Joint Home Mover Mortgage at 77% LTV: A Four-Bed Detached Family Home in Kent

Heron Financial arranged a £425,000 mortgage at 77% LTV for joint home movers in Kent, one a project management professional, the other an insurance professional, upsizing into a £550,000 four-bedroom detached family home with £125,000 of equity rolled over from the sale of their previous property. The lender’s valuation matched the agreed purchase price at £550,000, with the case landing just outside the 75% LTV pricing tier. Heron Financial placed the case with Accord Mortgages on a fixed rate, and the mortgage completed in May 2026.

The clients

The clients were a couple in Kent, upsizing from their previous home into a four-bedroom detached family house at £550,000. One applicant works in project management; the other in insurance. Both are paid through PAYE with steady evidenced income.

They were selling their previous property and rolling £125,000 of equity into the deposit on the new home. The lender’s valuation came back at £550,000, exactly matching the agreed purchase price, and the case landed at 77.27% LTV against both figures. The brief was straightforward: a clean upsize into a family home, well-priced borrowing, and payment certainty for the early years in the new house.

The case at a glance

• Buyers: Joint home movers, employed
• Nationality: British
• Occupations: Project management professional + insurance professional
• Property type: Four-bedroom detached house
• Location: Kent
• Purchase price: £550,000
• Lender valuation: £550,000 (matched purchase price)
• Deposit: £125,000 from sale equity (approx. 23% of purchase price)
• Loan amount: £425,000
• LTV: 77.27% (against both purchase price and valuation)
• Lender: Accord Mortgages
• Repayment method: Capital and interest
• Completion: May 2026

The challenge

The case looks comfortable on paper, and it largely was. The interesting points sit in the LTV positioning and the lender choice.

77% LTV, just outside the 75% pricing tier. Lender pricing improves in steps, with notable tiers at 80%, 75% and 60%. The case landed at 77.27%, inside the 80% LTV pricing band but just over the 75% threshold. Putting in slightly more deposit, around £12,500 more, would have dropped the case into the 75% LTV tier, with meaningfully better pricing. The clients chose to retain that cash for post-completion costs and the early months in a bigger home, which is a reasonable trade-off, but worth being conscious about rather than incidental.

Loan size at £425,000. Several mainstream lenders apply additional underwriting on loans above £400,000, with tighter income verification or lower LTV caps. £425,000 is a comfortable loan size on the high street, but lender choice matters, some lenders that look competitive at £300,000 become noticeably less so at £425,000.

Joint affordability on two PAYE incomes. A £425,000 loan on standard 4.5x lending implies combined income of c.£94,000+. Project management and insurance roles are both well-treated by mainstream lenders, with project management often including performance bonus and insurance roles often including bonus and commission elements. How each lender treats variable income affects the affordability outcome.

Sale equity coordination. £125,000 of equity flowing from the sale completion into the purchase deposit needed clean chain coordination.

Exchange and completion timings had to work together.

A family home upsize. Four-bedroom detached upsizes are typically driven by family circumstances, growing children, working from home, room to host. 

The mortgage advice needs to factor in how long the household expects to be in the home, which shapes the right product length.

How Heron Financial approached the recommendation

The Heron adviser focused on lender appetite at the loan size, the LTV positioning conversation, and product fit.

LTV positioning conversation. Heron Financial walked the clients through the 77% vs 75% LTV trade-off, what each band would mean on the rate, and what stretching the deposit by £12,000 would mean in terms of retained cash. The clients chose to stay at 77% LTV, prioritising liquidity through the move.

Lender mapping at £425,000. Heron Financial narrowed the panel to lenders genuinely competitive on £400,000+ joint employed mortgages just inside the 80% LTV band. Not every lender that looks strong at smaller loan sizes holds that pricing at higher amounts.

Joint affordability check. The adviser confirmed how Accord would treat both incomes, including any bonus and variable pay components, to ensure the £425,000 loan sat comfortably within affordability rather than at the edge.

Sale coordination. The mortgage application timeline was aligned with the sale completion of the previous property, so the £125,000 of equity flowed cleanly into the new deposit at exchange.

Lender choice. Accord Mortgages was the right home for this case. Accord is a broker-only lender (part of the Yorkshire Building Society Group), with clean criteria for joint employed couples, competitive pricing just inside the 80% LTV band at higher loan sizes, and a track record of consistent underwriting. Crucially, they’re not available direct to the public, which is part of the practical case for broker-led placement on loans above £400,000 where pricing tightens between lenders.

Product choice. A fixed rate gave the clients payment certainty in the early years of the new home, sensible at 77% LTV on a meaningful joint loan when the household has just absorbed the costs of moving into a bigger property.

The outcome

The mortgage completed in May 2026. The clients moved into their new family home with:
A £425,000 mortgage at 77% LTV
A fixed rate on capital and interest repayment
The full sale equity rolled cleanly into the new deposit
A clean placement with a broker-only lender they wouldn’t have reached by walking into a high-street bank
A retained cash buffer kept back from the deposit for the early months in the new home

What this means for buyers in a similar position

If you’re upsizing into a family home with meaningful sale equity to deploy, two things are worth thinking about consciously. First, the LTV band you land in matters, and the conversation worth having is whether to stretch the deposit slightly to drop into a better tier. The difference between 80% LTV and 75% LTV pricing is typically meaningful enough to be worth modelling. Second, on loans above £400,000, lender pricing tightens and the broker-only lender market becomes more relevant, lenders like Accord, who don’t lend direct to the public, often have the sharpest rates at higher loan sizes inside the 80% LTV band. A broker who knows where the competitive pricing sits at your specific loan size and LTV can save you real money over the life of the mortgage.