Hampden & Co Mortgages

Hampden & Co, trading as Hampden Bank since March 2025, lends up to 70% loan to value on residential and buy to let property, publishes no minimum loan and no minimum income, and assesses every case on the client's complete financial position rather than an affordability algorithm. It is the private bank we use for income that is real but awkward: partnership profit shares, dividends from a company with short accounts, a US dollar bonus, or a retiree living off a portfolio. Founded in Edinburgh in 2015 as the first new UK private bank in thirty years, it does banking and nothing else, which is why it has no investment arm asking for your portfolio as the price of a mortgage. This page sets out what Hampden will lend on, who it suits, and where it is beaten.

See how Hampden & Co compares with Coutts, Investec, Weatherbys and the other UK private banks on our private bank mortgage lenders comparison.

What changed this quarter. Reviewed 10 October 2026. One change found. Half-year results to 30 June 2026, published on 7 August 2026, show the loan book up 8% to £661 million, deposits up 36% to £1.327 billion and unaudited pre-tax profit up 91% to £4.7 million, so appetite is open. Bank Rate was held at 3.75% on 30 July and 17 September 2026, so there was nothing to pass on. Tracey Davidson remains chief executive. We found no announced change to the two, three and five year fixed and variable rate range or the published lending criteria.

What are the Hampden & Co mortgage lending criteria?

Hampden publishes more than most private banks: a typical maximum loan to value, its product set, and six worked case studies on its advisers page showing what it actually approved. It does not publish a minimum loan or a minimum income. The table below combines the bank's own published material with the cases we have placed.

The other family-owned relationship bank we place later-life and trust cases with is C. Hoare & Co, which lends interest-only with no maximum age.

Lender criteria are set by Hampden & Co, change without notice, and are not binding until confirmed in writing. Figures correct at the time of publication and checked against the bank's published lending material. Always confirm current terms with us before quoting a client or making an offer.

What mortgage products does Hampden & Co offer?

The residential mortgage is the core product: purchase, remortgage or renovation of a main home at up to 70% LTV, on capital and interest, interest-only or part and part, on a fixed or variable rate. The holiday let and buy to let mortgage runs on the same terms and counts the rental income in affordability rather than testing it against a fixed rental cover ratio alone. The multi-property mortgage wraps several properties into one loan with one payment and balances the LTV across the whole portfolio. Self-build funds the construction period.

Two products do things the high street cannot. The retirement mortgage lets a borrower aged 55 or over raise up to 50% of the value of the main home with no pre-defined term, paying interest monthly, repayable on sale, death or a move into long-term care. When it launched, Mortgage Strategy reported a maximum of £2 million, and the bank's stated purpose for it is inheritance tax planning and releasing a lump sum without selling investments. The family or guarantor mortgage has six published variants, including a named-party structure where a parent's income counts for affordability and the parent drops off once the child's income has grown. Portfolio lending at 50% LTV, with no legal or valuation fees and terms of one to five years, covers clients who want liquidity without selling.

What are Hampden & Co mortgage rates?

Hampden publishes no rate card. What it does publish is the structure: two, three and five year fixed rates alongside variable rates, with the variable rate carrying no early repayment charge, and the bank's own case studies show fixed periods reverting to a lifetime tracker rate rather than a standard variable rate. Pricing is agreed case by case and issued in the offer. The Bank of England base rate is 3.75%, held at the 30 July and 17 September 2026 meetings, with the next decision due on 5 November 2026, and the bank displays that rate on its own borrowing page as the reference point for its variable lending.

The honest position on price is the same as for every relationship-led private bank. At 60% LTV on clean PAYE income, a high street large-loan desk will be cheaper and we will show you the comparison. At 65% LTV on three income sources, two of which have no accounts yet, there is no high street comparison to make, because the case does not get past the first underwriter. Hampden earns its margin on the second case, not the first.

Who is a Hampden & Co mortgage right for?

The bank's own published case studies are the clearest guide, and they describe our client book almost exactly. A married couple with shareholdings in several companies, a small property portfolio and a newly formed media company with no accounts, approved for £1.2 million at 65% LTV on bank statements and an average of three years' actual and one year's projected income. A finance director with a sterling salary and a US dollar bonus, approved for £1.4 million interest-only over 14 years at 60% LTV with sale and downsize as the exit. A 65-year-old a year from retirement, approved for £1.25 million interest-only over ten years on projected annuity, pension and director's loan income. A retired financial services professional with a portfolio and a modest drawn income, approved for just under £3 million interest-only over ten years on the FCA high net worth definition, with the liquid assets treated as the repayment source.

The client we place with Hampden most often is a self-employed professional or business owner, aged 45 to 65, with income across three or four entities that a high street affordability calculator either cannot read or cannot average. In our experience the case that needs Hampden is rarely the case that looks complicated on paper; it is the one where a competent accountant can explain the income in ten minutes but no automated system will accept the explanation. The bank's underwriters will read the accountant's letter. That is the whole point of it.

How does the FCA high net worth definition work at Hampden & Co?

Where a client's drawn income fails a conventional affordability calculation but the balance sheet is strong, Hampden will apply the FCA high net worth definition: annual net income of £300,000 or more, or net assets of £3 million or more, with the equity in the main home counting towards the net assets test. The bank's published example is a retired professional whose portfolio income was too low for the standard calculation, where the underwriter accepted that additional income could be drawn from the portfolio or part of it sold, and approved just under £3 million on that basis. We use this route for asset-rich, income-light clients every quarter, and it is the reason a retiree with a large portfolio can borrow at Hampden when a high street lender has said no on the pension figure alone.

How does the Hampden & Co application process work?

Hampden entered the intermediary market in 2018 and now runs a dedicated intermediary relationship director who works primarily with mortgage brokers, plus business development directors in London and Edinburgh. We discuss the case with that team first to confirm appetite, then submit a full pack: two to three years of accounts or tax returns, bank statements where accounts are short, bonus or dividend history, a schedule of assets and liabilities, and the repayment strategy for any interest-only element. Where affordability is tight on a stressed rate, the bank has published a structure where the client places an up-front blocked deposit to cover interest, and that is worth raising early rather than late.

The bank describes its decision-making as short lines of communication between bankers and an in-house credit team, and that is what we see. A complete case typically reaches offer in three to four weeks. Cases with income from several entities take longer at the packaging stage, not in underwriting, because the work is in presenting the income so the credit team can follow it. That packaging is the job we do.

How does Hampden & Co compare with other private banks?

Hampden sits with Weatherbys and Arbuthnot Latham in the relationship-led group, where the criteria are thin on paper and the underwriting is manual. Against Investec, Hampden has no £300,000 income floor and no 85% gearing either: its published ceiling is 70%. Against Coutts, Hampden has no £1.5 million broker minimum and no requirement for a banking relationship beyond a servicing account, but it also has no international proposition and no 35-year interest-only term. Where Hampden stands apart is the product set: retirement mortgages with no fixed term, six guarantor structures, multi-property lending and portfolio lending from one bank with one banker. Where it loses is gearing above 70% and price against the high street on a straightforward case. The full comparison is on our UK private bank mortgage lenders compared page.

For the wider market, including the specialist lenders that sit between the high street and the private banks, see our guide to high net worth mortgages and the large mortgages hub.

Frequently asked questions

Rates and lender criteria are subject to change. Figures correct at time of publication. Always speak to your broker for up-to-date rates and lending criteria on your specific case.