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Expat Holiday Let Mortgages
Purchasing a holiday home property in the UK is very popular amongst the British expat community.
Yes, it can be a lucrative investment opportunity, but for many expats, keeping a foothold in the UK is important, for so many different reasons.
The market for holiday let mortgages is small and lenders put more hurdles in the way for borrowers to jump over.
However, when you bring in an ‘expat’ borrower, those hurdles get much higher.
Holiday Let Mortgages is a specialist broker and has built relationships with the few lenders that operate in the ex-pat mortgage market.
We can usually do in hours, what may take others weeks, particularly as we know who to approach at each lender and how to put a case forward to get the desired result.
Please call 020 8301 7931 to speak with a specialist adviser
There are certain elements of preset mortgage lending criteria for expat holiday let mortgages. However, this is specialist lending so each case is considered on its merits by an experienced lending manager, rather than a computer. This is an advantage as it allows us to speak directly to the case underwriter, ensuring they fully understand our clients position.
Do you need a expat mortgage broker?
Most high street lenders won’t be able to help an expat to obtain a mortgage.
One reason is that they cannot easily credit search applicants who don’t live in the UK. This makes assessing a mortgage application more difficult and adds an element of lending risk, which these type of lenders don’t want.
By using an expat mortgage broker such as ourselves, you gain access to our many years of experience in helping British ex-pats living abroad and our list of lenders!
How to improve your chances of getting a mortgage
The process and criteria when applying for a holiday let mortgage as an expat is more complex than if you were resident in the UK. An experienced mortgage broker, like ourselves, will be able to guide you through the process and provide advice on how best to present your case to a lender.
Explaining and proving your employment situation, along with proof of income, is always a challenge. As is assessing your credit worthiness without the benefit of a credit profile.
The best way for you to improve your chances of getting an expat mortgage is to use an experienced and specialist mortgage broker.
Standard and non-standard lending explained
With all types of mortgages you have ‘standard‘ and ‘non-standard‘ lending criteria. We will cover these in more detail below. Some (high street) lenders only want the lower risk ‘standard’ cases while other lenders are happy with either.
Because of the different risk profiles, each category has its own lending criteria for holiday lets which you can see below.
STANDARD LENDING FOR EXPATS
MORTGAGE
- Purchase & Re-mortgage
- Maximum Loan Amount £750,000
- Maximum Term 25 Years
- Repayment types Capital & Interest or Interest Only
- Maximum LTV 75%
- No Debt Consolidation
PROPERTY
- Property location England & Wales only
- EPC Minimum Grade E
- Must be on own title (No holiday parks)
- No occupancy or planning restrictions (restricted to holiday let)
- Single dwellings only, so no annexes or multiple units
- Standard construction only
- Own use maximum 60 days per annum
OTHER
- UK Nationals only (must hold a British Passport)
- Ex-pat residents of Guernsey and Jersey
- Joint applications where the 2nd applicant is a non-UK national is acceptable provided that the main applicant satisfies other criteria
- Applicant must be employed by a reputable employer (searchable). No self-employed clients
- Eligible countries – most countries of residence can be considered
- No Gifted deposits
- No Portfolio Landlords
NON-STANDARD LENDING FOR EXPATS
Unlike the standard market, where the lenders want to see employment in the background and look at personal income in relation to other debt, in this market, an ex-pat that holds other UK property is considered a professional and there is no minimum income requirement.
MORTGAGE
- Purchase & Re-mortgage
- Maximum Loan Amount £15,000,000
- Maximum Term 30 years
- Repayment types Capital & Interest or Interest Only
- Maximum LTV 75% net of fees
- Capital Raising allowed
PROPERTY
- Property location England & Wales only
- Unrestricted single and Multi Units acceptable * No holiday parks
- Standard construction only
- No own use allowed
- If the property is a short term let or serviced accommodation, or not in a traditional holiday area, AST income will be used to determine the loan size on a purchase. Actual income can be used if the case is a re-mortgage.
- If the applicant is not a current UK landlord, they must own a property in their country of residence or have a recent UK mortgage footprint, at a credit reference agency
- No refurbishments
OTHER
- Lending available to UK Nationals and SPV Limited Companies
- Applicant/s can be paid in any foreign currency
- Applicants may be employed, self-employed or portfolio landlords
- Eligible countries – most countries of residence can be considered that are not subject to UK sanctions. China, Australia, USA, and Singapore included
- No Gifted deposits
- No First Time Buyers
- Portfolio Landlords acceptable
- First time landlords – available on a restricted basis