Mortgage for house in UK

Do UK banks give non-UK residents mortgages to buy property in the UK? Do Irish banks give mortgages to Irish residents to buy property in the UK? Problem is I'm thinking of studying in the UK and want to buy my first house there but want to have it bought before I become resident there as a student(currently working in Ireland) so that i'll actually be able to get a mortgage (I'll keep enough in my bank account to pay the mortgage until I've finished my year's study and get a job) What's the situation?

The only bank that I am aware of that give property loans in the UK from Ireland, is IIB Bank - could be that others do too! The criteria are reasonable, but from memory (normally faulty!) they will only give a fairly low loan to value - in the region of 75%

yep technically you can do it, but as stated the loan to value will be restricted to 80% with IIB. BOS is another option, not sure what their loan to value is.

In many circumstances you can get a better deal by dealing with a high-street UK bank, from here, than dealing with one of the lenders that are actually based here who charge you for the convenience of the Irish office.

We have an associated office in Lurgan who can arrange mortgages in the UK from a choice of lenders if that's of use to you.

Liam D Ferguson
www.ferga.com

Thanks for the info lads. I might look into that alright Liam as it would be a terrible pain in the neck to have to change money to euro every month to pay back my Irish lender.

To be fair, any Irish lenders offering UK mortgages do so through £Sterling, so you wouldn't have to.

How does that work with interest rates? It seems like UK providers charge nearly 2% more. Do Irish lenders charge the UK interest rate if the property is in the UK?

How does that work with interest rates? It seems like UK providers charge nearly 2% more. Do Irish lenders charge the UK interest rate if the property is in the UK?

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Yes. (For some odd reason, the bulletin board won't accept this as an answer as it's too short and less than ten characters. So I'll waffle here for a bit.)

If your loan is a Sterling one you will pay a Sterling interest rate not an ECB one. The Sterling rates are currently higher.

You're much better off getting a Sterling mortgage from a UK mortgage lender. There's a much wider choice of mortgage products available in the UK than in Ireland, with loads more lenders and loads more competition. You'll probably be able to get a mortgage arranged much more quickly, with a higher LTV than from an Irish lender and with higher income multiples applied (= higher loan amount). Don't worry too much about higher UK interest rates; Euro rates are rock bottom now - meaning they can only go up! UK rates are set to fall. The rates will probably converge within the next 3-4 years. Also remember that you can get UK tax relief against your UK mortgage interest payments.