no good name

Q1. Is there a specific criteria someone must meet until they are eligible / allowed to buy a home?

I.e.
- must show regular income/employment for 3-6months...
- must be living in the country for 'X' amount of months
- must meet 'X' % amount for a deposit

Can anyone advise?

Pulaski

There are too many variables to give a short answer - that is definitely a "how long is a piece of string" question. ..... You don't necessarily have to be living in the UK at all, and a lot is going to depend on your deposit, but conventionally a minimum deposit would be 10%, but if you have a 50% deposit you could probably buy as soon as you step off the plane. In between, as soon as you start a job and have pay credits, and a 20% deposit, you should find that a lender will talk to you.

Siouxie

I've moved your post to our Moving Back to the UK forum where you should receive more helpful/useful information than the Canada forum can offer..

Good luck with your move if you decide to do that!

Honey246

There are very strict rules regarding mortgages . The big mortgage lenders will not look at you until you have been here 3 years. You can find an expat mortgage lender but you have to been here 1 year and working for at least 6 months. This is what happened for us when we returned back to uk. When the time came for us to buy a house, we used a financial advisor to find us a mortage lender.

Pulaski

Were you applying on the basis of income from self employment? How much of a down payment did you have?

R I C H

When I moved back 2 years ago I secured a mortgage with Halifa (via a broker) within 3 months of arrival. Deposit was around 70%. The most difficult aspect was opening a bank account without a permanent address.

blokeandbird

Yes you can buy without being in the country. A formal job offer and a minimum 20 percent deposit, I was able to secure approval before even setting foot on UK soil. Interest rate is higher, but will be flipping that after 6 months (penalty for breaking is cheaper than renting and throwing money away). The larger your deposit the larger your options.
My advise is do not go to a bank, use a broker.

The bigger question to ask is does it make sense to buy yet, or role the dice that house prices will drop and interest rates climb.

Honey246

Also find out what your credit rating is as that may help. We had been out the country 13yrs and had to start building our credit rating. Even though we were putting 60% deposit down we still had t wait a year .

R I C H

I'd been overseas for 15 years, so no credit rating in the UK. I think finding a decent broker is the way to go - my 5yr fixed rate mortgage was only 0.25% above the best offers that were available to longer term residents with credit histories, and no waiting time from arrival back here.