NativeFirst

Presently I live overseas (outside EU). I do not have a bank account in the UK. I will be buying a new build house as a cash buyer in the UK later this year and then will arrange to live in the UK, sponsoring my foreign wife via savings.

What would you recommend as the best way in terms of instruments to pay for the house? I presume that I will not be able to open up a UK bank account because at the time of purchase I will not be resident in the UK and will not have utility bills etc.

I could arrange cashier's orders (banker's cheque?) etc from my overseas bank but I was wondering if anyone has perhaps undergone the situation I am in and could advise.

Pulaski

Open an account in the Channel Islands or Isle of Man e.g. with Lloyds Bank International - they are pretty much set up to serve international clients, but operate pretty much like a regular British high street bank.

You can then use an FX broker-remitter such as Transferwise to get the best exchange rate (assuming your funds are not currently in sterling).

Novocastrian

From what you say, you could very easily open an HSBC Premier account (assuming they have a presence in your current country). Having done that they will open a second account for you in the UK at no charge and you can then transfer funds into it from the first account using their Global Transfer online facility.

spouse of scouse

You can transfer the money for the property purchase directly into your solicitor's account. Use a reputable foreign exchange broker, as bank exchange rates are woeful and their fees are high. Most FX brokers don't charge a fee for exchanges over a specified amount - a house purchase should easily surpass any minimum set.

NativeFirst

Thanks for the informative replies everyone. Much appreciated.

I looked into Lloyds International. Doable, but seems overkill to deposit GBP25k with them just to open an account for this purchase.

HSBC Premier in my present country requires depositing GBP100k (!) either in deposits or financial products. Also, there is no guarantee that they will open an account in the UK, although one would have thought they would readily welcome a client with such means. Again, this seems huge overkill for my purposes.

I think transferring the money direct to a solicitor's account is probably the way I will go.

petitefrancaise

If you are using an FX broker then you could just send it directly to the house builder's bank account- I know WorldFirst has allowed us to send money like this. How secure though? Check with worldfirst over what proof they can provide that the money went to the correct destination account and when.

NativeFirst

Thanks, petitefrancaise. I think there are legal issues though with sending direct to the house builder's bank account. In terms of protecting my legal rights with regard to the actual house purchase, it is better to go through the intermediary of a solicitor.

Mind you, I am not sure who are bigger sharks: solicitors or property developers.

robin1234

I did that, as a cash purchaser a couple of years ago, transferred the balance to my solicitor a couple of days prior to the completion. I was abroad at the time of the completion. Seems a bit safer that transferring it directly to the builders/developers.

durham_lad

This is what we did January this year. We were still in Texas at the time. The purchase was then completed and we moved in mid February when our furniture arrived from Texas.

Pulaski

Or the banks!

NativeFirst

Thanks for that, robin1234 and durham_lad.

NativeFirst

It is said that sharks leave lawyers alone as a matter of professional courtesy.

Benson55

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Helen1964

Just be wary of any dodgy emails you might receive, purporting to be from the solicitor and asking you to pay the money into an account other than one originally indicated. It seems there have been quite a few cases recently where email exchanges between clients and solicitors have been intercepted by fraudsters:
Another homebuyer loses £67k as solicitors fail to warn of email fraud

durham_lad

A good reminder - thanks.

What we did was set up the solicitor as a payee in our bank account early on and paid the search fees to him. Then when we came to transfer the BIG sum we were still in Texas and I called our bank to make the transfer using the number on the back of our debit card. Loads of security questions etc, but the person on the phone could see that the solicitor was already set up as a payee with payments made okay so no chance of a typo on account or sort code number. The last thing he did was hang up and call me back on the phone number on record in my account to be absolutely sure of who he was talking to.