Expatriate and Non UK Resident Remortgage Issues
Published / Last Updated on 19/06/2025
This may not affect us all, but it certainly can affect hundreds of thousands of British Expats and Foreign nationals, no longer living or possibly, having never lived in the UK when it comes to remortgaging.
Going Expat/Moving Overseas
Many people live and work in the UK, buy property, have a mortgage, and then move overseas with work or retirement or are simply returning to their ‘homeland’. If you have a main home, residential mortgage, this may present problems in that your mortgage is a residential mortgage, yet you may wish to let the property out when overseas.
Stage 1 – Ask your mortgage lender for ‘consent to let’. This means you keep your existing residential mortgage for a short period e.g., 6 months, 1 year or 2 years and then at the end of this period you will need to remortgage to a ‘buy to let’ mortgage.
- Some mortgage lenders may not allow ‘consent to let’ and some mortgage lenders may not offer ‘buy to let’ mortgages.
Stage 2 – If you mortgage lender does not allow ‘consent to let’ or offer ‘buy to let’ mortgages, you will need to find an expat or non-resident buy to let mortgage scheme.
- This may prove difficult if:
- You live in a country that lenders are not keen on/do not lend to, e.g., Russia, China, Iran.
- The country that you live in has tight restrictions on overseas lenders offering loans to its residents due to local credit laws and regulations e.g. Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia.
- Many countries offer an exemption to this, but this does not mean that all UK lenders will even consider risking breaking local laws and lending to non-UK residents.
- Brexit has also tarnished many mortgage lenders views on lending to non-UK residents.
Don’t Panic – There are lots of Expat and Non-UK resident Lenders. We just suggest you start planning early rather than leaving it too late to secure your estate on non-resident mortgage.
New UK Mortgages for Expat and Non-UK Residents
For new borrowing on new UK property, there is a growing range of Expat and Non-UK resident mortgages for investment purposes. Expect to be required to have a minimum 30% deposit and plan early as there can be complications with proof of income and affordability as well as the country that you live in. In addition, do not forget additional stamp duty rates will be payable for 2nd homes as well as non-UK residents, so you may end up paying an additional 5% stamp duty over and above standard rates.
