Remortgaging buy to let from abroad

Ilovesquash

Hi all,

I moved abroad 18 months ago and changed my nationwide mortgage to allow the property to be let for an extra 1% on top of my base rate. The agreement expires this month and will switch to Nationwide’s standard rate of 4.99% which is obviously extortionate. They will not allow me to have a new buy to let mortgage, and their partner company The Mortgage Works won’t offer mortgages to people who live outside the UK.

The small amount of research I have done indicates we would need to pay a broker around £1500 to get a deal for about 3.5% fixed for a few years, which also seems very pricey, especially given we will likely move back to the UK within the next year so will have the opportunity to remortgage then at a lower rate. 

Anyone have experience with buy to let remortgaging from abroad? Am I stuck with either the 4.99% or something with a hefty fee?

Snookie12cat

There are much cheaper brokers around who will deal with it - you just need a specialist BTL one.
There are lenders who will lend to Ex-pats who are abroad, quite a lot actually but like you said, you will be paying a premium for it as these products generally demand the higher rate.

aimee_coop

Ilovesquash said:

Hi all,

I moved abroad 18 months ago and changed my nationwide mortgage to allow the property to be let for an extra 1% on top of my base rate. The agreement expires this month and will switch to Nationwide’s standard rate of 4.99% which is obviously extortionate. They will not allow me to have a new buy to let mortgage, and their partner company The Mortgage Works won’t offer mortgages to people who live outside the UK.

The small amount of research I have done indicates we would need to pay a broker around £1500 to get a deal for about 3.5% fixed for a few years, which also seems very pricey, especially given we will likely move back to the UK within the next year so will have the opportunity to remortgage then at a lower rate. 

Anyone have experience with buy to let remortgaging from abroad? Am I stuck with either the 4.99% or something with a hefty fee?

Try HSBC. They do offer mortgages to expats and I think their rate is fair. You can even do it without paying a booking fee.