I am going to the UK later in the year and thought I might do a bit of investigation into the property market over there. Where do international investors get their finance from the country they are investing in or at home in Australia??
I am British born so i don't think there should be any problems in buying property there but as my husband is Australian and we rely on his income would that pose any difficulties.
Thanks
natalieI have looked into it a little and my Australian banks would not lend to me for a purchase in the UK. My UK bank was happy to lend to me If I could show them a suitable income in GBP. That does not mean there is no other avenue for finding finance but they are the two I looked into.
The only 2 lenders that will consider Expat Poms like myself are the Saffron Walden Building Society and the Derbyshire.
Both lenders will require a percentage of the rental income to cover the loan repayments.
Similar to arrangments in Australia Expat lending is getting harder to obtain due to the security concerns.
Richard Taylor | Australia's leading private lender
Hi,
Don't know much about lending practice in UK but I'm suggesting you finance it from where you earn your income to avoid foreign exchange risk.
Forex risk:
You buy property in UK using a bank in London
Monthly mortgage payment is GBP2000, of which GBP1000 is paid from rent income. The remaining GBP1000 is paid from Oz
You live and work in Ozy land
Forex usually means you have to pay AUD2500 to UK bank
Suddenly GBP rate moves and now you have to spend AUD3000 to buy GBP1000.I am not saying you should not finance with UK bank. I'm only saying there is this risk and the banks are usually concerned about it. They are more comfortable with local money.
That's also one of the reasons why hardly any Australian borrows from Japan (very low interest rate) to finance properties in Australia.Kind regards,
CattleyaCattleya
Here to learn the ropes of property investing & share knowledge, not trying to sell anything at all.
We moved from the UK to Australia in July 2007 and wanted to re-mortgage. The only bank that would give us a good interest rate was Mortgage Express and they knew we were moving to Australia (and wanted proof that we were living here). It may be worth checking with them to see what they could do for you.
We have 3 properties in the UK and made sure that they were overall cash flow positive before we left because we didn't want to be caught in any currency exchange issues.
Regards,
Karen
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
