Am going through the process of securing a mortgage right now and it sure is different to the UK experience. (so far in a positive way).

I am advised that the average process takes 3 business days - quite a shock when it took me 12 weeks to get a mortgage in the UK.

One important thing to do is not to have an application processed by more than 3 sources within a month because more than 3 would cause a flag up on your credit file.

Though I am not employed at present as I had cash reserves in the UK the lenders I have approached were all happy to consider that as evidence I could afford a mortgage. I believe proof of ownership of a property overseas could help but not as much as cash does.

I decided a mortgage locally made sense rather than moving the money because the rates are so low and the ex rate has dropped 15cents whilst I sat on the money in the UK so to move it now would be throwing a far part of it away. Ive been offered rates of 1.9% to 2.25% right now on 5 year closed var mortgages.

Ive been offered new immigrant mortgages and also standard mortgages; I approached lenders that had the option to offset cash against the loan part so that when the rates change i can move money over and offset.

I did try a mortgage broker and they were able to secure a much larger amount that I was looking for but only on standard rates so I can say that high geared ratios are out there.

HSBC are an option for this offset - type of mortgage (i think its called smart steps) and again the link to HSBC operations in your home country can be a benefit - certainly for me it would help with moving funds over in an automated way to cover costs until I have local income to cover it.

I did secure 2 credit cards as the first thing when I landed in Canada as I wanted to start building my credit history from day one - and I did start by moving my amex from the UK to Canada as they operate that facility with no secured requirement and also amex is a little more accepted here than in the uk.

hope some of this info helps.

I would strongly advise against buying right away and rent for a year or two to see if you like it here, can find decent work, and that you like the area you are in. One only has to go on heading back to Blighty to see those who have regretted buying.

Vancouver has lots of different areas, and it takes sometime to get to the know the area, the good, the bad and the ugly.

try before you buy!

Oh wow so they do have Offset mortgages in Canada Thats good

Completely agree with above, we thought we would buy our rental as this was the type of house we yearned for in the UK, however after living in it for 6 mths we have realised that it isnt for us and are about to purchase the complete opposite of what we thought we would!

The buy v rent question is always a good one (even if you are planning on only staying a year or two). However, I think the killer here is the realtor fees as you need to either pay a lot off your mortgage or hope the market rises significantly to cover those damn costs if you do have to sell.

We arrived in July managed to get jobs quickly HSBC gave us a mortgage within four weeks of landing 10% deposit as we were on TWP and not PR needed an equifax credit report. Not sure about you not having a job but see if you can set something up before you leave the UK. Good Luck.