There are a number of reasons you might be considering let-to-buy. Perhaps the most common is that you want to use equity you’ve built up in your home to enable you to move to a new one, while also keeping the existing home as a long-term investment.

Let-to-buy could also be suitable for homeowners in the following situations:

• You’re in a hurry to move to a new home and can’t wait to sell your current property.
• You have struggled to sell your home due to market conditions.
• You want to buy a property with a partner but maintain ownership of your current home.
• You’re moving elsewhere for a few years but plan on moving back to your home in the future.

When switching to a buy-to-let mortgage, your eligibility will be based on how much rental income you can bring in from the property you’re letting out, rather than how much money you earn.

Let-to-buy and buy-to-let might sound similar, but in reality they’re very different. With buy-to-let, you’re purchasing a property specifically to rent out, whereas with let-to-buy you’re buying a new property to live in yourself and renting out your current home.

Let-to-buy has lots of moving parts, so it’s highly recommended that you seek advice on your options from a whole-of-market mortgage broker.

As well as finding you the right buy-to-let and residential mortgages, a good broker will be able to manage the process from start to finish, helping to ensure you can complete both mortgages simultaneously.

Finally, many buy-to-let mortgages are only available through brokers rather than directly from lenders, so a broker may be able to access deals you won’t be able to get on the high street.