Can you get a mortgage on individual flats in a split block?

This is the single most common question I get asked, and it is the right question to be asking. Splitting a block is not the hard part. Funding it, and getting back off the expensive money and onto sensible money, is where deals live or die.

The two routes

There are broadly two ways to finance a split, and almost everything else is a variation on one of them.

1. The direct-to-mortgage method

You buy and split at the same moment, and mortgage the individual flats on day one. The lender values the units on their split value rather than what you paid for the block, which is the whole trick: the split value is usually meaningfully higher than the block value, so the loan covers far more of the purchase than it looks like it should.

The structure sits underneath this. Typically a freehold holding company with a leasehold subsidiary, with the split happening simultaneously with completion so the lender is protected at the moment it lends. Get that wrong and the lender walks.

The big advantage: there is no refinance step. You are on term finance from day one. No bridge, no clock ticking, no monthly interest bill eating the profit while you wait.

2. The bridge method

You buy the block with bridging finance, split it, then refinance onto term mortgages afterwards. You use this when the seller wants a fast completion and there simply is not time to arrange lending against a dozen individual units at once, or when you need time to fix compliance, refurbish, or sort the tenants out before anyone values it.

Sometimes waiting produces a better valuation, which is a genuine reason to choose it rather than a consolation prize. But you are paying for that time, every single month.

What changed in April 2026, and why it matters more than the detail

Until the end of April 2026 you could get 100% direct-to-mortgage products on a title split asset purchase. Genuinely no deposit. From 28 April 2026 those were withdrawn, and a deposit of around 5% became necessary on that route.

Now, by the time you read this that may have moved again. It probably has. That is the actual lesson, not the number. Title split lending is a small corner of the market served by a handful of lenders, and when one of them changes its appetite the landscape shifts overnight. Anyone who tells you the finance "always" works a particular way is telling you how it worked when they last did a deal, which may have been a while ago.

Ask yourself this: is the person teaching you this strategy actually funding blocks right now, this year? Because if they are not, they are describing a market that no longer exists.

The share purchase route

There is a third way in that catches people by surprise. Instead of buying the property, you buy the limited company that owns it.

Because you are acquiring the company rather than the asset, some lenders treat the funding as a remortgage rather than a purchase, which opens up loan-to-values that a straight purchase will not reach, and can allow equity release at completion. The stamp duty position is also completely different, and on a large purchase the difference is not small.

It is not free money. Lenders offering this attach conditions, and a common one is a continuity requirement, where an existing director has to stay involved even at a token shareholding. You are also buying a company with its entire history attached, which is a different diligence job to buying bricks. Get a good accountant and a good solicitor on it.

What it actually costs

The fee stack surprises people more than the interest rate does, because it scales with the number of units rather than the size of the loan. Indicative figures from deals I have been involved in, correct as at August 2026:

On a ten-flat block the per-unit lines alone run to five figures before you have paid a penny of interest. That is not a reason to avoid the strategy. It is a reason to put the real numbers into your deal stack instead of a hopeful guess.

Where these deals actually get stuck

• The valuation comes in under. The whole model depends on the split value, so if the valuer does not agree with you, the loan shrinks and the gap comes out of your pocket. This is why putting a proper case to the valuer is a skill worth learning rather than an afterthought.
• Flats under 30 square metres. Small units regularly fall below lending minimums, so a block that stacks beautifully on paper has two flats nobody will lend on. There are workarounds, including leaving the small ones unencumbered and refinancing them later with a specialist, but you need to spot the problem before you exchange, not after.
• Some lenders and valuers simply do not like title splits. That is not a criticism of them, it is just the market. Knowing in advance which ones are comfortable with this, and what they each want to see, is most of the job.
• The registration timeline. Land Registry does not work to your schedule. Where completion is too fast to split on the way in, refinance is often the better moment, because a five-year mortgage term gives the new leasehold titles plenty of time to register.

My rules for dealing with lenders

These have not changed in four years, and they will not change when the products do.

• Full disclosure on day one. Everything, up front, including the awkward bits. A lender that finds something out later withdraws. A lender that knew from the start usually works with you.
• Never doctor a document. Ever. Not once, not a little bit.
• Check who funds the lender. A lender is only as solid as its own funding line. I have watched a funding line dry up and take sites into administration with it.
• Understand the personal guarantee. Know exactly what you have signed and what it exposes.

Related reading

• What is a title split? The strategy explained from scratch, including when it is worth doing and when it is not.
• What does a title splitting course actually cost? Prices, what changes them, and five questions worth asking any educator.
• Deals & Analysis. Deal stacking, valuations and funding, covered properly over four live sessions.