deVere Mortgages: Huge demand from overseas buyers in Q1 2015

deVere Mortgages revealed last week that three out of four enquiries during the first three months of 2015 were from overseas property buyers.

As reported in The Telegraph, deVere Mortgages, operated by deVere United Kingdom, comments that most of these buyers were from Russia, Asia, the Middle East and the U.S., with London the most sought-after area in the country.

deVere Group’s International Investment Strategist, Tom Elliott explains the reasons for this: “Currency weakness against the dollar is making Britain relatively less expensive than it previously has been and London becomes cheaper than other elite cities for international property portfolio investors.

“For this reason, interest has been particularly strong from expatriates or nationals from Russia, the Far East, the Middle East and the U.S.”

These potential buyers are making the most of the economic recovery and also restricted new builds due to stringent planning regulations.  It’s now common practice, for example, for university cities to sell off-plan student accommodation blocks to wealthy parents in China for their children to reside in whilst studying in the UK.

Another factor to consider is that overseas buyers are not too concerned should the property market in the British capital drop slightly, as the fact that buying a house worth several millions could provide British nationality, meaning they could relocate to the United Kingdom relatively easily should they wish to leave their home countries.  Anonymity when purchasing property in the UK is also attractive to foreign buyers.

Therefore, as a result of increasing demand for mortgage enquires from overseas buyers, which continues to rise, deVere Mortages became a standalone brand in January.  However, deVere United Kingdom’s Head of Financial Planning, Kevin White is somewhat surprised by the high number of enquiries so far this year: “We knew demand would always be strong from expats – hence the launch of the standalone division – because of the distinct investment advantages and because expats, typically, have a higher level of disposable income than those residing in the UK.

“However, we have been pleasantly surprised by the high level of enquires so soon from our 80,000 mainly expatriate clients.  These individuals are increasingly aware that they are typically deemed as ‘high risk’ by UK lenders and will therefore need mortgage advice from industry experts who have established relationships with the relevant lenders.”

We forecast the volume of mortgage business in the United Kingdom is set to rise by a staggering 300 per cent by the end of this year.  And we’ve started the year as we mean to go on.

Working with over 200 UK-based and global lenders, deVere Mortgages assists UK residents and overseas clients in property purchasing and re-financing.  The brand also specialises in buy-to-let opportunities, equity release, re-mortgaging overseas properties and tax optimisation from rental income.

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