Help to Buy mortgage guarantee for Tier 1 General

Mulder00

I am really desperate for some solid advice here. My partner and myself are both Tier 1 General visa holders with 2.5 years left on our visas.

For some reason I thought we did not qualify for the Help to Buy Mortgage Guarantee scheme (5% deposit), but I did some digging and cannot find anything that would exclude us, except of course if we don't qualify based on the lender's criteria.

So then I phoned Natwest's mortgage department this morning to get some clarity. As soon as I asked the question, I was told that Natwest do not provide mortgage to Tier 1 visa holders, only Tier 2. So I expressed my surprise at this and urged the person to look into it further, because I know they offer mortgages for Tier 1, I just want to find out if this will extend to the Help to Buy scheme. So after a while, he came back and apologised and said they do offer mortgage for Tier 1, but max LTV is 90%, so no to Help to Buy. That's fair enough, it's their criteria.

Then I phoned Santander's mortgage department, and the lady first didn't know what a Tier 1 visa was. After making me hold for 10 minutes, she finally came back to me to told me that Tier 1 visa holders do not qualify for mortgages.

It's a bit frustrating being given blatantly incorrect information (two banks telling me that they do not provide mortgages to Tier 1 visa holders, when I know this is not correct). How do I find out whether or not we qualify for help to buy and which lenders will consider our application???

Mortgage_Mark_2

There was initially some wrangling over Tier 1 visa holders obtaining government funding as part of H2B EL, however the main lender that we deal with (who has c.50% share of the EL market) has no problem with Tier 1 applicants who have either got 3yrs remaining on the visa, or have been in the UK for 3 years (or are intending to apply for ILR shortly - pretty much anyone from reading their criteria!).

I suggest Kingstreet will be a good source of info on this, being a new build specialist broker...

ComputeAngel

Try some other branch(es) until you find a person who knows what is talking about. CS people are not well trained to handle specialized cases like yours

Mulder00

Thanks for the advice. Just to clarify, I'm talking about the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee (5% deposit) - not the new build scheme.

I specifically phoned the mortgage departments, because I figured that branch staff would not have the specialist knowledge required, but clearly I was wrong.

Will spend the weekend at the banks then!!!

amnblog

Visa holders, where excepted by lender have a loan to value restriction which is typically 75%. Higher loan to values can be accepted by some lenders but I do not see it fitting with a 95% deal.

Caprylate

Halifax are good for people who don't have indefinite leave to remain.

Mulder00

Thanks for everyone's responses.

We went to see Nationwide, just to see. Same thing happened, the person helping went from "we do not offer mortgages to people without indefinite leave to remain", at which point we said that is very surprising, to eventually that they will go up to 75% LTV.

I've had several people say Halifax is the way to go, so I've done an online intention to lend and they will contact me shortly.

It's just so incredibly frustrating not being able to get the (right) information upfront. It's the difference between going and looking for a house and putting in an offer and not!! It almost seems like the only way to get the right answer is to actually apply for a mortgage, because that is the only time that our circumstances will be properly assessed by the right people!!!

kingstreet

Nationwide isn't part of the HTB - MG scheme, so bit of a wasted journey there.

Why not just talk to a broker and save yourself the next lot of wasted effort?

kaushal101

We had same experience with HSBC & Postoffice in Sept 2012, refused to make an offer to Tier 1 holder. Had finally managed to obtain mortgage from Halifax with 15% deposit. We had about 1 yr remaining on our Tier 1 General (spent 4.5 years in UK by then).

amnblog

Mulder00 wrote: »

Thanks for everyone's responses.

We went to see Nationwide, just to see. Same thing happened, the person helping went from "we do not offer mortgages to people without indefinite leave to remain", at which point we said that is very surprising, to eventually that they will go up to 75% LTV.

I've had several people say Halifax is the way to go, so I've done an online intention to lend and they will contact me shortly.

It's just so incredibly frustrating not being able to get the (right) information upfront. It's the difference between going and looking for a house and putting in an offer and not!! It almost seems like the only way to get the right answer is to actually apply for a mortgage, because that is the only time that our circumstances will be properly assessed by the right people!!!

Don't hold your breath.