Getting a mortgage on a second property (25% deposit) but not (yet) renting out first property

[NerfHerder]

Does anyone know if this is possible at all?
We have seen a property out of the blue that we'd like to buy, but it needs loads of work on it before it would be habitable. We weren't planning to move for 8-10 months yet, so haven't prepared our house for sale yet, and obviously we'd need somewhere to live whilst the other house is being renovated.
Do mortgage companies allow you to get a mortgages on a second property in this way? As I say, we have a 25% deposit for the second property, and could manage repayments reasonably well (current mrtgage rate very low).
Is this what bridging loans are for? How do they work?

Any advice welcome please!

We have just done what you want to do! We saw a house out of the blue , not even wanting to move. We had the deposit like you and our mortgage advisor found a brilliant product from Nat West. He said they didn't take into account any exsisting mortgage you may have, we're paying interest only at a rate of 2.89% for 18 months by which time we will have hopefully sold our original house. If not we might consider renting it.
Sorry I can't remember the name of the package , all the details are in the new house and we're slowly moving things over!
We weren't able to find anyone offering bridging loans and the Nat West package is really affordable!

Oh- that sounds fantastic.. and DH banks with NatWest anyway... thanks so much blowbroth, really helpful!

Sorry- could I ask what your LTV was btw?

We borrowed 115k for a 155k house. 40k deposit

Brilliant, thanks so much.

I did it too, with the HSBC. And they took account of the equity in the first home as a the repayment vehcle for the second mortgage which was therefore interest only (still is). We sold the first house 12 months later. It was scary for a while having such a lot of debt (and it was a lot several times more than the 115k). For the second house the LTV was 55%

Thank you Hilda.