Understanding LTV on Buy to Let

Loan-to-value (LTV) is the size of your mortgage expressed as a percentage of the property's value. A £165,000 loan on a £220,000 property is 75% LTV, meaning the remaining £55,000, or 25%, comes from your deposit. On buy-to-let, 75% LTV has remained the most common ceiling for years, even as residential mortgages have offered much higher LTVs to owner-occupiers, because lenders treat rental property as a higher-risk category and price and structure their products accordingly.

This guide explains how LTV is calculated, the typical ceilings you will see across the buy-to-let market in 2026, and the trade-offs that come with pushing for a higher LTV rather than putting down a larger deposit.

LTV definition

LTV is simply the loan amount divided by the property's value, multiplied by 100:

LTV = (loan amount / property value) x 100

Two things matter about which "value" is used. At the point of purchase, it is normally the lower of the purchase price and the lender's own valuation, so a property you agree to buy for £220,000 but which a surveyor values at £210,000 would be assessed against the £210,000 figure, reducing the loan a given deposit can support. At remortgage, it is the lender's current valuation of the property, which can be higher or lower than what you originally paid, and which directly affects both the LTV you are remortgaging at and the rate you are offered.

A higher LTV means a smaller deposit but a larger loan, which increases both your monthly interest cost and your exposure if property values fall. A lower LTV means a larger deposit but a smaller loan, reducing monthly interest and giving you more of a buffer if values move against you, at the cost of tying up more cash upfront.

Typical ceilings

Across the buy-to-let market in 2026, LTV ceilings typically fall into a few bands:

• 75% LTV (25% deposit) is the most common ceiling across mainstream buy-to-let lenders, and usually gets access to the widest range of products and the most competitive rates.
• 80% LTV (20% deposit) is available from a smaller number of lenders, typically at a noticeably higher rate than the 75% tier.
• 85% LTV (15% deposit) exists but is offered by relatively few lenders, often with tighter eligibility criteria and a less competitive rate again.
• 60% to 65% LTV is sometimes required rather than chosen, for higher-risk property types, first-time landlords, or portfolio landlords already carrying significant borrowing elsewhere.

Property type shifts these ceilings considerably. Houses in multiple occupation, multi-unit blocks, new-build flats and ex-local authority properties often attract a lower maximum LTV than a standard house or flat, sometimes capped at 65% to 70%, because lenders see them as higher risk or slower to resell. Limited company (SPV) purchases generally follow similar ranges to personal-name buying, typically 75% to 80% LTV from specialist lenders, though the exact products and pricing sit in a smaller, more specialist part of the market. Our guide to how much deposit you need for buy-to-let sets out how these ceilings translate into an actual cash figure across different property types and ownership structures.

It is worth being clear that the maximum LTV a lender advertises is a ceiling, not a guarantee. Reaching it also depends on clearing the lender's rental cover test, known as the Interest Coverage Ratio (ICR), calculated at a stressed interest rate rather than the actual pay rate. A property that technically qualifies for 80% LTV on paper can still be offered a smaller loan if the rent does not comfortably clear the stress test at that higher loan amount. Our buy-to-let mortgage calculator guide walks through how LTV and rental cover interact in a single calculation.

Higher LTV trade-offs

Borrowing at a higher LTV, rather than putting down a larger deposit, is sometimes the only realistic option, and sometimes a deliberate choice, but it comes with trade-offs worth weighing explicitly rather than defaulting to the maximum a lender will offer:

• Rate. Higher LTV products consistently carry a higher rate than the equivalent lower-LTV product from the same lender, since the lender is taking on more risk relative to the property's value. The gap between a 75% and an 85% LTV rate can be meaningful over a full fixed-rate term.
• Rental cover margin. A larger loan means a larger stressed interest figure in the ICR calculation, which means the rent needs to clear a higher bar to pass. A property that comfortably passes ICR at 75% LTV may fail it at 85% LTV on the same rent, regardless of whether the lender's advertised maximum LTV suggests otherwise.
• Equity buffer. A higher LTV leaves less room to absorb a fall in property values before the loan approaches or exceeds the property's worth, which matters most if you need to sell or remortgage during a period when values have dipped.
• Product choice at remortgage. Arriving at a remortgage point with a higher LTV, whether because you borrowed at a high LTV originally or because values have fallen since, narrows the range of competitive products available, since many of the best rates are reserved for borrowers comfortably within the 75% band.

A worked example shows the practical effect. A £200,000 property financed at 75% LTV needs a £50,000 deposit and a £150,000 loan; the same property at 85% LTV needs only £30,000 down but carries a £170,000 loan, at a higher rate, with a stressed interest figure that is proportionately larger too. The lower-deposit route frees up £20,000 in cash, which might fund another purchase or a refurbishment elsewhere in a portfolio, but it also means a higher monthly cost and a thinner cushion if the property's value or the rental market softens. Neither choice is automatically right; it depends on whether that £20,000 earns a better return being deployed elsewhere in your portfolio than it costs in higher interest and thinner rental cover on this specific property.

These figures move with the mortgage market, so treat the ranges in this guide as a general shape rather than fixed numbers, and check current product ranges with a broker before assuming what LTV is realistic for a specific purchase.

How Property HQ helps

Property HQ tracks each mortgage's current LTV alongside your property values and fixed-rate end dates, so you can see at a glance which properties are sitting close to a lender's LTV bands before a remortgage, rather than working it out from scratch each time a fixed rate is approaching maturity.

Disclaimer

This guide is general information for UK landlords, not mortgage advice. LTV ranges and lending criteria vary by lender and change over time - speak to a mortgage broker to confirm what is available for your specific purchase.