Buying property in UK as a foriegner

dizzybeth62dz

I am British, born in Scotland but my daughter who is binational, born and brought up in Algeria but also having a UK passport wishes to buy her Grandmother's property in UK. Can anyone give me information on how she can do this and what would her chances of getting a mortgage be?

somethingcorporate

I'd say about 53.7% likely of getting a mortgage.

In all seriousness, the best way to deal with complex mortgage situations is to go and see an independent broker who can review your daugther's situation and advise appropriately, you have not provided anywhere near enough information above for anyone to make even an educated guess.

Best way to find a good broker is to get a recommendation from friends or family or try www.unbiased.co.uk. Do not go to a bank as they are likely to be tied to a small selection of products.

Edit: perhaps a nice mod may move this to the mortgages section as I am not sure it belongs in the economy debate section!

CLAPTON

if she has been resident in the UK for 3 years and her income meets the bank's normal lending criteria, then there should be no problem

Mistral001

I may not be of much help here, but maybe someone who has bought a property abroad could help as I am sure it would be just the same process but in reverse so to speak. Unless the OP has the cash I would have thought residency in this country would be fairly important in obtaining a mortgage here.

CKhalvashi

Mistral001 wrote: »

I may not be of much help here, but maybe someone who has bought a property abroad could help as I am sure it would be just the same process but in reverse so to speak. Unless the OP has the cash I would have thought residency in this country would be fairly important in obtaining a mortgage here.

We have a (rather large) Spanish/Italian/Portuguese/Georgian portfolio, and one thing that is going to be a nightmare is if she's been back in UK for less than three years.

Is there an HSBC branch in Algeria? My reason for asking this one is that she can move her day to day banking to them, return to England, and should be able to apply for a mortgage more/less straight away, using her Algerian credit history (which is how we've done anything international, and actually how we got a UK mortgage on return from Russia in 2003).

Unfortunately, unless cash is an option, this looks to be the only way round it, however I would recommend seeing a specialist broker who may know something I do not.

Sorry I couldn't help more!

CK

Generali

dizzybeth62dz wrote: »

I am British, born in Scotland but my daughter who is binational, born and brought up in Algeria but also having a UK passport wishes to buy her Grandmother's property in UK. Can anyone give me information on how she can do this and what would her chances of getting a mortgage be?

Ultimately a lender is interested on how & whether your daughter will be able to repay the loan.

If she has a decent sized deposit and an income stream then they will at least talk to her.

Conrad

It's highly unlikely this would be a regulated residential mortgage as there would be too many loose ends such as a lender not being in reasonable possesion of facts to indicate she will reside here.

As such I think a specialist non regulated lender would be the only possibility. Even then it isn't straight forward. Lenders have this concern around repossessing property where legal papers cannot be hand over to the applicant in person, and chasing arounf N Africa isn't very profitable.

Now you mention it being grandmothers house. Typically the deposit is 'gifted equity' in these familial purchases but many lenders do not like gifted equity as the mortgage payer has no money at stake so are more liable to default. Lenders need minimal deliquent loans on thier books these days.

Anyway, it may be doable, but really you need an experienced and small independant broker, not some call centre outfit or network as they will mess it up.

jaycube

In this matter you need to take advice from two persons, one is lawyer and the other is property adviser to solve your doubts.

Generali

Conrad wrote: »

It's highly unlikely this would be a regulated residential mortgage as there would be too many loose ends such as a lender not being in reasonable possesion of facts to indicate she will reside here.

As such I think a specialist non regulated lender would be the only possibility. Even then it isn't straight forward. Lenders have this concern around repossessing property where legal papers cannot be hand over to the applicant in person, and chasing arounf N Africa isn't very profitable.

Now you mention it being grandmothers house. Typically the deposit is 'gifted equity' in these familial purchases but many lenders do not like gifted equity as the mortgage payer has no money at stake so are more liable to default. Lenders need minimal deliquent loans on thier books these days.

Anyway, it may be doable, but really you need an experienced and small independant broker, not some call centre outfit or network as they will mess it up.

As an additional point to this excellent advice, try HSBC or Citibank as they are very good at cross border transactions.