Re-mortgage at Home
This is by far and away the easiest (and may even be the cheapest) option, as well as allowing you to keep your house in the UK. Lender permitting, you could even let out your house in the UK and cover some or all of the mortgage repayments for your property overseas.
All you really need is a fairly substantial slice of unencumbered equity in the property (that is, the difference between what the property is worth and what you still owe the mortgagor). You don’t even need to demonstrate an income in the UK, as you could go through a ‘buy-to-let’-type scheme. You will also avoid any exchange risk exposure. (See ‘Understanding exchange risks’ in this chapter, for clues as to how to deal with exchange rate issues).
You should be able to borrow up to 70% of the value of the property, with an interest rate of between 1–2% or so more than a conventional mortgage (currently about 6% in total), depending on the ‘lock-in’ term you elect for. The arrangement fees will vary depending on your circumstances, but are unlikely to be more than a few hundred pounds and the arrangements can be made in a few weeks at the most, often much less. You may even be able to get an agreement in principle in a day or so, which at least would give you the comfort to get on with making an offer on any foreign property. |