Changing country and Mortgage ending _ Please advise

TornSoldier

Hi there,

Our five year mortgage deal with Natwest is ending this October for our only home. Based on HPI, our LTV is 67%. My employer has offered me a new role in the US, expecting me to start there in September. We will be going to the US for at least 3 years and up to 7 years maximum. 

We do not want to sell our house because a lot went to get it. Therefore, we are considering to put it on rental market. I suppose we will need to switch to a buy to let mortgage for the duration we will be away?

Is it better to go to a mortgage consultant for this change? I have been trying to look at various bank rates for buy-to-let and they seem similar to the rates we are being shown for remortgaing our residential mortgage. This does not make sense as buy-to-let would be expensive I imagined. I am not sure what mistake I am making.

For example, Natwest is offering 4.81% for 5 years fixed rate on regular insurance. Lloyds is showing 4.76% for 5 years buy-to-let mortgage. 

Apprecaite if I can get some expert opinion from all have navigated this situation.

Cheers
TS

TornSoldier

Add on question - Are these my 2 options

1) Ask Natwest for consent to let and remortgage to 2 year Fixed rate deal?

2) Or, find a new buy-to-let mortgage from another provider? At Natwest website, they are not offering BTL at the moment. 

Please help

silvercar

Ask your current lender for consent to let.

TornSoldier

silvercar said:

Ask your current lender for consent to let.

If they reject by any chance, I suppose then logical step would be BTL ??

silvercar

TornSoldier said:

silvercar said:

Ask your current lender for consent to let.

If they reject by any chance, I suppose then logical step would be BTL ??

Correct. As you say, NatWest aren’t offering BTL, so it would mean moving lenders.

Voyager2002

TornSoldier said:

silvercar said:

Ask your current lender for consent to let.

If they reject by any chance, I suppose then logical step would be BTL ??

I am confident that NatWest would offer you something, perhaps a BTL (even if they are not promoting a product on their website to new customers it might still be available to existing customers) or a deal with a provider linked to them. This would save you the costs and inconvenience of re-mortgaging, but might cost more than a completely new BTL with a new lender. So you need to ask them, and you also need to find out what is available on the open market.