davros1984

Hi All,

I'm hoping someone can steer me in the right direction or give some advice/truths.

With the housing situation in Auckland being so bad and the sheer size of mortgages... I am now considering buying a house back in the UK even though I plan on living here for at least another year or 2. The plan is that I will either just buy it myself and have it empty (just pay the mortgage myself) or I'll rent it out to either friends or my sister.

Surely its quite a common thing for people to do prior to going home, i.e. buying a house ready for their return or similar situations. Has anyone managed to do this? Other than the distance itself.. how difficult is it to get a UK mortgage whilst living here and having a steady income (with a 10-20% deposit).

Cheers.

jmh

I imagine a mortgage is going to be your big challenge. I own a house in SW London but got the mortgage while i was still living there.

One thing to note re council tax. Some councils charge you full council tax even if the house is empty. Mine is Kingston upon Thames and they do (you get 11 days if between rentals then it's full whack). So it is worth having someone living there. I have had no trouble getting reasonable landlord insurance. Don't forget that any income has to be declared here if you are not within the 4 year migrant category.

davros1984

Thanks - yes the mortgage will be the challenge. Its whether the UK banks will accept an overseas income as a source (in conjunction with a good deposit).

Thanks for letting me know, r.e. council tax - not surprised with that one at all! Only been here for just over 2 years, so have some time before the 4-year requirement kicks in.

With houses still being so cheap at home, it seems a good time to buy.

BEVS

It should be possible even if choice of lender is sparse. There should be one that is prepared to have packages specifically designed for expats overseas.

Here is a thread asking a similar question

I googled out of interest and it came up with NatWest I suspect they would want a rental income to be part of it , rather than a property being empty. Just my own thought.

janeyk

a friend of mine could not get a mortgage on it until he owned it for 6 months being a foreign investor but this may be financing from NZ not sure

BEVS

Hmm. Might be a good idea to ask this in the MBTTUK forum. There will be others who are still overseas looking to buy property in advance.


Pal of mine who returned to the UK after 8 years has been unable to get a mortgage without a full time permanent employment contract in place. He has a renewable employment contract at the moment. He has the majority of a purchase price but required a very small mortgage for a property he had seen. No deal.

Jerseygirl

Not only will the mortgage be a challenge...insurance will be too if the house is empty for more than a month.

As Bevs said above...it would be best if you asked about mortgages for property in the UK in the Moving Back To The UK forum. You can find it here...

http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=61

davros1984

Thanks all - will start to look at that forum.