Skilled Worker Mortgage Secured for London High-Rise Flat

A couple recently approached us looking to buy their dream flat in London. They were foreign nationals living and working in the UK and earning good wages.

One was an Australian national living in the UK on a skilled worker visa for their work as a contractor. And their partner was a French marketing manager living in the UK as a dependent of their partner.

The Scenario

They had their hearts set on a high-rise apartment in central London valued at £480k. Unfortunately, they’d been rejected by every lender they’d approached because they weren’t UK nationals.

They were then directed to a major UK lender they’d been told would be open to lending to foreign nationals but were rejected due to adverse credit.

So, it was imperative for our team to get this right.

Despite substantial earnings, it can be difficult for foreign nationals to secure a mortgage from high-street lenders – they're not set up to process this type of application. Their prowess is churning out large volumes of standard UK mortgages for the everyday applicant, not moulding bespoke solutions that require a little extra vetting and some specialist underwriters.

Not only this, but the building of the flat our clients were looking at had a history of cladding issues and was close to a train line, which lenders don’t like. This meant our broker had a razor-thin margin of lenders who would be open to these circumstances.

The Solution

They had only two lenders to choose from, and one had already been approached previously.

However, our broker had a pre-established relationship with the second lender. He knew that this bank had a specialist team who could navigate the complexities of our client’s circumstances.

It was this expert knowledge and dedication to getting results that secured our clients the mortgage they needed.

Our broker spent a week working with a surveyor to make sure that the application didn’t fail on account of the past cladding issues, and got additional confirmation that the lender was happy with the train lines nearby before he pushed through the application.

The clients also wanted a 2-year fixed mortgage, but at the time of the application, there were no products available. So, our broker kept a close eye on the market and jumped at the first 2-year fix product that came up. We secured a 90% LTV mortgage with a 2-year fix – exactly what our client was after but had been unable to secure themselves.

Our clients were able to buy their first property together, and we helped make sure their journey towards homeownership was a smooth one.