Fall in Sterling leads to increase in British expats looking to invest in UK property

Skipton International has had an 80% increase in buy-to-let mortgage applications from British expats in the past two months following the fall of the pound after the Brexit vote.

British expats are taking advantage of the fall in Sterling to invest overseas savings in property back in the UK.

Skipton International launched buy-to-let mortgages in 2014 as a response to the difficulties British expat customers faced obtaining a mortgage on UK investment properties. Since then, Skipton has lent over £100m to British expats around the world and completed over 500 mortgages.

Nigel Pascoe, Director of Lending, Skipton International, said: “We have seen a massive increase in enquiries from British expats in the months after Brexit, which accelerated notably since the value of the pound dropped substantially. On some days we have seen up to four times the number of queries we were seeing before Brexit.

“Many British expats are viewing the devaluation of Sterling as a good opportunity to buy properties in the UK, bringing back foreign currency savings. UK property is typically a long term investment for British expats; they can service the mortgage through the rental payments, while enjoying capital growth on a property.”

Earlier this year, Skipton opened up their mortgages to self-employed applicants and also expanded their eligible country list, enabling even more British expats to access expat mortgages.

Skipton International also offers a range of offshore savings accounts, with competitive interest rates, for UK expats in over 100 countries. The Guernsey-registered bank won the Moneyfacts Award for Best Offshore Account Provider 2016, a category it was also Commended and Highly Commended for in 2014 and 2015. 

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