Borrow against stock to buy property.

Yes — you can borrow against a share portfolio to buy property. A Lombard loan advances cash secured on your listed holdings, letting you fund a purchase or bridge a completion without selling shares, crystallising gains, or waiting for a mortgage. It is often faster and more flexible than property finance, though it carries market risk.

Can you buy property this way?

Yes. A share portfolio is collateral a lender can value and, if necessary, realise, so it can support credit just as bricks and mortar can. A Lombard loan advances cash against a pledge of your listed holdings, and nothing restricts how you use that cash. Funding a property purchase, in whole or in part, is a common and entirely orthodox use. Founders, executives, and family offices frequently hold far more wealth in listed equity than in cash, and would rather borrow against the portfolio than sell into it.

The mechanics are those of any Lombard facility: you pledge the securities, draw against a fraction of their value, keep ownership, and repay on agreed terms. What differs is only the purpose of the money. The advance sits within an indicative loan-to-value of roughly 20% to 65%, calibrated to the quality and liquidity of the specific collateral. A fuller account of the instrument sits on the firm’s guide to what a Lombard loan is.

How it works as a bridge or full fund

Two patterns are common. The first is the bridge. A purchase must complete before a mortgage, a sale, or a liquidity event releases the cash to pay for it. A Lombard loan closes that gap: it funds the completion now, and is repaid when the slower source of funds arrives. Because it can be arranged quickly and repaid without long lock-ins, it suits the timing problems that property transactions so often create.

The second pattern is the full fund. Rather than arrange a mortgage at all, a holder funds the whole purchase from a Lombard loan against the portfolio, keeping the property unencumbered and the shares invested. Some borrowers then refinance onto a mortgage at leisure; others simply keep the Lombard facility in place, servicing the interest and repaying when it suits them. In both patterns the portfolio does the work while remaining the borrower’s, and the cash is unrestricted.

Lombard loan vs mortgage vs bridging loan

The three routes to funding a purchase differ in what they are secured against, how quickly they pay out, and what they put at risk. The table sets them side by side.

Speed, flexibility and currency

Speed is the most visible advantage. A mortgage involves valuation, underwriting, and a legal charge over the property, a process measured in weeks or months. A Lombard facility is secured on assets that the market already values every day and that are already held in custody, so once the collateral is confirmed and the documents are signed it can be funded in days.

Flexibility is the quieter advantage. The funds carry no restriction on use, the facility can usually be repaid early without the penalties a mortgage may impose, and the term is a matter of agreement rather than a fixed multi-decade schedule. Currency matters too: a portfolio may be denominated in one currency while the property is priced in another, and a Lombard loan can often be drawn in the currency of the purchase, so the borrowing and the price move together rather than exposing the buyer to an exchange-rate gap. Pricing throughout is a reference rate plus a spread, calibrated to the collateral; the firm publishes no rate card, and the drivers of cost are set out in the note on interest rates and costs.

The risks

The central risk is the one that makes the instrument cheaper than unsecured credit: the collateral can fall in value. If the pledged securities decline far enough, the loan-to-value rises past its agreed threshold and the lender can call for more collateral or a partial repayment; left uncured, that can force a sale of some of the shares. This is why the loan-to-value is set with headroom rather than at the maximum, why a diversified, liquid portfolio makes safer collateral than a single volatile stock, and why the timing of a completion should never depend on markets staying exactly where they are today.

The mechanics of that risk, and how a well-structured facility manages it, are covered in the note on margin-call risk. There is also the ordinary discipline of any borrowing: interest must be serviced, and a facility used to buy an illiquid asset should have a clear and realistic path to repayment.

When it is the wrong tool

A Lombard loan is not for everyone buying property. It presupposes a substantial portfolio of liquid, listed securities to pledge; a buyer whose wealth is mostly the home itself has nothing to borrow against and should look to a mortgage. It is poorly suited to someone who cannot tolerate the market risk in the collateral, or who would be over-leveraged once the loan and the property are both accounted for.

And it is not a way to avoid tax: while borrowing rather than selling defers a disposal, the tax treatment of any eventual sale, and of the borrowing itself, depends on your jurisdiction and circumstances and calls for professional advice. Used by the right holder for the right reason, though, a Lombard loan turns a portfolio into the means to buy property without giving up the portfolio. Where it sits among other routes is set out in the note on a Lombard loan against a HELOC and a personal loan.