Remortgage a Limited Company Buy-to-Let

What Is an SPV and Why Do Lenders Want One?

A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is a UK limited company formed solely to hold and let investment property. Lenders insist on the "special purpose" aspect so the company has no other trading risks, liabilities or customer obligations on its balance sheet.

SPV lenders will typically require your company to be registered with Companies House using specific SIC codes:

• 68100 — Buying and selling of own real estate.
• 68209 — Other letting and operating of own or leased real estate.
• 68320 — Management of real estate on a fee or contract basis.
• 68201 — Renting and operating of Housing Association real estate.

If your company has other SIC codes (trading company, consultancy, etc.), lenders will either require you to remove them, or they'll classify it as a "trading company BTL" which narrows the lender pool and lifts rates.

Personal Guarantees: The Key Feature

Every SPV BTL mortgage requires personal guarantees (PGs) from the directors and major shareholders. The PG means that if the SPV defaults, the lender can pursue you personally for the debt — it's effectively the same personal risk as a personal-name mortgage, just routed through a company for tax purposes.

Key PG points:

• All directors and shareholders with 20%+ holding typically sign.
• PGs usually cover 100% of the loan — some lenders cap at 70%-80%.
• Your solicitor must give you independent legal advice before signing (an "ILA meeting"), usually costing £250-£500 per guarantor.
• PGs appear on your personal credit file and count towards your personal affordability with other mortgage lenders.

A handful of "no PG" lenders exist (Kuflink, LendInvest for certain commercial products), but they typically price materially higher. For most landlords, accepting the PG and getting the better rate is the sensible trade-off.

SPV Rates vs Personal Name Rates

The gap has narrowed considerably. A rough guide to the premium over personal-name rates:

Product	Personal name rate	Limited company rate	Premium
2-yr fix, 60% LTV	4.20%-4.60%	4.40%-4.90%	+0.20%-0.30%
5-yr fix, 75% LTV	4.60%-5.20%	4.80%-5.50%	+0.20%-0.30%
5-yr fix, 80% LTV	5.20%-5.80%	5.40%-6.10%	+0.20%-0.30%

The combination of slightly higher rate with the tax saving on interest deductibility (especially for higher- and additional-rate taxpayers) usually still leaves limited company structures materially ahead on net cashflow. Plug your own numbers into an accountant's projection before deciding.

Top SPV Lenders and Their Specialisms

The SPV market has genuine depth. Leading names:

The Mortgage Works — Very competitive SPV rates for clean limited companies; strict on SIC codes and company age (often wants 2+ years trading or recent incorporation with strong director background).

Paragon — Excellent for portfolio landlords and HMOs in SPVs; flexible on complex corporate structures.

Kent Reliance — Broad appetite including expats, first-time landlords, HMOs and complex company structures.

Landbay — Tech-enabled underwriting, strong 5-year fix pricing, HMO-friendly.

Foundation Home Loans — Accepts mild adverse credit, top-slicing, and new SPVs with no trading history.

Precise, Fleet, Aldermore, Shawbrook, Molo, Zephyr — All active SPV lenders with differing niches on LTV, rent cover flexibility and fee structures.

No single lender tops the table for every case. The "right" SPV lender depends on LTV, rent cover, company age, director credit profile, portfolio size and property type.

Limited Company Documents You'll Need

SPV applications carry an additional layer of corporate paperwork on top of the standard BTL pack:

• Companies House print-out showing SIC codes, registered office, directors and shareholders.
• Memorandum and articles of association.
• Last 2 years of filed accounts (if the company is more than 2 years old).
• Corporation tax returns (CT600) for the last 2 years.
• Company bank statements for the last 3 months.
• Rent receipts into the company account.
• Up-to-date director confirmation statement (the PSC register).
• Personal documents for every director: ID, 3 months' bank statements, payslips or SA302s.

New SPVs (formed in the last 12 months) are typically fine for lenders, provided they have no adverse history. What matters is the director's personal profile — it's the humans behind the SPV who are being underwritten.

Moving a Property From Personal Name to SPV

This is not a remortgage — it's a sale from you to your company, and it triggers:

• Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on any gain since you originally bought the property.
• Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) at the higher-rate residential scale (including the 3% additional-property surcharge and, from 2025, the 5% SDLT surcharge in some scenarios — always check current rates).
• New mortgage arrangement costs and legal fees on both sides.

For a single property, these transactional costs usually outweigh the tax savings over any reasonable period. For a portfolio of 4+ properties held by a higher-rate taxpayer, the calculation often flips. "Incorporation relief" may be available for landlords operating a full-time property business (typically evidenced by 20+ hours/week and multiple properties) — but it's an HMRC-specific test and needs accountant sign-off. Never do this without professional tax advice.

Day-to-Day Running of an SPV

Setting up the SPV is the easy bit — running it compliantly is what separates successful operators from those who end up with tax penalties and lender issues. Ongoing obligations include:

• Annual accounts filed with Companies House (usually within 9 months of year-end).
• Corporation tax returns (CT600) filed with HMRC and tax paid within 9 months and 1 day of year-end.
• Confirmation statement filed annually at Companies House (£13 online) confirming directors, shareholders and registered office.
• PSC register updated if beneficial ownership changes.
• Separate company bank account — essential; do not commingle rental receipts with personal finances.
• Transparent bookkeeping — every rent receipt, expense and director loan properly recorded. Most landlords use property-specific software (Landlord Vision, Arthur, Hammock) or a property accountant.

Budget £600-£1,500 per year for accountancy fees per SPV, depending on complexity. Trying to save money by DIYing the accounts is a false economy — lender scrutiny of company accounts at remortgage time is genuine, and badly-presented accounts can cost you both rate tier and loan size.

Remember that drawing funds from the SPV has personal tax consequences (dividends, director's loan interest, salary) — structuring this tax-efficiently is where a property-specialist accountant adds real value over a general practitioner.

Choosing Between SPV Lenders: Decision Framework

With 25+ active SPV lenders, picking the right one requires matching your case to each lender's sweet spot. A simplified decision framework:

Start with property type:

• Standard flat or house: any SPV lender will consider it.
• HMO: Paragon, Kent Reliance, Foundation, Landbay, Precise, Fleet, Shawbrook.
• MUFB: Paragon, Kent Reliance, Foundation, Landbay, Shawbrook.
• Semi-commercial / above-shop: Shawbrook, Hampshire Trust, InterBay, Together.
• Ex-local authority flat: Kent Reliance, Foundation, The Mortgage Works.

Then filter by portfolio size:

• 1-3 properties: Full panel available.
• 4-10 properties: Paragon, Landbay, Kent Reliance, Foundation, Fleet, Precise, Aldermore.
• 11-20 properties: Paragon, Kent Reliance, Shawbrook.
• 20+ properties: Paragon Premier, Shawbrook, private banks.

Then by director credit:

• Clean credit: Full panel.
• Mild adverse: Foundation, Precise, Vida, Pepper.
• Ex-bankruptcy (discharged 3+ years): Foundation, Pepper, Together.

Finally by rate sensitivity:

• Minimum rate at all costs: Aldermore, Fleet, The Mortgage Works, Accord.
• Minimum total cost including fees: depends on loan size — get comparison quotes.
• Maximum loan / stretched ICR: Landbay, Foundation (top-slicing), Paragon (5-year pay-rate stress).

This matrix is how specialist brokers narrow the lender pool in seconds — something that would take a landlord days to research directly.

Director's Loan Strategies for SPV Landlords

One of the most powerful and underused features of SPV BTL is the director's loan account. When you inject cash into your SPV (to buy a property, fund a deposit, pay stamp duty or cover refurbishment costs), this creates a director's loan — money the company owes you back.

The key advantage: as the company earns rental profit, it can repay the director's loan tax-free. Unlike dividends (taxed at 8.75%-39.35%) or salary (taxed at income tax rates), director's loan repayments are simply your own money being returned.

How this interacts with remortgaging:

• When the SPV remortgages and releases equity, the proceeds can be used to repay the director's loan — putting cash back in the director's personal account tax-free.
• This effectively converts property appreciation into personal cash without personal income tax implications (though CGT considerations may apply later when the property is eventually sold).
• A well-documented director's loan account is essential — HMRC scrutiny of SPV fund movements has increased in recent years.

Points to watch:

• Lenders scrutinise director's loan balances on company accounts — very large outstanding DLAs can raise questions about the SPV's financial resilience.
• Interest can be charged on director's loans (creating a tax deduction for the company and taxable interest for the director) — your accountant should advise whether this helps your structure.
• Drawing more from the SPV than the director's loan balance creates an "overdrawn DLA" with its own tax charges (Section 455 tax at 33.75%) that you really want to avoid.

For sophisticated portfolio landlords, managing the director's loan alongside remortgage releases is one of the most tax-efficient wealth-extraction techniques available. Coordinate it with a property-specialist accountant.