Property flipping is the practice of buying a property with the intention of renovating and quickly reselling it for a profit or to refinance and retain as a but to let investment.

In the UK, property flipping has become increasingly popular in recent years, with both light and heavy refurbishments returning decent profit margins for investors. We’ve helped with conversions of property to HMOs, single dwellings into two / three separate flats, converting former B&Bs to residential property and office to residential projects.

Typically, property flippers will look for properties that need renovation or modernisation and will aim to buy them at a below-market price. They will then invest in improvements to the property, such as a new kitchen or bathroom, or adding an extension, to increase its value.

Once the property has been renovated, the flipper will put it back on the market at a higher price than they paid for it returning the profit or retained by the developer to let out.

You will need to have a reasonable understanding of the property market and be able to accurately predict how much they will be able to sell the property for once it has been renovated. They also need to be able to weigh up the costs of the renovation, as unexpected expenses can eat into profits.

In addition, there are some considerations to take into account when flipping properties. Flippers should also be aware of any planning or building regulations that may apply to their renovation work.

Overall, property flipping can be a lucrative strategy for investors who have the knowledge and resources to make it work. Our expertise will help you through the process, advising you every step of the way to help you refurbish and sell for a good profit.

Property development finance is money loaned to developers for the purchase of land or sites and the construction of new residential, commercial or mixed-use buildings. Unlike homeowner mortgages, which can stretch over 35 years, development finance is short-term and typically repaid within 9-36 months, depending on building completion.

Developers receive tailored funding for the project and build programme so a full property development finance package is complex and resource-heavy to arrange. Therefore, most lenders don’t consider applications below £150,000 but prefer much bigger loans due to the economies of scale available. It takes a similar resource to underwrite a £500,000 loan as it does a £5m loan. There are other types of development finance that can be used for smaller projects though, such as buy-to- sell or buy-to-let mortgages, bridging loans and personal loans.

How much a developer can borrow depends on some key figures:

• the GDV (gross development value)
• projected build costs
• equity contribution
• day one land leverage

The lender will complete professional valuation reports of the site and building plans and calculate loan to Gross Development Value (LTGDV) and Loan to Cost (LTC) to determine their lending limits. The criteria and lending parameters will differ with every lender of property development finance UK wide. Development loans are repaid once the new development is sold, or by refinancing on a longer-term mortgage. Finance is arranged through either a bank or non-bank lender.

With so many possible avenues in property, what are the main uses for development finance? Development finance is solely for developing property as a business, i.e. to generate a profitable sale or rental income and is not designed to be used for homeowner renovations. Development finance can be used for ground-up construction as well as refurbishments or conversions of existing buildings, and it can be used for residential, commercial or mixed-use/semi-commercial developments.

Development finance is the most appropriate funding for ground-up construction, large-scale and large-budget builds or renovations. The other finance options that fall under the umbrella of development finance, such as buy-to-let and buy-to-sell, also allow developers to invest in property for the purpose of developing for profit. Bridging loans are a form of short-term development finance used to buy auction properties or properties that don’t meet traditional mortgage criteria, like housing with no kitchen or bathroom facilities. Or, to purchase land or properties prior to having detailed planning, or where a developer wants to rework existing plans.

Our team will help you obtain funding options for your land purchase and development costs. Use our LTGDV calculator to see how your project stacks up.

Our friendly, expert advisers and assistant mortgage brokers are all fully trained experts in what they do and have breadth of knowledge that surpasses what is broadly available from the broker market.

Their determination to provide every customer with a good outcome continually drives improvement to the delivery of our customer service.

Here they are:

Charwin Bridging is a trading style of Charwin Private Clients. Our company was formed in 2009 and has grown continually throughout this period. Our service emphasis is firmly quality over quantity and can help with everything from residential purchases and remortgages, lending for people with impaired credit, buy to let property, commercial lending and bridging finance. And not to forget, insurance. We do that too making sure our customers are adequately protected as far as reasonable budget allows.

We have worked with some major partners in the mortgage market. In 2012 we were one of a selection of brokers approach by Google to service their Google Compare project and have taken mortgage enquiries that have originated from moneysupermarket.

Our overall aim is to provide every customer with a good outcome. This is delivered by ensuring all staff are well trained and competent to do their roles. We constantly strive to improve and are making significant inward investment to help our customers engage better, deliver more meaningful and better-timed information, as well as a range of customer friendly tools, resources, and facilities.

Whatever you are looking to do and whatever your circumstances, we should be able to help.

We take your privacy seriously and are committed to processing your information lawfully. We know that there’s probably other things you would rather be doing but recommend you read this carefully so you understand how we process your information and your rights.

This privacy notice tells you about the information we collect from you when you engage with our financial services. In collecting this information, we are acting as a data controller and, by law, we are required to provide you with information about us, about why and how we collect, store and use your data, and about the rights you have to control our use of your personal data.

• Who We Are
• Personal Data We Collect
• What We Do With Your Information
• How We Keep Your Information Secure
• How Long We Keep Your Information For
• Your Individual Rights
• Your Right To Complain
• Changes To This Privacy Notice

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Who We Are

Charwin Private Clients Limited (also trading as Charwin Secured Loans, Charwin Deposit Plus, Charwin Mortgages, Charwin Bridging, Charwin HELOC and Charwin Buy to Let) is registered in England (Company number 06628612). We are directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) and our firm’s registration number is 498486.

Our registered address is Charwin Private Clients, Holland Court, The Close, Norwich, NR1 4DY. You can visit our website at www.charwinprivateclients.co.uk.

You can contact us by post at the above address, by email: customerservices@charwinpc.co.uk or you can call us on 01603 216881.

Personal Data We Collect

To provide our core services (advising and arranging a mortgage or insurance contracts) we are required to collect a range of information about you and your immediate family. We will keep this to a minimum where possible but sufficient to fulfil our obligations to you. We will collect required information such as:

Personal details such as names (including children), nationality, address and address history, email, telephone numbers, employment information, banking and credit commitments, financial dependents, general household expenditure, future plans and aspirations and product preferences. How you answer these questions will determine what other questions we ask as different lenders have different eligibility criteria.

Mortgage lenders are data controllers and have their own privacy notices. Many lenders automatically profile your information against their lending criteria and against Credit Reference Agencies as soon as your information is forwarded to them to provide lending decisions. This may affect your credit score. We will never supply this information without your prior agreement to do so.

We will also retain documentary evidence on file to support any applications such as copies of passports or photographic drivers licence (ID and signature verification), payslips or accounts (income verification), bank statement (proof of affordability) and any other related items as required from time to time.

We require this information as part of our “know your customer process” that allows us to deliver the best advice given your situation.

For life or health related insurances we will need to collect special category data. You may be assured that we and any company associated with us will treat all personal data and sensitive personal data as confidential and will not process it other than for legitimate purposes. Steps will be taken to ensure that the information is accurate, kept up to date and not kept for longer than is necessary.

What We Do With Your Information

In most cases you will provide the information mentioned above as you want to use our services. The purpose for which we use this information and the legal basis under data protection law is as follows:

We collect this information as is in our Legitimate Interests or that of a third party to provide advice and make personal recommendations and subsequent processing of applications. This means that we will use your information as you would reasonably expect it to be used. It will also have minimal impact on your privacy whilst preserving your overall rights. You can withdraw from any process at any time.

Once a recommendation for a mortgage or insurance product has been made, we will need to pass your personal data to third parties. This is done to fulfil our contractual obligations. This may include:

Mortgage lenders to agree a mortgage in principle or apply for a proposed mortgage,

Secured Loan lenders to agree or apply for a proposed secured loan,

Insurance Companies to provide quotations for home insurance or landlords insurance, life insurance, critical illness cover or income protection,

Credit Reference Agencies who will provide copies of your credit file, verify identity and fraud prevention

Solicitors acting for you as part of a mortgage process,

Estate Agents who are acting agents for a related property purchase or sale,

TrustPilot to collect reviews on our service and gain feedback

Lead Suppliers is your information was introduced to us by a third party

Marketing Partners who advertise our services, run or otherwise facilitate our financial promotions

Twenty7Tec whose mortgage sourcing software we use

Financial Ombudsman Service or Financial Conduct Authority where they request this to resolve complaints or in connection with their duties.

This is necessary to advance your applications and provide our services.

We do not sell any of your information to external companies.

We may use your information to communicate relevant or related products or services that Charwin Private Clients offer and we would reasonably expect you to be interested in.

Your information is stored on secure servers located within the EU.

How We Keep Your Information Secure

We understand how important it is to keep your personal information secure. We use a variety of technologies and procedures to protect your personal information from accidental or unlawful breaches of security. These include physical, organisational, and technological measures.

All information we process is encrypted in a variety of ways so that your personal and financial information is secure.

When we share your information with third parties to carry out some of our services, including lenders and insurers amongst others, we require every third party that we share information with to apply appropriate security safeguards and comply with all the required laws and standards for protecting personal information.

How Long We Keep Your Information For

We only keep your information for as long as we need to.

If you become a client of a lender/insurer as a result of the advice we provide to you, we will keep a full record of your interactions with us for your lifetime plus a reasonable period to enable us to meet our regulatory obligations to evidence we gave suitable advice and to enable us to answer any complaints that may arise as a result of our advice. In practice this means that we will keep your records for no longer than 100 years after you last transact with us.

If, as a result of our advice, you make an application to a lender/insurer but do not ultimately become a client of that institution, we will keep a full record of your interactions with us for 6-years to meet our obligations under UK Money Laundering regulations.

If we provide you with advice on a financial product, but you do not engage our services to make an application to a lender/insurer, we will keep a full record of your interactions with us for 3-years, to enable us to meet our regulatory record keeping obligations regarding evidencing suitability of our advice.

If we collect personal information from you, but are unable to provide you with suitable advice, then we will keep a full record of your interactions with us for 1-year to facilitate an easier interaction between us if you re-engage our services within this period.

If you request we contact you in relation to our service by providing us with your name and a contact method (e.g. phone, email) through an enquiry form (either on our own, or a 3rd party website) we will use our best endeavours to contact you as soon as possible. If we are unable to contact you, we will retain this information for a period of 90-days from the time we de-activate your information from our database, to ensure we can fulfil our contractual obligations to our lead partners.

Your Individual Rights

Your right to be informed

This privacy notice is part of the process where you have the right to be informed.

You have the right to be informed in a concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible way about how we use your personal information. We will explain why we need information (including any uses that are not obvious) at the time we collect information from you and make sure that all our data collection forms and letters point you to this Privacy Notice.

Your right of access

You have the right to obtain confirmation that your data is being processed. You also have the right to access your personal data and to verify the lawfulness of processing.

Any request is free of charge however we may charge a reasonable fee if the request is excessive. We may also charge if subsequent requests are made for the same information.

We will ensure that any data subject access request is provided within one month of receipt.

We will need to verify your identity as part of this process using reasonable means. Generally, this is by letter or electronically by email.

Your right of rectification

You have the right to have any inaccurate information corrected or completed if incomplete. This request can be made in writing or verbally.

We will correct any data we hold within one month of being notified. We will not charge to amend or correct your data unless it is excessive.

We may need to verify your identity to make the requested changes.

If we have provided this information to other parties, we will contact each of them individually to update their records of your data.

Your rights to erasure

You have the right to have your personal data erased. This is known as your right to be forgotten. Such a request can be made either verbally or in writing.

We will respond to any request within one month of receipt of the request.

In some circumstances, we can refuse to erase personal information if it forms part of a legal obligation. For example, if you complete a mortgage using our service, the FCA require us to maintain a record for 7 years from the date of the transaction. In such circumstances, you can exercise your right to restrict processing (see below), including marketing activities. Once the 7 years has elapsed, your data will be erased.

We will not charge a fee for erasing your data. We will also need to verify the identity of each of the individual persons exercising the right to be forgotten.

Your right to restrict processing

You have the right to request that we restrict or stop using your personal information. We may continue to store the information but will stop using it.

Your request can be made verbally or in writing and will be responded to without undue delay and no later than one month from the date of the request. In the event of a complaint, this restriction will continue until the matter concerned is fully resolved.

Data Portability

You have the right in some circumstances to have the data you have provided to us sent to you or provided to another person or business in an electronic machine-readable format. Where this applies we will download the information and send it as a Microsoft Excel file.

Rights to object

You have the right to object to your personal data being used. If you wish for us to stop using your personal data we will do so without undue delay.

Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

This right only applies where a decision which has a legal or similar effect is DECISION MAKING taken about a person by automated means without any human intervention.

Where such decisions are made individuals have a right to ask for the decision to be reviewed and the data controller must make sure appropriate safeguards are in place. However, Charwin Private Clients does not make automated decisions about any of its clients.

Your Right To Complain

If you have a complaint about our use of your information, you can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office via their website at www.ico.org.uk/concerns or write to them at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Changes To This Privacy Notice

We will continuously refine this Privacy Notice to make sure we are complying with our obligations to be transparent about how we use your personal information and that it is as concise, transparent, intelligible and as easily accessible as it can be. However, if we make any changes to how we process your personal information in ways that you would not reasonably expect, we will contact you and bring these changes to your attention.