More Lenders Enter Expatriate Mortgage Market

More Lenders Enter Expatriate Mortgage MarketExpatriates have struggled for years to get mortgages to buy property back home or elsewhere abroad; now an increase in demand for international mortgages has raised the awareness of more lenders to both the plight of the expat and the potential of the international property finance marketplace - as a result more lenders are entering the expatriate mortgage market.

Specific locations such as Dubai, the Channel Islands, Spain and France have been picked up on by lenders as locations that are secure and have strong and effective property laws and where there is intense demand from the expatriate and international community for property related finance; as a result a number of institutions have launched mortgage products specific to a given country.  We take a look at the latest expatriate mortgages available.

Barclays Bank PLC is one of the latest to enter the expat mortgage market with a product specifically designed for the Dubai residential property sector.  Since the announcement that Dubai’s property laws relating to the foreign freehold ownership of property in the emirate have been ratified, Barclays do not consider there to be excessive risk in lending on properties in the emirate to non-resident, expatriate or international purchasers.  Barclays Dubai mortgages are available in pounds, dollars, euros and the UAE dirham and are as flexible as possible to appeal to as broad a market base as possible.

Other banks with international focus will likely follow Barclays into Dubai’s superior and fast maturing property market because the wealth of opportunity in the emirate is intensifying all the time.

Some of the major banking institutions have specific international or offshore arms to cater for expatriates; the Bank of Scotland is just one such institution and their international arm manages general property based finance and tax efficient structures for their expatriate clientele who wish to buy to let or buy property for long term capital appreciation but who wish to do so in as tax efficient a manner as possible.  They can arrange everything from finance to offshore trusts and company structures for the ownership or management of a property portfolio.

Another way that British lenders are targeting the expatriate market is through the provision of mortgages for those who reside overseas but who wish to own a home back in the UK.  Expatriates who wish to own a buy to let property or indeed a house to live in at some point in the future are now able to borrow from the Derbyshire Building Society.

Basically where there exists demand, so lenders are picking up on it and developing finance products to cater for a broadening market - and as more and more of us are choosing to live at least part of our lives overseas so more and more of us will require expatriate mortgages or international property related finance at some point in our lives.

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