The Mortgage Explorer Blog

We were just about to close one winter evening in 2005 when the telephone rang. It was a Canadian nurse living and working in London. She was married to an Australian  IT consultant. Both had a working permit expiring in 3 years’ time and were renting an apartment, at the time.

The lady was seeking a deposit to buy a flat in downtown Vancouver but would also want a mortgage. The husband had an unencumbered flat in Sydney, Australia. The nurse explained that she had contacted every lender she could imagine in London but had no luck. They all said that they could not comply because she had no permanent residence in this country. She had found The Mortgage Explorer on the web and she felt it was her last resort.
What followed may sound extraordinary to the general public but it was quite simple really.
We dismissed the working permit, concentrated on the salaries they both earned. We next applied for 2 mortgage agreements in principle from an offshore lender. One mortgage was in Australian Dollars as it related to the flat in Sydney. This was the equivalent to the amount required as deposit in Vancouver. The other was the mortgage for the balance of the purchase price on the Vancouver flat. This was in Canadian Dollars.

To some it may seem quite sensible to use the respective currency for where the two flats were located. We could have also got the two mortgages in Sterling as both earned in that currency. However we opted for the previous format because both flats were self financing through getting rented out. The respective income was in Australian Dollars in Sydney and Canadian Dollars in Vancouver. For good measure though, we ensured that there was at least 2 free currency switches annually, they could turn to, should there be a punitive fluctuation in currencies, at their expense.

The whole process took 10 weeks to complete and the happy couple could not believe that they had achieved their dream. In fact the young lady commented that if ever we were to write an article about these transactions we should entitle it : ‘Mother Flat in Sydney makes Baby flat in Vancouver’. Voila

The Canadian Property Market Has Been Boosted In Anticipation Of The Winter Olympic In 2010.

Canada has a mature and well regulated property market which has flourished for many years. Despite the global recession which has affected many major countries the Canadian property market has remained healthy. In most developed economies home prices are going backwards, whereas prices remain healthy in Canada. The Western provinces of Alberta and British Columbia have proven to be popular with foreign investors, whilst major cities of Montreal and Toronto also remain attractive for property investment.

Canada’s vast natural resources play a major part in sustaining its current and future economic growth and provide confidence for non residents to invest.

Due the cautious approach to lending that Canada has adopted over the years, it now offers a stable financial climate. For those seeking finance mortgage lenders provide loans up to 70% of the property value to non residents.

There is a huge variety of properties in Canada, from apartments to large detached properties with large plots. City properties tend to be apartments, for which demand outstrips supply in many large Canadian cities. Montreal, for example with its university at the heart of the city, provides a high demand for rental properties. This can only benefit investors