Compare Mortgage Rates from Foundation Home Loans Against the Market

What type of mortgages do they offer? 

Foundation offer a range of products across residential and commercial lending:

• Residential mortgages: Including bad credit mortgages, green mortgages, mortgages for professionals & key workers, and specialist remortgage deals
• Buy-to-let mortgages: A range of specialist BTL deals including portfolio mortgages, HMO & MUFB mortgages, green mortgages and expat BTL
• Semi-commercial mortgages: The property must be a 60/40 split in favour of residential use and is only available to experienced landlords
• Solutions: This range is for more complex buy-to-let mortgages, such as mixed-use properties, consumer buy-to-let and landlords with bad credit

You can access this lender’s products only through brokers like us - get started here.

Eligibility criteria

The criteria for Foundation's residential range is:

• Deposit requirements: As they mostly offer specialist mortgages, you will need at least 15% deposit to get a residential mortgage
• Credit history: They offer a wide range of bad credit mortgages aimed at borrowers with CCJs, defaults, arrears and other issues. Bankruptcies, repossessions and IVAs need to be at least six years old before Foundation will consider lending
• Age caps: Applicants must be at least 18 years old and can be no older than 75 years of age when the mortgage term reaches its conclusion
• Loans amounts: You could borrow between £50k and £2 million
• Self-employed criteria: Can offer a mortgage based on just one year’s accounts, and may consider less than this on a case-by-case basis

Foundation’s residential mortgage range is dominated by 2 and 5-year fixed rate mortgages.

The criteria for Foundation's Buy-to-let range is: 

• Deposit requirements: Start at 20% of the property value (80% LTV)
• Applicant types: Offers buy-to-let mortgages to individuals, portfolio landlords, first-time landlords, expats (if an experienced landlord), and limited companies 
• Property types: A range of property types are supported including standard BTL, consumer BTL, holiday lets, short-term lets, HMOs and MUFBs
• Age Caps: Maximum age of 80 as a individual, but there is no mapped age for limited companies
• Income requirement: No minimum income, it's done on a case by case basis, but must be feasible affordability
• Self-employed criteria: They don't have a minimum time in employment requirement, happy for change of employment type on a case by case basis
• Loan Amounts: Portfolio borrowing of up to £5m available per lender, but will look at higher borrowing on a case by case basis
• Limited company criteria: As many as 4 directors and unlimited shareholders
• Max portfolio size: There is no maximium portfolio size, so long as they are self-financing

Foundation’s BTL range is also dominated by 2 and 5-year fixed rate mortgages.

What interest rates are currently available?

As a specialist lender, Foundation has slightly higher mortgage rates than what you will find on the high street as they typically lend to higher risk customers.

The exact rate you will end up with will depend on the LTV, the product type and the overall strength of your application, among other factors.

How much will Foundation let you borrow?

They will cap your maximum borrowing at just under 4.5 times annual salary for residential mortgages. Enter your total income into the calculator below to get an idea of what that equates to for you and how it compares to the higher income multiples other lenders use.

Buy-to-let mortgage affordability is based on the interest cover ratio - i.e. what percentage of the mortgage payments the property’s rental income will cover. It needs to be the following:

• Basic rate taxpayers: 125% 
• Higher rate taxpayers: 145% 
• Limited Companies: 125%

Are Foundation a good mortgage lender?

They are known to have a strong track record helping customers with various types of bad credit and complex buy-to-let cases. Their intermediary-only service currently holds a rating of 4.6/5 on consumer review aggregation service Trustpilot, indicating ‘excellent’ reviews.

Pros and cons

The table below highlights the pros and cons of Foundation as a mortgage lender to help you decide whether they are the right choice for you.

How to apply for a mortgage with Foundation 

The only way to apply for a mortgage with them is through a mortgage broker, like us. We have a deep working relationship with Foundation and can help you access their products, but we will also compare them with the competition for you.

Get started here and we will compare the latest rates from Foundation Home Loans with lenders from across the market for you.