Advice - New resident, first time buyers

Leeda

Hiya,

I hope I can get some advice on here.

My boyfriend and I are first time buyers.
He is an accountant, working for the past 4 years, with a good credit history. He has debts of about £15k however.

I am Australian, having moved here 1 year ago. I have only one credit card (which was incredibly hard to get initially) and no other debts as I pay off the credit card in full every month. I have a savings of about £4K in my ING account. I have only had this card for 7 months however.

I am an IT contractor. I have my own limited company now and get paid quite a lot, but due to being self employed technically, and my limited credit history, I am not sure I will be able to get a mortgage with my boyfriend.

I want to get a joint mortgage with him. I am not sure how much he will be able to borrow on his own... but the point is, I want my name on the mortgage as well as his. I want joint ownership of the house. The properties we are looking at where we live are going for about £150,000. He earns £30k and I earn about £70k.

What do you recommend I can do? Would it be possible for us to get a joint mortgage?

maryjane01

Hi! I am also Australian, if your partner is English you will have no problems. I had a mortgage offer in principle arranged with Northern Rock with the condition that they see an original marriage certificate (we are due to get married on August 26) as I am only on a working holiday visa at the moment. But now we are actually applying for a mortgage with Royal Bank of Scotland. We have not got the result of that yet but our mortage broker spoke to an underriter at RBS and it wasn't going to be an issue for them. Get yourself a good broker and be upfront about what your visa status is.

If your partner is also Aussie I am not so sure.

Leeda

maryjane01 wrote:

Hi! I am also Australian, if your partner is English you will have no problems. I had a mortgage offer in principle arranged with Northern Rock with the condition that they see an original marriage certificate (we are due to get married on August 26) as I am only on a working holiday visa at the moment. But now we are actually applying for a mortgage with Royal Bank of Scotland. We have not got the result of that yet but our mortage broker spoke to an underriter at RBS and it wasn't going to be an issue for them. Get yourself a good broker and be upfront about what your visa status is.

If your partner is also Aussie I am not so sure.

We are not married alas But he is English thank god!!

Good news is that I should be hearing about my Highly Skilled Migrant Visa in a couple of weeks so that should be a plus for my visa status for the banks.

maryjane01

It was just Northern Rock that stipulated they wanted the marriage certificate, and I can't blame them seeing as my visa is running out in October. I don't think RBS are bothered at all (although the mortgage application is yet to be approved, fingers crossed!). I think with the HSMP visa and an English partner you will be fine. A few lenders may rule you out but I think there are enough that would give you a mortgage, it is a good reason to get a good a broker that knows the ins and outs of different banks lending criteria. I don't think Australians are a particularly big risk (and they can always chase your partner if you want to run back home!).

MortgageMamma

Leeda

what is your deposit and how much do you need to borrow? last time i checked NR would only lend 75% of the property value to foreign applicants without indefinate leave. You might fair differently on the highly skilled migrant scheme though.

maryjane01

I am Australian with an English partner and we got an offer in principle with Northern Rock for 100%. Maybe they wanted the marriage certificate so we would qualify for 100%.

MortgageMamma

Could be, who knows! I'v e known northern rock to do stranger things!

Leeda

MortgageMamma wrote:

Leeda

what is your deposit and how much do you need to borrow? last time i checked NR would only lend 75% of the property value to foreign applicants without indefinate leave. You might fair differently on the highly skilled migrant scheme though.

We should have a deposit of £10k by the time we get to the stage of applying for the mortgage. I am thinking we will need to borrow from £150k-£200k depending on the right house.

For the moment we are thinking of things we could do to increase my credit rating. We are applying for a joint credit card on the weekend. My colleagues have suggested I get out a personal loan for the deposit, to show I have debt in this country but I am not sure about that....

maryjane01

Don't apply for things you are going to get turned down for. I got one of those capital one 'trainer' credit cards with a horrendeous APR (around 30%). It only has a £200 limit. I only buy my train ticket on it each month and pay it back in full so I don't pay interest, but I am earning myself a credit record in the meantime. I think they give those to almost anyone.