Buying a property in Ireland in advance of coming home

Smallie8

Hi All,

Am from Ireland and currently living abroad with family but we are moving home in the next 10 months. We've found our perfect home and have an offer accepted on it but our mortgage app process isn't working as smoothly as we hoped.

We are working with an Irish Mortgage provider who have letters from our company stating that they are moving us back to our Irish office in 10mths time however they aren't satisfied by this and will only offer a buy to let mortgage at a MAXIMUM of 75%. We don't want to rent the property because we'll be coming home on a regular basis between now and the official move home date and want to stay in the property that we are buying during those visits rather than renting it.

I also understood that you can't live in your own property if you've purchased it with a buy to let mortgage?

Do you know if we took out a buy to let mortgage now could this easily be switched to an owner occupier mortgage in 10mths when we move home - any downsides to doing this?

We'll ask our mortgage providers these questions too but I want to know if anyone has had 1st hand experience with this.

Thanks for any advice you might have.

murphaph

Smallie8 wrote: »

I also understood that you can't live in your own property if you've purchased it with a buy to let mortgage?

You can live in it, but you'll be paying BTL mortgage rates for the privilege.

Smallie8 wrote: »

Do you know if we took out a buy to let mortgage now could this easily be switched to an owner occupier mortgage in 10mths when we move home - any downsides to doing this?

I don't know for sure but I suspect not and you'd have to remortgage (with the consequent legal fees) and clear the BTL mortgage with a new owner occupier one.

Perhaps a mortgage broker (Trish, Killian?) might be able to chime in for you here, especially on that second point.

Aside: do you have any possibility of getting a mortgage in your current location? If you were in Germany for example and had some property you could borrow against it at far lower rates than available in Ireland (ca. 2.8% fixed for 10 years currently available).

Trish56

Smallie8 wrote: »

Hi All,

Am from Ireland and currently living abroad with family but we are moving home in the next 10 months. We've found our perfect home and have an offer accepted on it but our mortgage app process isn't working as smoothly as we hoped.

We are working with an Irish Mortgage provider who have letters from our company stating that they are moving us back to our Irish office in 10mths time however they aren't satisfied by this and will only offer a buy to let mortgage at a MAXIMUM of 75%. We don't want to rent the property because we'll be coming home on a regular basis between now and the official move home date and want to stay in the property that we are buying during those visits rather than renting it.

I also understood that you can't live in your own property if you've purchased it with a buy to let mortgage?

Do you know if we took out a buy to let mortgage now could this easily be switched to an owner occupier mortgage in 10mths when we move home - any downsides to doing this?

We'll ask our mortgage providers these questions too but I want to know if anyone has had 1st hand experience with this.

Thanks for any advice you might have.

I'm a bit surprised by this as I got a mortgage approved recently for a couple who have been living and working in NZ for past 4 years and are coming home this year. One of the borrowers have been working for an Irish Company in their NZ office and I received a letter from the Company stating same and date due home, income etc. Got the mortgage at home loan rates.
Are you dealing with a broker or a Bank/Building Society ?