Mortgage Broker in Thurmaston

Mortgage Broker in Thurmaston

Flood risk and lending

Lenders do not usually decline a property because it is near a river. What they care about is whether it can be insured — because a mortgage requires buildings insurance, and no insurance means no mortgage.

The sequence is:

  1. Your solicitor's environmental search flags the flood risk category
  2. You obtain a buildings insurance quote
  3. If insurance is available at a normal premium, the lender is generally satisfied
  4. If insurance is refused, or only available with a very high excess for flood, the lender may decline

Flood Re is a UK scheme designed to keep home insurance available and affordable for properties at higher flood risk. Most homes built before 2009 are eligible, though there are exclusions. If a property is eligible, insurance is usually obtainable, which usually resolves the lender's concern.

Practical advice: if you are looking at a property near the Soar, get an indicative insurance quote before you offer, not after. It takes ten minutes and it tells you whether the purchase is straightforward.

You can check flood risk for an address yourself on the Environment Agency's service via gov.uk. Do that too — it is free and immediate.

Not all of Thurmaston is affected

Worth saying plainly, because a page like this can make a place sound problematic when it is not.

Thurmaston is a large and popular village, and much of it sits well away from the river with no flood consideration at all. The areas closest to the Soar and the old gravel pits are where the question arises. Most purchases here involve no flood issue whatsoever.

Property in Thurmaston

Older village core

around the church and Melton Road, with some period property.

Post-war and later estates

making up the bulk of the housing — semis and detached houses, standard construction, straightforward to finance.

Newer development

around the edges, including apartments and townhouses.

Ex-local authority stock

in parts. Houses generally mortgage without difficulty; ex-council flats are more restricted, with lenders looking at the proportion of the block in private ownership.

Thurmaston is well placed for buyers who want to be near the city without being in it — the A46 and A607 give quick access to Leicester, Syston and the county, and the shopping centre and retail park are on the doorstep.

First time buyers do well here

Values in Thurmaston sit below the county's southern villages, and the housing stock is largely the standard semis and terraces that lenders are most comfortable with. For first time buyers wanting a house rather than a flat, within reach of the city, it is one of the more realistic options.

See first time buyer mortgages in Leicester.

What we do

Whole-of-market advice from our Enderby office, with access to over ninety lenders — including those most comfortable with properties in higher flood-risk categories.

Speak to us

Call 0116 277 7536 or book a free consultation.

Cedar House, 3 Broad Street, Enderby, Leicester, LE19 4AA.

No cost, no obligation

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