Mortgage Strategy - Expand the lending market for expats - December 2013
We have helped a lot of British expats to secure mortgages over the last few years but recently we have had a real spike of enquires from buyers living across the world.
We have spoken to a range of professionals, including bankers in Hong Kong and Germany, also architects living in China and Dubai. Our brokers have also taken calls from British people living and working in France, Switzerland, Nigeria, Monaco, Singapore, US and Australia.
Demand for property in London and the Home Counties is reaching new heights. Best buy mortgage rates and increasing house prices are really driving the property market into new territory. It can be a daunting task buying a property from the other side of the world and some mortgage lenders are happier to help than others.
We have found that many expats are not simply looking to purchase property, they want to remortgage onto cheaper rates and release additional equity from their homes.
A few of the large banks still offer expat mortgages but enquiries can be difficult to place particularly if applicants do not work for a multi-national firm. One substantial hurdle seems to be that the lenders cannot produce a credit report that shows all of the client’s financial details.
Many banks and building societies also are not particularly keen on self-employed applicants if they don’t have accounts from one of the larger accountants. This means that it is often easier to secure mortgages for wealthier clients at the moment.
Over the last six months a number of the smaller building societies have been more open to applications from expats, but it would be nice if some of the bigger banks would step back into this market. It seems like there are some fantastic clients really struggling, particularly when the lenders have targets to hit.
Click here to view Trinity Financial in Mortgage Strategy magazine
If you would like help to secure an expat mortgage, call us on 020 70160 790.
December 11, 2013
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