Data released today for May revealed expat re-mortgages were up by 11% while refinancing with additional borrowing increased by 6.4%.

The spike in expat re-mortgaging has been attributed the uncertainty after the coronavirus struck fear into borrowers.

Future stability

It is not surprising that re-mortgaging numbers have increased, pressing home the message that expats simply want or have stability in uncertain market conditions generated by firstly Brexit then Covid-19.

Competition

Others thought the rise was also attributable to strong competition between lenders who were keen to attract business. Re-mortgaging is also consistent with borrowers opting for cheap fixed rates in the main.

Lenders are keen to lend and hardly a day goes by without another cutting its rates to attract business. Strong expat mortgage figures are mainly down to the re-mortgage market, with competition between lenders aiming to attract as much business as possible underpinning performance.

Expat buy-to-let

The data also provided further evidence of the challenges facing the expat buy-to-let market, with this area of lending being the only sector in which figures fell during May.
UK Finance revealed 3.5% fewer buy-to-let home purchases took place during May compared to the same month in 2019.

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