Do mortgage lenders mind you airbnb’ing?

[Jellis]

Hi All,

I know this question will most likely be answered with, “It will depend on the lender and your mortgage terms, so it’s probably best you check with a mortgage broker.” However, I would like to hear from your own experiences - do you think mortgage lenders would mind if you rented your property out on Airbnb, or longer term for that matter, if you had a very small mortgage, say 10-15% of the property’s value?

[jaquo]

@Jellis

“It will depend on the lender and your mortgage terms, so it’s probably best you check with a mortgage broker.”

Yep

But what they don’t know won’t worry them.

[anon67190644]

Assuming you already have a mortgage and have lived in the place longer than any “must be primary residence” clause, most mortgage companies don’t seem to care. Your insurance company, however, will really care. That is who I would pay attention to.

[Mike_L]

I don’t think many banks would have a problem with it. In fact, it’s now getting more respect recently. You can now count your income from Airbnb towards your mortgage;

Lenders now consider income from short-term rentals in refinancing applications

[georgygirlofairbnb]

@Jellis

a very small mortgage, say 10-15% of the property’s value?

only if you fail to make a payment. Otherwise they have no reason to look at you.

[Jellis]

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention, I’m based in the UK.

So generally if I don’t miss a payment they shouldn’t have a reason to look at me? Could you get around the insurance issue by just making sure you have the correct landlord insurance to cover you for short lets?

Is it generally more serious if you plan to let out your property long term with a mortgage?

[Barns]

Another vote here for ‘as long as you’re paying your mortgage no-one will care’, and ‘check your insurance’, which may well get a bit pricier.
I moved into my current house with a buy-to-let mortgage, which means I wouldn’t be living there (but I am). Like a massive hat, I rang the lenders in order to update my address, and they said “but you can’t live there, you bought it to let out”.
Ooops.
I quickly gabbled that I’d only be crashing there for 4 days whilst I painted, I’m sure they didn’t believe me, but I’m sure they won’t do anything about it. All quiet so far, it’s been 2 months.

[RomeoRetreat]

Our experience was posted here. Spoiler Alert- We could not refinance:

Anyone having issues refinancing their AirBnB property?

We are right in the middle of this and it seems that the underwriters are having trouble understanding the theory behind AirBnB. They are thinking we are a full on Bed and breakfast. We’ll know more tonight. Supposed to close on our refinance tonight. If for some reason it does not go through, I can only see that this will be a pretty big deal for the AirBnB business. Not being able to refinance for any reason just because you host for AirBnB. Not good.

[anon67190644]

@RomeoRetreat

We could not refinance:

Refinancing and holding a mortgage that is only 10% of the value of the place are two different things. You were asking for money. The OP isn’t.

[Jellis]

Ok, I don’t see why this would affect your chances of being able to refinance, can you explain why?

On the other hand just to be clear - if you own a property 100% outright with no mortgage, and you wanted to release equity from it, would lenders mind if they could see you’d rented out your property on airbnb prior to asking for the loan?

[georgygirlofairbnb]

If the income from the airbnb is the source of income on the bank application, that can be the glitch.
If the income supporting the loan comes from elsewhere ( a job for example) that would be better.

[Yana]

How are they going to know? Unless you tell them but why would you tell them ?