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

France, through a combination of very low interest rates, attractive property prices and a growing economy, has become an increasingly attractive investment option.

Very stable market conditions based on a mature financial system have given a stronger appetite for lending to foreign investors.

France, a more established destination currently attracts the smart investor who no longer simply looks for a swift return but to where security lies for a longer term investment.

Currently refinancing a property in France offers a particularly attractive proposition. Whilst French property market has declined less than other countries such as the United States and Spain, the Euro has strengthened against a number of other major currencies: Sterling and the Dollar – here lies a very attractive proposition.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND EXPERT GUIDANCE ON THE FRENCH PROPERTY MARKET & MORTGAGE FACILITIES, PLEASE CALL THE MORTGAGE EXPLORER ON +44 1425 627511 OR COMPLETE THE CALL BACK REQUEST FORM LOCATED THROUGHOUT THIS WEBSITE