Specialist mortgage lender Vida has widened its buy-to-let criteria, so that British property owners who work in Financial Action Task Force member countries around the world can get buy-to-let mortgages
Financial Action Task Force member countries include Australia, Brazil and China and there is a full list at www.fatf-gafi.org/countries/#FATF.
The Vida mortgage range is available at up to 65 per cent loan-to-value outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and 75 per cent loan-to value inside the EEA.
The maximum loan size available is £1m.
The lender will accept HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation) and multi-unit blocks.
In addition, spouses who are not British citizens can be party to the mortgage and there is no minimum income requirement.
Louisa Sedgwick, director of sales for mortgages at Vida, said the range had been offered via key distributors for a few months, and had been very popular.
She said: "We are now rolling the proposition out to the wider market in response to demand.
"Intermediaries have been telling us that our criteria-driven buy-to-let expat proposition - including niche criteria such as HMOs and multi-unit blocks and no minimum income requirements - is hard to beat."
Ryan Ewen, commercial director at specialist mortgage broker Mortgages for Expats, said that, although enquiries from foreign nationals wanting to buy in Britain had fallen fast since Brexit, there was a growth in the number of British expats wanting buy-to-let in the UK.
He said that the fastest-growing lenders in the sector were Islamic banks.
He said: "They are interested in expats, and they are fast growing and have good rates."
Chris Longhurst, buy-to-let mortgage consultant at Mortgages for Business, said: "It is good to see Vida extending its reach to FATF countries, particularly Australia where it has been difficult to help expats because of Australian restrictions on other countries promoting financial products to its residents.
"We regularly think of Vida when finding solutions for self-employed expats as many buy to let lenders prefer borrowers to be employed by multi-nationals."
rosie.murray-west@ft.com
