Key Post Non-Resident Mortgages for Irish abroad

Queries come up from time to time on Askaboutmoney from Irish abroad looking to buy residential property here, either as an investment or as a place to eventually return to. We've also dealt with quite a few over the past year or so, so I thought I'd share what we've learnt in recent times. If anyone has experience of what lenders that don't deal with brokers are doing for non-residents (e.g. Ulster bank), that would be appreciated.


Permanent TSB

• At least one applicant must be an Irish citizen
• Minimum annual income €100,000 or local currency equivalent
• Maximum 60% LTV
• Anticipated rental income should be >1.2 x stress-tested mortgage repayment (full capital and interest)
• Buy-to-Let interest rates apply

Haven (broker arm of AIB)

• Clear path home. Applicants must be in jobs where there is demand for their skills in Ireland. If the equivalent job in Ireland is likely to be lower-paid than what they're earning abroad, equivalent Irish income figure will be used for assessment.
• Our experience is that Haven are mostly interested in applicants with professional qualifications earning €100,000 or more.
• Haven like to see plenty of Irish connections - family, bank accounts, prevous credit history etc.
• Maximum LTV around 65%
• Anticipated rental income will NOT be taken into consideration.
• Owner-occupier interest rates so if you can meet their criteria, Haven are the cheapest.

ICS (broker arm of Bank of Ireland)

• Will go up to 75% LTV
• Applications assessed solely on anticipated rental income - not earned income.
• ICS do not publish their method of assessing what they will or will not approve - not even to brokers - so each application is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
• Buy-to-Let interest rates.

KBC Bank
KBC are currently working on a formal non-resident offering which will hopefully be launched later this year. Until then, all applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis but anecdotally they seem to be interested mainly in high earners (€150,000+) with good prospects for returning to Ireland. Buy-to-Let rates apply.

Liam D. Ferguson
www.FergA.com

Liam

That is a brilliant post and will be very helpful to people. Thanks.

It would be very helpful if others shared their experience, good or bad, in trying to buy property in Ireland from abroad.

I will put some other links in this post over time

The pros and cons of buying in Ireland while living abroad

Alternatives to buying property directly e.g. a residential Reit

The taxation of Irish rental income

Liam,

Thanks a lot for this post which is really informative. Can I just ask whether the €100,000 salary requirement is for each applicant or whether a couple earning over €100,000 would also qualify?

Thanks a lot!

kikikiki said:

Liam,

Thanks a lot for this post which is really informative. Can I just ask whether the €100,000 salary requirement is for each applicant or whether a couple earning over €100,000 would also qualify?

Thanks a lot!

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Permanent TSB will be happy if the combined income is >€100,000. The others don't have specific salary limits but our experience is that they tend to look down their noses if at least one applicant is earning less than €100,000.

Mortgage

Hi Thanks for your post it was very helpful .i was back from Australia last June and my self and my girlfriend tried to apply for a mortgage with permanent tsb. As I was only in my current job 6 months they turned us away. I am now in my job 12 months and we are returning to Ireland at Christmas. We earn around 100,000 euro between us and have the deposit saved .Have any other banks started lending or could you give me any advice on applying for a mortgage. We really want to buy a house in Dublin as soon as possible thanks

Have just been refused a mortgage from AIB. They stress tested our income on irish tax system (even though we are irish /swiss nationals and will never pay irish tax ) and used the swiss pension deductions (possibly double anywhere else!). Does not make sense .... looking to invest in a property in Dublin city as our sons are currently studying there. Any advice on where to go next ? has anybody had dealings with TSB or Bank of Ireland ?

CiBarr said:

Have just been refused a mortgage from AIB. They stress tested our income on irish tax system (even though we are irish /swiss nationals and will never pay irish tax ) and used the swiss pension deductions (possibly double anywhere else!). Does not make sense .... looking to invest in a property in Dublin city as our sons are currently studying there. Any advice on where to go next ? has anybody had dealings with TSB or Bank of Ireland ?

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Hi,

I am a mortgage broker with experience of getting people approved for non-resident mortgages. It's standard for Irish banks to use the Irish tax system for incomes, no matter where in the world the applicants live. However, not all lenders will take your full pension deductions off your incomes.

This is my understanding of the position of other lenders in the market at this time:

PTSB and BoI focus heavily on the rental yield of the proposed property. Even if the applicants are extremely financially strong, they will not approve lending for properties where the yield doesn't meet their requirements. Current maximum LTV for BoI is 50%, PTSB is 70%. You didn't ask about KBC, but they are in this market. Maximum 70% LTV, minimum joint incomes €150k. They focus more on the strength of the borrowers than on the rental potential. In fact, the application must qualify without any proposed rental income whatsoever.

You could approach multiple banks directly, but of course I would recommend using an independent broker, like me or Liam! Happy to help if you would like independent advice and a project-managed service until you put the key in the door.

Best Regards,
Dave Curry, Irish Mortgage Corporation

I've noticed the posts / thread is a little out of date - I can't seem to find a more up-to-date thread...is there a more up-to-date one or does anyone have the capability to update this one accurately?