Hey all,

I've been living in Aus for 3 years now and decided to let my property rather than sell when leaving UK for a number of reasons (credit crunch, unsure about long term plans, complete collapse of the pound relative the the Aussie dollar etc). During this time I reached the end of my 'preferential interest rate' mortgage term at which point the interest my lender alliance and leicester charged me increased by almost 50% (!) - I now pay 5%. I called them to remortgage but they claimed because I was a non-res and I was letting it out they couldn't offer me anything new. Gits. So I called a couple of mortgage brokers who all seemed to share the same opinion that I was snookered.

Given the bank of england lends these guys money for next to nothing I'm looking a lender who will lend me some (about 50% Loan to value) for a less unreasonable margin. However I keep finding that apparently, despite being a British citizen in full time employment, reasonably well paid and no unexplained periods of unemployment ever, with no other worldwide mortgages or other debts, great mortgage repayment history and I would say VERY low risk, because I'm not resident in UK it means I'm 'high risk' and cannot qualify for most mortgage offers available to people exactly the same as me but living in UK. So instead I get shafted by a Spanish lender (A&L owned by Santander). The fact that I'm living in Australia as opposed to the arse end of the Democratic Republic of Congo seems to make little difference to the 'risk' these lenders claim they face when offering me a mortgage on a property that sits, easily accessible in the highly unlikely event that they need to make a claim on that security, in UK.

When will the UK government start lending UK citizens mortgage capital directly instead of leaving them all to get shafted by paying tax that circles its way round to these privately owned banks through bailouts so they can lend it back to us at a premium? Noting short of criminal as far as I see it.

Anyway my question is, can anyone recommend good non-res mortgage brokers? Or better still, lenders without a blinkered, inflexible and highly procedural approach to risk management. Or even better than that, someone regulated by the FSA who will loan me a couple of hundred grand at 3%.

Thanks

Richard

Hi Richard and welcome to B.E.

Sorry I can not help you directly with your question, but you might want to repost it in the Australia branch of the forum.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=54

I am sure someone would have been in a similar position as yourself.

Hi Richard,

Welcome to BE. I hope you enjoy being part of our community.

Can't help with your question I'm afraid but I've moved it to our Australia forum for you.

Hi Richard.

Who do you bank with in Australia? If the NAB I can provide an intro which might help.

Best regards.

Hi Alan

I have a NAB account and also a UK mortgage, I would be interested in hearing your advice.

Regards
Sara

Hi Sara.

Please feel able to send an email to me. Click on my name to the left of this post.

Best regards.

Good Luck.

What about HSBC?

I tried a few years to do this, was too hard the banks were wanting 40% equity, and a good income.

In the end I just sold for a loss, a chapter in my life firmly closed.

Oh dear @lavidaloca I'm sorry to hear that, I hear your pain though. I've been close to selling just to escape the inconvenience but have managed to hold firm so far. I did ask a mortgage broker to try with HSBC but we couldn't find something suitable. It appears that despite being a 'global bank' in the adverts, they are very much a series of national banks in quite distinct legal jurisdictions in practice.

Thanks @sue and @catchafire, will keep an eye out on that one.

@alancollett I don't have a NAB account but my wife might still (she had one for many years anyway) and I dare say it wouldn't be particularly difficult to get one. Do you mind my asking what institution your 'registered migration agent' number refers to. I don't mean to sound ungrateful for your advice but I'm try to be a cautious sort of character on the internet 'just in case'. I would certainly be interested in an intro to someone at NAB to see if they have any GBP based mortgage products. I did hear on the news that NAB were thinking about dumping all their UK banking assets anyway. Maybe I could take a portion of those GBP based assets off their hands for a price )

@alancollett - just looked at your website and worked it out. Probably should have done that in the first place! I will send you an email...

That will be MARA