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Foreign buyers - difficulty getting a mortgage?

8 replies

Blahblahblah81 · 17/08/2024 10:45

I'd appreciate any advice around the following situation: We accepted an offer on our house approx 10 days ago from an Australian person who had lived and worked on the UK for approx 4 years. They had a MIP but when it came to me to valuation,the valuation of our property came out 25k lower than they had offered. The company the bank had used had consistent reviews for undervaluing properties and our EA also said they felt the valuation was unfair and we can't knock that much off the price so the EA suggested they go and try another mortgage provider. The sellers response was that they were happy to do that but that it was the 8th lender they had tried - which obviously set alarm bells off! So our mortgage broker suggested we put it back on the market as in his experience,it's incredibly hard for any foreign national to get a mortgage. We have now relisted but told the EA to tell the Australian seller that if they did manage to get a bigger mortgage to come back to us.

We now have another viewing booked in for tomorrow...this person also has a MIP but we think we may have the same issue as before as this person is a foreign national from India (EA told us - we live in a very multicultural area!). So we're obviously concerned that they may be in the same position as the Australian as getting a mortgage?

Does anyone have any experience with selling to a foreign national who had to get a mortgage? We're obviously believing what our mortgage broker told us which I'm sure is right but we'd just like to hear any other experiences.

OP posts:
LaPalmaLlama · 17/08/2024 11:08

It varies a huge amount- a lot depends on how long they have been in the Uk ( credit history, digital footprint etc) and also their immigration status (on what basis they can live in uk). It’s not necessarily a problem but if they moved to UK recently it may be ( Dh couldn’t even get a credit card when we moved back from Asia and he’s a uk citizen but lack of recent uk credit history meant “computer says no”) If they’ve been here years and years and just never applied for citizenship it’s more likely to be easy. Does this buyer have a mortgage at the moment?

Blahblahblah81 · 17/08/2024 11:09

Thanks for your reply. No both of these are FTBuyers

OP posts:
Sparklesandbeer · 17/08/2024 11:12

I was that buyer and seller to non uk nationals. It was fine. It's most likely not because of where he is from but credit score etc. Maybe short visa. I had PR when I was buying and my buyers later had PR too

Blahblahblah81 · 17/08/2024 11:15

Sorry,what's a PR?

OP posts:
Sparklesandbeer · 17/08/2024 11:23

Permanent residency

Blahblahblah81 · 17/08/2024 11:32

Ok,yes may be that PR is an issue then.

OP posts:
KievLoverTwo · 17/08/2024 12:03

>The company the bank had used had consistent reviews for undervaluing properties

The problem is not them, the problem is estate agents consistently overvaluing them.

You might be wise to consider what you are going to do if this happens again. Not just with eight times buyer.

>EA also said they felt the valuation was unfair

That is what I would expect them to say if they are overvaluing.

Sorry OP. It’s bleak for sellers atm.

SeLHopeful2024 · 17/08/2024 14:11

I agree with @KievLoverTwo here.

I'm white British, never lived anywhere else, FTB.
The mortgage valuation (desk top) came back virtually the same as the price I offered (£402k), but the house was initially listed as £429,500.
Not sure I'd have had a mortgage approved if I was attempting to buy when the house was first listed if I went straight in at the listing price.

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