Giggles2080

Hello!

I’m British and my husband is Canadian. We have 2 boys born in Canada and we have decided to move to the UK in August 2022.

We are just wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to get a mortgage without having to rent once over there? We’ve spoken to a few different people and have had a few different answers.

We’d rather not have to to take a short term rental after doing such a big move from Canada to the UK only to move again months later 🤷🏼‍♀️

If anyone has any info or experience with this, we’d love to hear from you!

thanks a million!

Kate

SanDiegogirl

You do realise that it usually takes 2 months or more to finalise a sale in the UK? Unless you intend to try and buy before you move the likelyhood of you having to find a temporary place is high.
... but to answer your question. Yes, it is possible to get a mortgage without having to rent. You get a mortgage based on your credit rating, employment income and how much deposit you can pay.

tdrinker

Regarding a mortgage, you should consult a mortgage broker. You won't have a UK job when buying from Canada, so there are obstacles. It also depends on your circumstances, e.g. being transferred to a UK job by your Canadian employer, being self employed and being able to relocate the business to the UK, arranging an expat mortgage and flipping it to a UK one once working in the UK. Also on your credit rating, age, deposit, salary, mortgage size, etc. You need expert advice.

Buying a house to be available for your arrival in the UK would work best if buying a new build - no chain that might break, risk of being gazumped, probably faster completion and the house builder willing to agree to your preferred completion date. You would need to start the process 2-3 months before arriving in the UK for completion to coincide with your UK arrival.

If you need the equity from your Canadian home to pay for the UK one, you need a bridging loan (expensive) whilst you own both houses, or to sell the Canadian one and move to temporary accommodation in Canada whilst the UK purchase goes through (moving twice). If you're renting in Canada, it's not an issue.

How you are intending to furnish the UK house? If you are shipping your furniture from Canada, it will take time to arrive and in the meantime your UK house will be unfurnished. If buying new in the UK, it's not relevant.

It might be more practical to move to a furnished rental temporarily on moving to the UK. Yes, it means the hassle of moving again once you've purchased a house in the UK, but it might be the lesser evil.

durham_lad

It took 6 weeks for our furniture and belongings to travel from the USA to England so even though we were moving into an unfurnished rental house we still needed somewhere to stay initially.

When we did buy a house we spent time searching, had our offer accepted in October and completed the purchase in January. This was with no chain and no waiting for mortgages since we had already sold our house in the USA and were cash buyers, and the folks we were buying from were moving to a much smaller house that was already unoccupied.

We ended up staying in the rental house for 9 months as we enjoyed having an empty house to redecorate.

Giggles2080

Thanks everyone for your input! Yeah, it's all pretty much what we thought. We did contact a Mortgage Broker earlier in the year and she basically said it all depends on who you do your mortgage with. We are hoping by putting a bigger deposit down and with the monthly income that we get from selling our business will be enough to secure one right away.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks again!