$ mortgage on a UK property?

[mogul]

Simple question - is this possible?

With US rates significantly lower than ours and looking like they'll stay that way for a while, can I re-mortgage my house and commercial property with a US bank at their rates

I'm not talking a high LTV here, so a sensible mortgage would be on offer.

[jazzybee]

The interest rate maybe lower, but mortgage rates are still about the same. With the current weakness of the dollar and weakening property market in the UK, it could be a very poor decision. The opposite maybe a better option. Sell up here, get a £ UK mortgage, exchange to dollars, buy up a bargain foreclosed auction property in the US, and rent that out. Use that money to rent out a place in the UK. All in my humble opinion, of course

[mogul]

jazzybee said:

The interest rate maybe lower, but mortgage rates are still about the same. With the current weakness of the dollar and weakening property market in the UK, it could be a very poor decision. The opposite maybe a better option. Sell up here, get a £ UK mortgage, exchange to dollars, buy up a bargain foreclosed auction property in the US, and rent that out. Use that money to rent out a place in the UK. All in my humble opinion, of course

Thanks for your reply.

I wondered if it was as simple as getting a mortgage from the local US bank based in London at their current US base rate secured on my property. I assume they don't use the base rate for mortgage borrowing then?

It was food for thought whilst watching how really rich people get rich on tele!

[scotal]

jazzybee said:

The interest rate maybe lower, but mortgage rates are still about the same. With the current weakness of the dollar and weakening property market in the UK, it could be a very poor decision. The opposite maybe a better option. Sell up here, get a £ UK mortgage, exchange to dollars, buy up a bargain foreclosed auction property in the US, and rent that out. Use that money to rent out a place in the UK. All in my humble opinion, of course

sorry fella, but your humble opinion won't work.....

If you sell up here, then you will have nothing to secure a Uk mortgage against, therefore you wont be able to buy a US property.

To the OP there are foreign currency mortgages available in the UK, if you are part paid in the currency of the mortgage you want (so in this case USD) thus avoiding FX risk on your part, or if you are prepared to pay large ongoing fees you can get a managed currency mortgage, that will be moved around to get the best combo of Fxrate and borrowing rate for you. You will need a mortgage of over £500k equivalent though.

There are not at the moment USD or EUR denominated mortgages for UK properties. There were some LIBOR backed mortgages, utilising eith CHF of EUR LIBOR, but these had a hefty margin on them to justify the lenders risk, and as such they lent pretty much at parity with UK mainstream lending rates.

[XJSJohn]

perfectly possible, but better to look at other countries / currancies for your morgage.

Japanese Yen Morgages have been rather good of late, can get one of them at about 2% (or at least used to, not sure what they are like with the current global *ahem* correction )

[black1]

skipton building society do a us libor mortage try them