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Specialist Expat Mortgage Broker for Overseas Investors & Residents
Expat Mortgages UK arranges UK mortgages for British expats and foreign nationals who are buying or remortgaging property from overseas, for Residential, Buy-to-Let and Holiday Let purposes. Our advisers cover the whole market, so you see the lenders that will actually lend to someone in your position.
Residential Mortgages
You work in Dubai and want a flat in Leeds. Or you are moving home after ten years in Hong Kong. Either way, most high street lenders will not look at your income. The lenders we use will.
Explore residential mortgagesBuy-to-Let Mortgages
A rental in Manchester, a job in Singapore. Lenders in this part of the market care about the rent first and your overseas pay second, and we know which ones work that way.
Explore buy-to-let mortgagesExpat Remortgages
Your fixed rate ends in March and you are not in the UK. We handle the remortgage remotely: a new rate, equity released, or a move from residential to buy-to-let.
Explore expat remortgagesAlso available for expats: HMO mortgages, holiday let mortgages and the latest expat buy to let mortgage rates.
How It Works
Call or message us
The first conversation is free. Tell us where you are paid, in which currency and what you want to buy. We work out what you could borrow and which lenders are worth approaching.
We pick the lenders
Most expat cases suit only a few lenders. We approach those, instead of sending the same application to five banks and collecting five declines.
We do the legwork
Your case manager deals with the valuer and the lender, and you hear from us by phone, email or the WiiN portal, scheduled around your own time zone.
Expat Mortgages UK: Why Specialist Broker Advice Matters
Say you moved to Australia seven years ago and need to remortgage a UK property you still own. Call a high street bank and you will probably be told they don’t deal with overseas-resident borrowers at all. That says nothing about you. It is simply a limit of what their system can assess.
Or say you are a self-employed consultant in Hong Kong, paid through your own company, with two years of HKD accounts and no UK tax return. A generalist broker will often treat that the same way as UK self-employment and ask for documents that do not exist in your market. A lender used to Hong Kong company structures asks for the right ones the first time.
Joint applications add another layer. One partner living and working in the UK, the other overseas on a US salary, is common, and not every lender will blend a UK income with a foreign one on the same application. Some will only count the overseas income at a reduced rate, others will not count it at all unless it is in a currency they already lend against. Which lender takes the case changes what the household can borrow by a meaningful amount, so this is worth raising in the first conversation, not discovering it at underwriting.
A small number of lenders do the opposite. They have teams that understand foreign payslips, overseas tax and employers they have never heard of. Each has quirks. One wants two years of accounts, another accepts only certain currencies, a third will not lend if you live in particular countries. Knowing those quirks is the whole job, and because we handle only expat and foreign national cases, we know them.
To see where expat rates sit today, read our latest UK mortgage rates page.
Discover more
Who We Help
"Expat mortgage" covers more than one situation, and which lender suits you depends on which of these you are.
If none of these quite describes you, that is fine — tell us your situation on the first call and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.
Specialist Expat Mortgages for Property Investors Worldwide
We arrange buy-to-let purchases, residential purchases and remortgages, as well as HMO mortgages and holiday let mortgages for expats. Turned down elsewhere? It happens a lot, and it usually means the wrong lender was approached. Buying a holiday let? The Holiday Let Mortgage Calculator shows what the rental income could support.
Lenders change their appetite more often than most people think. One that took Hong Kong dollar income in March may have stopped by September. We keep track, so we approach the lenders currently willing to take on a case such as yours. You can see how we have handled real situations on our expat mortgage case studies page, and our expat mortgage news covers rate and lender changes as they come up.
Discover moreWhat to Look For in an Expat Mortgage Broker
Want a rough figure before you call? The Expat Mortgage Calculator estimates what you could borrow, and the Expat Buy-to-Let Mortgage Calculator works from the rent your property earns.
Speak to a specialistUK Mortgages for Expats & Foreign Nationals Worldwide
People contact us from the Gulf, Asia, North America, Europe and Australasia. Every country page covers how lenders treat income and documents from there.
Deposit, LTV and Currency: What Actually Affects What You Can Borrow
Three factors have the biggest effect on the figure you're offered, and none of them work in isolation.
Say you earn the equivalent of £60,000 a year in AED, have a 25% deposit, and want to buy a £400,000 property. Apply a 25% haircut and one lender counts that as £45,000 of usable income; apply a 15% haircut elsewhere and it becomes £51,000. On a standard affordability multiple, that difference alone can be the gap between an approval and a decline on the exact same application. This is why two brokers quoting the same case can land on very different numbers — it usually comes down to which lenders they actually use, not who tried harder.
Exchange rate on the deposit itself matters too. A deposit held in AED, HKD or SGD moves in sterling terms between the day you decide to buy and the day you complete. Our in-house currency service, Expat FX below, is built around that timing problem.
Expat FX - Currency Transfers for Your UK Purchase
A deposit sent from dirhams or Singapore dollars can cost more than expected once the bank has added its exchange margin. Expat FX is our own currency service. It moves your deposit and completion funds at specialist rates, on a date timed to your completion, keeping the mortgage and the transfer in step.
Dedicated Expat Mortgage Advisers and Case Managers
Every adviser on our team works only on expat and foreign national mortgages. You get an adviser and a case manager from the first call until completion, with their direct contact details from the start. You speak to someone who knows your file, not a call centre.
Income is where most expat cases succeed or fail, so we start there. Our page on expat mortgage income requirements shows how lenders treat salary, self-employed profit and company income earned abroad. Tax treatment also varies from country to country. We'll raise anything relevant early on, though you should get tax advice from a qualified adviser in your own country.
Speak to a specialist
What to Expect After You Apply
An Agreement in Principle usually comes back within 24 to 48 hours of submitting income and ID. From there, three things happen roughly in parallel: the lender’s underwriter reviews your file, a valuer values the property, and your case manager follows up on whatever either one needs.
The valuation is often the step that surprises expat clients most, because it does not wait for you to be in the country — valuers assess the property itself against recent local sales, not a conversation with the buyer. Where it does slow things down is access: if the property is tenanted or you cannot arrange a viewing yourself, let your case manager know as soon as possible, so access gets sorted before it costs you time.
Most full offers take two to four weeks from application. Missing paperwork is the single biggest cause of delay on expat cases specifically, because the documents a UK lender wants are not always what your employer or bank issues by default overseas. Collecting income evidence and ID before you apply, rather than after, is the best thing you can do to keep to that two-to-four-week window.
Real-Time Status Updates via Our WiiN Client Portal
From overseas you cannot drop into an office. WiiN, our client portal, tracks your application from the moment it is submitted: the current stage, the finished tasks and anything outstanding. Open it on your phone whenever you like. If a document is needed or the lender makes a decision, WiiN sends you an email straight away, so nothing sits waiting for UK office hours.
Contact usExpat Mortgage Broker FAQs
What does an expat mortgage broker do?
A broker finds lenders that will accept your income and circumstances, applies on your behalf and deals with the lender and valuer until you complete.
The first choice of lender matters for expats, because each declined application can show on your credit file.
Can I get a UK mortgage while living abroad?
Yes. A number of lenders specialise in overseas applicants.
You do not need a UK address, a sterling salary or a recent UK credit history. Our page on whether expats can get a UK mortgage goes through eligibility in detail.
How do I choose an expat mortgage broker?
Ask four things.
Do they search the whole market? Do they handle expat cases regularly? Can they help with currency? Are they on the FCA register? Then ask who will look after your case.
How much deposit will I need?
Plan on 25% for most expat mortgages.
Returning expats with a confirmed UK return date can sometimes borrow with 15% to 20%. More deposit opens up more lenders and usually a better rate.
Does foreign currency income count?
Yes, for most major currencies, including USD, EUR, AED, SGD, HKD and AUD.
The lender converts your income into sterling and often applies a haircut, and the size of that haircut differs between lenders.
How much does an expat mortgage broker cost?
The first consultation is free.
We explain any fee before you commit.
How quickly can I get a mortgage offer?
An Agreement in Principle can arrive within 24 to 48 hours.
A full offer usually takes two to four weeks. Missing paperwork causes most delays, so collect your income evidence and ID before you start.
Can a foreign national with no UK ties get a mortgage?
Yes. You do not need British citizenship or UK residency history to buy UK property.
The lender pool is smaller than for a British expat with a UK credit history. Expect to show source of funds for your deposit in more detail, and plan for a deposit at the higher end of the usual range.
What documents will I need?
Typically: ID, proof of address, 3 to 6 months of bank statements, and income evidence.
This could be payslips, an employment contract, or company accounts for self-employed and contractor income. Exactly which documents a lender wants varies, which is another reason the right lender match matters before you start collecting paperwork.
Can I remortgage a UK property I already own while living abroad?
Yes. Moving abroad does not force you onto a different product automatically.
It does narrow which lenders will remortgage you, and some will not offer their best rates to an overseas-resident borrower on an existing residential property. It is worth reviewing this before your current deal ends, not after.
