Our Expat products are available to first time and existing landlords residing abroad, who wish to purchase or re-mortgage a Buy-To-Let property in the UK, either in their personal name or via a UK-registered Limited Company.
Who is this product suitable for?
- First Time Buyers
- First Time Landlords
- Existing landlords looking to purchase a new property or remortgage an existing property
- Landlords operating via a Limited Company
- Portfolio Landlords
Loan, Fee & Product Details
- Interest only or repayment
- Maximum loan size £3,000,000. Loans over this are priced on a bespoke basis and have restricted LTVs
- For portfolio landlords the maximum LTV INCLUDING fees is 75%
- Maximum Portfolio with Saffron of £3m (no external exposure limit)
Applicant Criteria
- The applicant must be a British Passport holder or have permanent rights to remain
- Regulated buy to let applications are accepted for individual landlords if the applicant has Sterling income.
- All documentation* not in English will need to be translated by a qualified translator - e.g Bank statements, payslips and proof of address documents.
- No country restrictions – subject to list of sanctioned countries. We will condition the offer for nomination of a UK solicitor with a minimum of 2 partners who will act for the applicant, on whom the society can serve notice in the event of default. Please note this is a requirement of an offer and we will not proceed to completion without this.
* Please see our criteria for Expat document requirements
Affordability and Income Criteria
Individual Landlords:
- 5 Year Fixed Rate - 140% of pay rate
- 2 Year Fixed Rate and Variable rates: Rental cover 140% of either pay rate +2% or 5.5% whichever is higher
- Rental Cover on debt for debt re-mortgage cases 125% of pay rate
- Regulated buy to let mortgages are based on affordability. We will not include rental received on this property towards the affordability calculation.
Limited Company landlords:
- 5 Year Fixed Rate - 125% of pay rate
- 2 Year Fixed Rate and Variable rates: Rental cover 125% of either pay rate +2% or 5.5% whichever is higher
- No minimum income for experienced landlords (minimum of 12 months experience)
- If the borrowers are inexperienced landlords, at least one applicant must meet the minimum income requirement of £25,000
Property Requirements
- Property must be let on an APT
- Rental assessment is based on occupation by one family on an unfurnished let
- Minimum energy performance rating of E on an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
- HMO applications are not currently accepted from Expat landlords.
Additional Details for Limited Company Landlords
- Personal Guarantees for total borrowing (inclusive of fees) taken from all Directors for applications exceeding 55% LTV
- All Shareholders in the Company must be named as Directors
- Maximum of 4 Directors – individual credit checks will be undertaken
- Any proposed changes to Directors during life of mortgage must be subject to our approval
- Details of all properties each Director has an ownership in (either in own name or a business name) must be provided
- Limited Companies registered in the UK only
- No time limit as to how long registered i.e. new SPV’s allowed
- Company must be set up with the principal activity of buying and holding residential investment property and used for that purpose only in line with the appropriate SIC Code
- Certificate of Incorporation to be provided
- Latest set of accounts to be provided (where the company has been set up for more than 18 months)
- Regulated or Consumer buy to let not accepted