Logistics of buying UK property from abroad

[Travelsweat]

DH and I live in abroad, and we are thinking that we might like to buy a small place in London to use when we go back to the UK for family visits (and also potentially for children to use if they go to London-based univeristy). We don’t know where to begin exploring the logistics of something like this, though. We’d ideally like for the property to be completely managed by a company as a short term let so that we can use it for our own holidays. We’e not so concerned about turning a profit, we would be happy to just break even to have a London bolthole which might appreciate over time. Is this realistic? And is a BTL mortgage something that would even be available to us, given our situation? Our tax residency is still in the UK despite the fact that we live abroad (which I realise is unusual). Would this affect what sort of mortgage products we might be eligible for?

Any steer on where to begin doing research for something like this would be gratefully received.