David_Rajendran

Hi All,

I recently emigrated from the UK to Vancouver, BC. Before I left I put my UK property up for sale hoping that it would be sold relatively quickly, however after 6 months on the market we have not competed and i'm now re-assessing my options.

I've been working in Canada for 3 months now, and as such i believe i'm now able to qualify for am Expat mortgage and switch from my current residential mortgage (on a standard variable) to a buy to let mortgage. The buy to let mortgage will allow me to free up some equity in the UK house, which will go towards paying down the house my wife and I bought in Canada.

What i'm wondering does anyone have any viable alternatives to the expat mortgage route, this may be changing the actual ownership (i.e. transfer to a company registered in the UK), or potentially going in for a joint UK mortgage, with one of the applicants non-resident.

Any help/pointers with the above situation would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
D.

confused_uk

I wrote to my bank for a 'consent to let' letter, this allows you to let the property with your current mortgage arrangement in place, for 12 months. I've heard you can possibly extend it by another 12 towards the end but I haven't got that far yet.

It's not a long term solution but a good initial option (if your bank approves it)

muffback

I was with Nationwide. They gave me permission to rent out my flat. But added 1% onto the mortgage.

muners

We have rented our house out in the UK now for just over two years, re-mortgaging right now.
The main issue seems to be the UK government now frowns upon expats owning homes in the UK.
We will be hit financially according to our mortgage broker when we come to selling our house and trying to transfer funds to Canada.
His advice was to sit tight as it will cost us.
It has pissed me off to be honest.
All about money laundering.
Kind of stuck with the house now, unless I can come up with a cunning plan.
Maybe stick my brothers name on the deeds or something I don't know.

Whatever you do or if you find out more please let us know.
Good luck.

Shirtback

What exactly are you/your mortgage broker worried about concerning transferring the proceeds of a property sale from UK to Canada?

It's quite simple, as long as everything is above board & the appropriate amounts & taxes (if applicable) are paid to the relevant jurisdictions. I'm not sure how money laundering comes into it (unless you mean that there are checks & balances)?

I've not seen anything that shows the UK government "frowns on" expats owning property there?

As a side note: three different types of mortgage/mortgage have been so far discussed in this thread, & they are not all the same... and different lenders will have different conditions to meet...

tweed_wearer

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I gave these guys a quick tinkle when I was buying a property in the UK a few years ago (sale fell through and plans changed) but they gave me a quick free 'finger in the air' assessment of a mortgage deal I was offered ("yeah mate, about as good as you're going to get")