year in the UK. Many mainstream lenders were not suitable for a non-resident second-home purchase.
• US self-employed earnings One applicant generated substantial income through a sole proprietorship. The lender needed to be comfortable assessing US tax returns and business evidence rather than familiar UK accounts.
• Salary, variable pay and RSUs The other applicant’s remuneration combined base salary, performance-related compensation and restricted stock units. Lender treatment of stock-based income varies, and excluding it would have materially reduced borrowing capacity.

The clients were not constrained by day-to-day affordability. The task was to identify a lender willing to recognise the quality and consistency of income that sat outside conventional UK underwriting models.

Build the application around evidence, property use and lender appetite.

Elizabeth approached the case as a cross-border underwriting exercise rather than a simple salary-multiple calculation. The selected lender was prepared to review overseas self-employed income alongside complex employed remuneration, provided the evidence trail was sufficiently detailed.

The lender also permitted substantial annual overpayments, preserving flexibility if the clients later chose to reduce the mortgage more quickly. Because they were considering modern developments, energy efficiency could also affect product pricing where a property met the lender’s relevant EPC requirements.

A London mortgage structured around the clients’ real financial position.

The couple secured a mortgage for their London second home with a lender prepared to assess US self-employed earnings and an employed remuneration package that included RSUs. The 75% loan-to-value repayment structure matched their preference for certainty while avoiding the need to commit more capital to the deposit than planned.

The case also demonstrated why lender selection mattered as much as headline affordability. The clients’ financial strength was clear, but it only became useful for mortgage purposes once the evidence, residency position, intended property use and different income streams were presented to a lender whose underwriting approach could accommodate them.

Understanding this type of international mortgage.