Mortgage without ILR?

RBS told me....

Well as much as that sucks for you, it's great news for me!  Thanks for letting me know. 

Well as much as that sucks for you, it's great news for me!  Thanks for letting me know.  

 
Good luck!!! Fingers crossed for you!!!


I figure at least it now gives me time to save up for a nice deposit  

My husband and I are both USC. My husband is here on work permit and I am his dependent. We were able to get a mortgage 2.5 years ago from Kent Reliance Building Society. They told us that they will give you a mortgage as long as you have at least two years left on your work permit. I'm not sure what they would do in your situation, but you might give them a try.

If I remembered correctly, we used a mortgage broker and they found us a company that would lend to us in our situation. The mortgage company paid the broker's fee.

See I think it'd be worth going to an independent mortgage broker (unless a person is so inclined to do the research themselves) to make sure you find not only a) a place that is willing to lend in your circumstances, but also b) the best deal that you can get.

The news about RBS is great, but I'd still definitely shop around!

Since the visa situation wasn't ever an issue with us (and now that I'm a UKC too, it's no longer a concern at all), my husband just does his own research by keeping his eyes on what are published as the most competitive rates out there...  Well he even did his own spreadsheet with formulas & all that jazz (cos he's a geek!) with what the monthly payment would be on the interest rate available, duration, fees for switching, if there are extra charges for things such as solicitor costs or offers cashback...and then what that all works out to in terms of the net monthly payment.  

I don't think he's done much with it for a year or more though, because we're on such a sweet deal right now (obtained pre-credit crunch) - we'd have to look long and hard to find anything better, and probably come up empty-handed on a better deal being offered right now.

The news about RBS is great, but I'd still definitely shop around!

We'll still shop around, but it's nice to know there's a fall back plan in case the FLR/ILR thing turns out to be a major stumbling block.

Thanks everyone for the advice and good wishes. 

We did work with Savilles for a while as my job paid for it (and they are good) but ended up doing something on our own (DH is a huge researcher...but it took hours).

Two stories:

1) Many years ago we sold one house (where we had a small mortgage with a fringe building society) and bought a larger one. Barclays refused me a mortgage ("we don't lend to diplomats"). A friend took me to lunch with a director of Midland Bank (as it then was). The next week I had a mortgage.

2) Three years ago we refinanced with Barclays. That was when they were making liars' loans. We actually got three mortgages, but Barclays would only give us one for our personal residence. For the other they referred us to Savills mortgage brokers. As it happens, all three loans were tracker mortgages, which means the current rate is 0.5% or close to that.

Although the kind of offers being made three years ago aren't to be had today, mortgage brokers still are the best bet when you've been turned down elsewhere. They get access to a different line of mortgages and can get you in sometimes even with a lender who's turned you down before.

But they're not free.

Actually, we found that the best deals to be had for first time buyers where only obtainable directly with the bank. We spoke with two mortgage brokers and neither had anything close to what we could get directly with the banks. We've also had friends who are buying confirm the same.

I'm sure it has a lot to do with the current market.

I know this is a bit late in the game, but in case anyone else is interested, I recently qualified for a mortgage with Emigrant Direct as a Tier 1 migrant.  They require 25% deposit for their mortgages (all their mortgages), but the interest rates are pretty good.  They told me that they would take anyone with at least a year left on their visa.  I also talked to the bankers at Barclays and they said they could offer their regular mortgages to me through their offshore division.  I bank with Barclays, so I don't know if they do this for everyone, and I had a hard time doing research on what all this would entail.

Good luck to everyone!

Thanks for the info, mungo!

Hello,

I am on FLR, my husband is a UKC, I was here for about 6 months when my husband and I successfully applied for a mortgage in November 2009, during the credit crunch.  However we did have a substantial deposit because he sold his flat, and I believe that helped us.  The infuriating factor is that with FLR I cannot insure against redundancy, so if I lose my job (and I earn more than him), we lose our house.  They said no immigrant can get redundancy insurance in this country!  We use HSBC in Kingston.

Has anyone managed to get redundancy insurance against a mortgage?

We had no luck with getting a mortgage in 2006/07 when I was still on FLR and before the market collapsed. Though we had no outstanding debt, our deposit was around 15% which does sound a bit lower than what others have been told was needed to get a mortgage on FLR.  After being turned down by one building society, we went through a financial advisor who also did mortgage brokering.  Our advisor then got rejected by another building society, even after being told repeatedly during the application process that my immigration status wasn't a factor in our app, but in the end that was the reason.  I think she complained to the FSA about them for misleading her and wasting all of our time.

In the end, my mother loaned us the money to buy the house outright.  We should get a mortgage at some point, so this is good info to have, and I'm a UKC now so at least my immigration status won't be a factor.  Good luck camoscato!

I know this is a bit late in the game, but in case anyone else is interested, I recently qualified for a mortgage with Emigrant Direct as a Tier 1 migrant.  They require 25% deposit for their mortgages (all their mortgages), but the interest rates are pretty good.  They told me that they would take anyone with at least a year left on their visa.

mungo, can you provide a link to Emigrant Direct for our benefit? The only Emigrant Direct I could find on the web is an online bank in the US. Thanks.

I was actually just reading this after leaving it for ages--it was actually ING  Direct.  SO embarassed .  I had an Emigrant Direct account in the States and got the names confused.  Ooops!