Sell an Unmortgageable Property: Short Lease, Defects, Non-Standard
'Cash buyers only' is a line that narrows the market dramatically: for some properties, almost to zero. We specialise in the properties that mortgage lenders reject. If a bank has declined your property, or your estate agent has warned you to brace for a 'cash buyers only' listing, we're often the answer.
- Written offer
- 24 hrs
- Survey required
- No
- Mortgage needed
- No
- Completion
- 7 days
“Cash buyers only.” It’s a phrase that appears on thousands of UK property listings, and for the seller, it’s often an unwelcome discovery. The moment your property needs that qualifier, the buyer pool shrinks by 70–80%, prices soften, and sales stretch from months to years.
We’re one of the buyers that phrase is aimed at. We buy the properties that mortgage lenders won’t touch, because we’re not a mortgage lender: we’re a principal cash buyer. Our money is our own, and our criteria are our own. Occasionally a property is so specialised, serious structural damage, for instance, that another buyer we know is better placed to pay you more. When that happens we’ll tell you honestly and, only with your permission, introduce you. That’s advice, not us trading your details.
The problems we buy around
Most “cash buyers only” properties fall into a handful of categories. The most common ones now have their own page, with the detail and the pricing for each:
- Short-lease flats: leases under about 70 years that mainstream lenders decline. We buy with the lease as it stands, with no need to extend first.
- Non-standard construction: concrete, prefab, steel-framed and timber-framed homes (Airey, Cornish, Wates, BISF and the rest). We buy them repaired, certified, or as-built.
- Subsidence and structural movement: historic and underpinned, or active and ongoing. Both are within our scope.
- Japanese knotweed: treated, untreated, or just discovered. The plant is not a deal-breaker for us.
- Fire damage: we buy in whatever condition the fire has left the property, repairs undone. We buy flood-damaged property on the same basis.
We also buy around problems that do not have their own page yet:
- Cladding and fire safety: flats in blocks with B2-rated cladding, or awaiting EWS1 certification. See our guide to cladding remediation.
- Legal title defects: absent freeholders, broken title, restrictive covenants, access disputes, or contested enfranchisement. We buy “as is” rather than requiring the title to be perfected first. See restrictive covenant and title deeds.
- Environmental and location factors: former mining areas, contaminated land, high flood risk, or nearby infrastructure that unsettles valuers.
How we price an unmortgageable property
Our approach is to start with the open-market comparable value of a hypothetical equivalent property without the issue, then apply a specific discount for the specific issue:
| Issue | Typical discount range |
|---|---|
| Short lease (70–80 years) | 2–8% |
| Short lease (under 50 years) | 15–40% depending on extension cost |
| Non-standard construction, certified repaired | 5–15% |
| Non-standard construction, untreated | 15–30% |
| Historic subsidence, underpinned and certified | 5–10% |
| Active subsidence or unresolved | 15–25% |
| B2-rated cladding awaiting remediation | 10–20% |
| Severe condition issues (fire, flood damage) | 15–35% |
| Minor legal title issue resolvable via indemnity | 2–5% |
| Japanese knotweed (treated, management plan in place) | 3–8% |
The ranges depend on the specifics. We explain each component in our written offer.
Offers on unmortgageable property typically land between 70% and 88% of hypothetical-mortgageable market value. The market for these properties is thinner than for standard stock, and the specific risk factors add cost to us, but we try to pay at the upper end of the range wherever possible.
What we need from you at offer stage
- Postcode and address.
- The specific issue (or issues) that make the property unmortgageable. Be candid. We’ll find out in due diligence regardless, and early disclosure speeds the process.
- Any paperwork you have: EWS1 certificate, structural survey, subsidence monitoring records, lease documents, indemnity policies, knotweed management plans.
- What a previous buyer’s lender said, if a sale has already fallen through for lender reasons.
With that, a written offer within 24 hours is realistic.
Related terms
- Cash buyer: what “cash buyers only” actually means.
- Leasehold vs freehold: why short leases become unmortgageable.
- EWS1 form: the cladding certification affecting many flats.
- Restrictive covenant: one source of title defects.
- Conveyancing: still required, even on cash-only sales.
Start an offer on your unmortgageable property
If a lender has declined, or if you know your property has one of the issues above, share the details. We’ll come back within 24 hours with a realistic, written offer and an explanation of how we arrived at it.
Frequently asked,
plainly answered.
01 What makes a property unmortgageable?
02 Will your offer reflect the fact that my property is unmortgageable?
03 Do you actually buy properties with subsidence or structural issues?
04 How short a lease will you buy?
05 Do I need to disclose Japanese knotweed?
06 What about cladding / EWS1 issues?
07 Will you buy with active flood damage or fire damage?
08 What if my property is 'unmortgageable' because of something I don't know about?
Other situations
we take on.
Subsidence
A crack in the wall, a door that has started to stick, a surveyor's note about 'movement': subsidence is one of the fastest ways for a sale to fall apart. Lenders and insurers grow wary and buyers vanish. We buy houses with subsidence, historic or active, and price the movement in proportion to the facts.
Read more →Non-standard construction
Airey, Cornish, Wates, BISF, Woolaway: the names of post-war housing systems that mortgage lenders treat with suspicion. If your home was built outside the usual brick-and-block tradition, your buyer's lender may simply refuse it. We buy non-standard construction property for cash, whatever the system.
Read more →Short lease flat
Once a lease drops below about 80 years, mortgage lenders grow wary. Below 70, most step away altogether, and your flat becomes cash-buyer territory almost overnight. We buy short lease flats with the lease as it is, so you do not have to spend months and thousands extending it before you can sell.
Read more →