Cohousing Mortgages

We look at how lenders view cohousing leases.

At Wrigleys, we are getting more and more queries from existing cohousing groups as to how to make their leases acceptable for high street lenders. Groups who have operated for years, sometimes decades, are finding that lenders are now refusing to lend on properties where the lease can only be passed on to people who become a member of the group. This is happening where groups have never found it to be a problem before.  

It has always been the case that lenders needed to be free to sell on the open market on an enforced sale.  Most cohousing leases, or freehold covenants,  permit a lender to do this after giving the group a short period (normally between 8 and 14 weeks) to find an appropriate buyer. However, even this safeguard no longer seems to be adequate for lenders.