Home owning with a spouse visa

Hi all,

About a year ago, I posted a question on here to find out whether owning a house and acquiring a mortgage would be possible on a spouse visa.

Well, I’m excited to say that it is!!! Today my husband and I were approved for a mortgage via NatWest at a very good interest rate of 1.97%.

We do have a few things that gave us a bit of an advantage, though:
- my husband and I are both government employees. I’m with NHS and my husband with the local council. Therefore, we have great sick leave cover if we ever require it. Mortgage lenders look at this on your application.
- we were able to supply a 15% deposit... a lot of lenders wanted 25% due to my visa, but happy to report that NatWest are generally a more flexible and generous lender
- credit scores. My husband has excellent credit, but i had to build my credit from the bottom up due to only having moved here 1.5 year ago. I got a credit card through vanquis last Feb and that allowed more than enough time to build a sufficient credit score.
- get a mortgage broker!!! They do all the tedious and stressful stuff so you don’t have to.
- I’m pretty young (25) and so is my husband, so NatWest was able to trust that we’d pay off the loan in full before one of us kicks the bucket!

I think that about covers it! Lemme know if you have any questions, happy to help.


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Good for you! Congratulations on your new home! 

Thank you!!


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Thank you for this info, mrsstealyotaco!  Very useful. 

My spouse and I are hoping to buy a house soon as well, so we've been thinking about a lot of these things.  Do you have any recommendations for a mortgage broker?  We have been in contact with one, but we are both losing faith in him a little tbh. 

Have you tried your bank?  We found HSBC gave us a good mortgage

Have you tried your bank?  We found HSBC gave us a good mortgage

We haven't yet!  While we might go this route, we thought given the smaller number of lenders who would even consider lending to someone without ILR/citizenship that it might be a better approach to go through a mortgage broker who could compare lots of different lenders. 

That's good to know about HSBC, though.  My partner banks with them, so that might be something we look into. 

We went with HSBC when we bought our house, too.  They gave us the best rate, and the whole thing went smoothly from our end.  The seller's end was a nightmare, but our side was all sorted within 2 weeks of our offer being accepted.

We went with HSBC when we bought our house, too.  They gave us the best rate, and the whole thing went smoothly from our end.  The seller's end was a nightmare, but our side was all sorted within 2 weeks of our offer being accepted.

Nice!  Was this before you had ILR?  It looks like we might have to put up a 25% deposit, but unfortunately we only have about 15% at the moment.  Guess we might just need to sit tight and save for a bit longer 

Hi! Thanks, glad you found it helpful.

Maybe this is a red herring but HSBC gave us a terrible interest rate as well and said we also had to provide 25% (this was probably a year and a half ago now). Unfortunately because of covid and the uncertain economic times, several other lenders may have also increased their down payment amount to 20-25% just from what I’ve been reading.

HOWEVER this shouldn’t discourage you from seeking a good mortgage broker.

We’re based in the Highlands, so we went with cara mortgage services: https://carams.co.uk
Our broker was very responsive and was able to reassure us with every concern or question we had.
If it weren’t for our mortgage broker, the entire process would’ve been much more stressful and we wouldn’t have known natwest offered mortgages to folks who were on spouse visas (the first visa)- they also didn’t seem to mind that I had a higher income than my husband who’s a British citizen.

Not all cases are the same but it’s definitely worth finding a good broker. Luckily ours was free through a scheme offered to folks who were buying new-build houses. So I can’t comment on the fees that are typically expected from using their services (albeit that shouldn’t deter you!).


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Nice!  Was this before you had ILR?  It looks like we might have to put up a 25% deposit, but unfortunately we only have about 15% at the moment.  Guess we might just need to sit tight and save for a bit longer 

It was, but I wasn't on the mortgage, so they only used my husband's details.  We initially thought we would include me, but we hit some pushback in our early inquiries, so we decided my little bit of income wasn't really enough to help or be worth the hassle.  We qualified for enough with just my husband's salary and credit history.  We did 20% deposit.