Cob House Mortgage

A cob house is a property that is built in a traditional style. It’s got stone foundations and a mixture of sand, clay and straw is layered up to build the walls. The roof is typically tile or thatch.

A cob house is deemed non-standard construction by a mortgage lender – but it is a very traditional way of building houses and fairly common within the UK.

It is possible to get a mortgage on a cob house but sometimes it can be difficult. Plenty of lenders will look at cob properties and other non-standard construction properties. Many lenders will say that their decision will be based on the valuation of the property. They’ll look at what the valuer says after visiting it.

It also means you can get multiple requests to surveyors for different reports. So it can often be done but it can also be a bit tricky at times.

Several of my clients have bought cob houses. Where I am in Wiltshire, cob construction is relatively common.

The advice I would give is do your research. If you are looking at potentially buying a cob house, make sure you know what’s available within the market and be prepared for surveys. You will probably want to get a structural survey done. The lender may request specific surveys as well, potentially damp/rot and timber reports. They may even request a full structural survey themselves.

Another piece of advice is to be patient. You’re not going to get a mortgage on a cob house within a matter of a couple of weeks like you would on a traditional build. It will take time. The lender will look at things in a lot of detail and want to make sure they’re comfortable lending on that property.

It can take a while to move from the mortgage application stage through valuation through to mortgage offer. I always try to make sure you’re fully up to date with what is going on. So if there’s a question from the lender, or if things aren’t moving at a certain pace, I will find out why and what we need to do to move things forwards.

It is often possible to get a mortgage on a cob house as a First Time Buyer and again, if you’re moving home. It’s very much the same process.

There would be the normal mortgage application – you will need to fit that lender’s criteria for affordability and income. Then it would be very much down to the valuation surveys. As a broker we would make sure we match you up with the most suitable lender for your specific situation and the property.

Remortgaging a cob house is very similar to getting a mortgage as First Time Buyers or home movers. If you are remortgaging from one lender to another, typically a lender would instruct a valuation or mortgage survey on your behalf and pay for it. Again, there could be requirements for additional surveys.

You would also have the option to stay with your existing lender – they would need to offer you a product if your current deal was coming to an end. Within the lender’s criteria you can often raise money on your mortgage for home improvements, with your existing lender or moving to another.

With doing home improvements, cob houses typically tend to be listed buildings, so there are some additional requirements on that side of things.

It can be possible, but knowing the products the way I do, there will be property criteria to meet. We just need to make sure we approach the right lender that could accept the property.

Then that property would need to fit the criteria from an affordability point of view – that is, the rent needs to cover the mortgage comfortably. As long as you fit that lender’s criteria it is often possible to get a Buy to Let mortgage on a cob house.

Yes, there are plenty of lenders that will lend on cob houses. I work with just over 90 different lenders and a good number will lend on a cob house.

As I mentioned earlier, they will always say that lending is based upon the valuer’s comments. Once the survey’s been done and the valuers are happy with the property, they will move forward. They might request additional reports. They may possibly say no at that stage but there may still be options out there for you.

As with any mortgage, if you’ve got bad credit there are niche lenders that may support you, depending on what your credit issue is. Very early on, if you had found a cob house that you like and you do have bad credit, we would do some research with the lenders. We would check whether you would fit their criteria, that they’d be happy to lend on a cob house and feedback to you from there.

Not necessarily. It will come down to the lender and whether they’re comfortable to lend on that cob house. We would just make sure that from a self-employed perspective you would fit that lender’s criteria.

That means checking whether you have been trading for one or two years, and having the appropriate accounts in place. Do your accounts support the lending you need to buy that property? As long as you fit the self-employed criteria and they lend on cob houses, there is often options for you.

It’s not always easy. Cob houses tend to be rendered, so you don’t always necessarily know what’s behind that render. Hopefully the estate agent will be aware that it’s a cob house and feed that back to you.

It should say on the property particulars that it is a cob construction house. You’d probably also get a feel once inside that property that it isn’t a standard build – you wouldn’t see the brick and tile construction of a typical home.

Cob houses are thought to be very energy efficient. Because of the way they’re built they tend to keep cool in summer and are well insulated in winter.

But I would always talk to a specialist if you were looking at ways of improving the energy performance of any house – they’d be able to support you.

A big pro is that this could be your dream home. You’ve fallen in love with it, it ticks all the boxes for you. It’s got character. There are lots of great things about cob houses.

On the more negative side, they’re not always the easiest to mortgage. You will have fewer options because they are of non-standard construction. Cob houses do take a little bit of maintenance – there will always be things you need to do with them. If they are a listed building there are rules to be aware of in terms of updates and improvements.

As with any property there’s always a risk of property price fluctuations. When you come to sell it you might have a slightly narrower market than if you had bought a standard construction property.

Don’t be put off, though – as long as you’ve done your research and you know your options then is a good chance you can get that dream home.

I’ve had a few clients who have bought cob houses and we’ve successfully mortgaged all of those properties. My advice if you’re thinking of buying a cob house is to work closely with a mortgage broker from the outset.

It’s really important to research the lenders available to you, the criteria that might come up and what requirements they may have. Being patient is also important. Lenders may come back and ask for additional surveys and reports. There may be other things they might ask about to be comfortable lending on that property.

A mortgage broker makes things easy. If you try and do it yourself, it is likely you will struggle – it would take you hours going up and down the high street trying to look at the options. Instead, come and talk to someone impartial like myself, who’s got access to multiple lenders and can do all of that legwork for you. We should be able to come back with some really good options that are right for you.