cdcrabtree

Hi everyone,

I own a house in the UK and live in Australia. I need to have a new mortgage secured for my house within the next 6 months. This is because my current mortgage is residential with consent to let. The consent to let cannot be extended past May next year. I now need a buy to let mortgage as I am remaining in Australia.

Selling my house is not an option as it is not a good time financially to convert pounds into dollars.

Can you provide me with a mortgage company and/or broker or contact who can assist me gain a new mortgage?

Thank you very much
C

Bermudashorts

Don't think many people have ever pulled that off. It is nigh on impossible to secure a mortgage from overseas these days.

Is your current lender pushing you to remortgage - if so ask them for a recommendation, it would be in their interests if they want their loan repaying.

Otherwise google for some brokers..?

cdcrabtree

Thank you for your reply.

My current mortgage is residential with consent to let for 2 years. 2 years is the maximum length of term this bank will let an owner not live in the property but keep their residential mortgage.

Therefore I have to change it before the 2 years runs out.

My bank will not give me a new mortgage as they do not provide ex pat mortgages.

They will not let me keep my existing mortgage - as it is a residential mortgage and I have not lived there for 2 years - thus I am not resident there.

Beoz

You might find this a real problem unfortunately. As BS mentions getting a buy to let mortgage whilst being non resident in the UK is virtually impossible. I know from experience.

You may be able to try a bank in Australia (assuming that's where you are). Even if successful fluctuating exchange rates can be a real headache.

You may want to sell up, and rather than transferring the money, buy a place with no mortgage. Student studio in Newcastle or something.

Bermudashorts

Yes but have they contacted you, specifically told you you must change? If so, have they given you any recommendations and what have they said they will do when you have replied "I cannot get another UK mortgage"? Because the reality is you are unlikely to be able to do so.

If they don't contact you I would (and did) keep quiet.

spuddyo

I agree with Bermudashorts, say nothing and keep paying the mortgage. If the repayments are coming in on time I doubt they will even know or care. if all the boxes were ticked when you were granted the mortgage, leave them ticked.

Pulaski

I also agree with BermudaShorts, as long as you keep paying it is unlikely the bank will do much, and legally they will find it very difficult to do anything as the loan is "performing".

Per Beoz's suggestion, there is absolutely no chance that an Australian bank would be able to help because to process a mortgage for a property in the UK, they need to register the lien over the property and that means understanding the UK process and having legal support to register mortgages in the UK and to act on the lien if the bank needs to repossess the property.

Beoz

They sell it that way.

https://www.hsbc.com.au/1/2/personal/international/invest-os

First port of call would be to speak to an international bank that has local power to re-possess.

The bank selling the idea and actually approving it is two different stories.

But there is an avenue that I'm sure will be plagued with gotcha's.

I wouldn't do it. Even if they approve it, fluctuating exchange rates can be a killer.

Pulaski

HSBC isn't an "Australian bank", it is a British bank that happens to have retail branches in Australia. I suspect that if you were to succeed in getting a mortgage, it would be in pound sterling, so as long as the house is rented the borrower/landlord will be fairly well hedged against currency fluctuations.

I don't know of any other bank (other than HSBC) that offers mortgages in the UK and has retail branches in Australia. Without both of those factors being true, the idea of getting a mortgage from a bank branch in Australia for a house in the UK is a total non-starter.

Swerv-o

I tried to do this a couple of years ago on an investment with my parents, and had absolutely no luck at all. The UK banks are exceptionally hostile to overseas borrowers.

You may have some luck with an EU based broker - but I suspect given the brexit clusterf**k they will be very reluctant as well.


S

Pulaski

Same problem - without an existing department and legal team already set up to register mortgage liens in the UK, and potentially reposess UK properties, no bank/broker (almost all brokers have a bank standing behind them, providing the finance) operating outside the UK will be in slightest bit interested in providing a mortgage loan secured on a property in the UK.

And it's not so much that British banks being "hostile", the reason is that after the meltdown of 2008-2009 the banks were told to "reduce their balance sheets" or in other words, get smaller by making few loans, and the easiest way to do that was to shut down and eliminate small fringe activities, such as lending to expats.

The fact that the price of houses in the UK is insane and that by the time the bank needs to repossess the property the value might have crashed, only made the decision to get out of the expat mortgage business even easier.

evets

Be careful with this, I tried it. The only reason the bank cottoned on was they had statements returned to them. I only figured this out when I tried to check my balance online, could not login. Called the bank up and found this out. I had to come clean and they were very good, allowed me to change to a buy to let very easily. And did not get hit with a big interest rate.

If you can stop paper statements and any mail and have everything emailed to you, that would probably work in your favour.

swans

Depending on your position in Oz it is very easy.If you have assets here then remortgage and pay off the loan in the UK,a natural currency swap with yourself.Possibly at a very good time.


Risk is taken out of it as you repay the loan in A$.While I never keep up with forex $100k is around 60k (quid).For $100k then $100 a week pays it off at present rates.


If you do not have backing here,good luck,banks are really being screwed on false information and popular opinion.


Geordie downunder

swans

Another thought just crossed my mind.If you do not have enough here to pay the mortgage off then same currency swap.




Get as much as you can here,convert it to GBP,place it on deposit with your UK bank to give them extra security,and have all rent paid into the same account.If they have offset facilities same as here all the better.Contact the bank first to see if they will do it,always be honest with them.


The idea of banking is to lend out as much as you can as safely as you can.


Geordie downunder

Beoz

No shit

That said, their local branches are quite Australian, and really distance themselves from their UK counterparts which for the case of this poster and the case of international business, is a right pain in the arse.

Perhaps Citibank

Totally agree