No mortgage please, we're British!

In one of the many quirks thrown up by Brexit, British nationals living in the EU may find they have issues landing a UK mortgage. 

Under the EU rules in place until 31st December, countries within the bloc were able to 'passport' their financial services into other member states on the basis of 'equivalence'. From 1st January, the UK no longer enjoys this status.

As a consequence, Amsterdam has overtaken London as Europe's largest share trading centre and hundreds of billions of assets have been moved by major investment banks to Frankfurt and Paris. A number of high street banks including HSBC, Santander, Lloyds and Barclays have closed accounts of EU residents.

A small matter in the larger scheme of things, but EU residents - including British expats - may find it more difficult to source a UK mortgage.

This will be an annoyance for those looking to invest in UK property, but may have more serious consequences for others who are approaching the end of fixed rate mortgages. Instead of being able to remortgage to a new fixed rate, they could find themselves automatically reverting to their existing lender's variable rate, normally at much higher interest costs.

It seems that there is no immediate solution, with borrowers having to wait for the UK and the EU to thrash out a financial services deal.

One or two mortgage brokers have suggested that they may be able to help - if you would like to find one, contact us here and we'll try to put you in touch.