Mortgage without 3 yr address history

[Isbutteracarb]

DH and I would like to buy a house but he has been resident in the UK for less than 3 years (I've got 10+ years UK address history). Would it be possible for us to apply for a joint mortgage with less than 3 years UK address history for him or is it unlikely we'd be considered by lenders because of this? We're both first-time buyers and unfamiliar with the process so any advice would be much appreciated.

Speak with a broker, their advice should be free and they will have knowledge of each lenders criteria.

Yes, a broker will help. The problem I can see is that his credit score will be poor when assessed via the usual method because the "system" will think he might be hiding something. But it may be the case that some lenders are prepared to override the usual box-ticking and to get a human to actually look at his situation and make a judgement. The worst-case scenario is that you could have to use a credit-impaired mortgage at a high interest rate for a year or two until he satisfies the usual credit-scoring system at which point you could remortgage onto a lower rate.

That's very helpful, thanks for your replies - will look for a broker! We're not in a rush and could wait for another year and a half (by which point he'll have been here for 3 years) but then we wouldn't be able to take advantage of certain Help to Buy schemes which end next year.

I'd sign up for a "what's my credit score" thing, and see what sort of score each of you get on that.
And if either of them are low, work on improving it. Doing that wont hurt anything, and might help.
Good luck (I'm assuming that you couldn't pass the mortgage affordability checks on your own, and add him on when remortgaging in a couple of years?)

I don’t think it’s a problem if the loan-to-value is not right up to the limit. There’s lots of foreign couples in my job who manage to buy houses straight away. Decent income & stable jobs though

We're both public sector, combined income of approx. 40k (both on roughly the same salary) - my credit history is decent, haven't managed to check his since the websites always ask for 3 years address history but he has a good credit history and savings in his home country - would lenders take that into account? I could possibly take out a mortgage alone but would rather do it together so we can get a bigger one!

Just put his first address starting 3 years ago if it wont progress without it, and wont accept foreign addresses. I managed to get mine. Cant remember how I dealt with the address thing tho.

We bought after 12 months in the UK. I was lucky that my work had provided a credit card in my name and dh had insisted that I sign up to vote (dh is Irish so as his DW I did have voting rights) so I had some 'history'.

One thing that I did have issues with was that I was on a visa so we were somewhat restricted but London & Country mortgage advisors (who are free!) got us a mortgage.

Thanks @BrokenLogs that's good to know!