Case study
How we helped a Tanzanian national living overseas refinance his former UK home as a buy-to-let.
Case summary:
Client type: Tanzanian national with UK indefinite leave to remain
Property value: £425,000
Mortgage required: £230,000
Loan-to-value: Approximately 54%
Country of residence: Tanzania
Employment: Employed by a local Tanzanian company
Income currency: Tanzanian shillings (TZS)
Mortgage required: £230,000
The client
Our client was a Tanzanian national living and working in Tanzania. He had previously lived in the UK, where he had obtained indefinite leave to remain and owned a home.
Having moved overseas, he had retained the property as a buy-to-let. His employment was with a local Tanzanian company, and his salary was paid in Tanzanian shillings.
The situation
The client wanted to refinance his former home, borrowing £230,000 against a property valued at £425,000.
Although the borrowing represented approximately 54% of the property’s value, the combination of his nationality, overseas residence and employment income significantly restricted the available lenders.
We needed a lender whose criteria could accommodate all three.
The nationality challenge
Many expat mortgage options are designed for British nationals living abroad. Our client was a Tanzanian national, so an overseas lending proposition did not automatically mean he would qualify.
His previous UK residence was important. We identified a lender whose criteria allowed it to consider a non-British applicant living overseas with indefinite leave to remain obtained during his time in the UK.
This provided a route forward that would not have been available through lenders requiring British nationality.
The residency challenge
Tanzania was a further obstacle. Very few of the expat lenders available to us would consider an applicant living there.
It was therefore not enough to find a lender comfortable with our client’s nationality and immigration status. That lender also needed to accept Tanzania as his current country of residence.
The overlap between these requirements left a much narrower range of options than the relatively modest loan-to-value might suggest.
The income challenge
Our client worked for a local Tanzanian company and was paid in Tanzanian shillings.
Although his salary was background income for a buy-to-let application, its acceptability still mattered. A lender willing to consider an overseas borrower might nevertheless be unable to accept their employer or the currency in which they were paid.
We needed one comfortable with locally earned Tanzanian income, alongside the client’s nationality and country of residence.
Our solution
We matched the case to a lender able to accommodate the full combination of circumstances: a Tanzanian national living in Tanzania, with UK indefinite leave to remain, employed locally and paid in Tanzanian shillings.
The client’s previous UK residence and indefinite leave to remain were central to establishing eligibility. We also established that his country of residence and employment income could be accepted for the buy-to-let application.
This allowed us to arrange the required £230,000 mortgage against the £425,000 property.
Our clients’ outcome
Our client successfully refinanced his former UK home as a buy-to-let while continuing to live and work in Tanzania.
The mortgage met his borrowing requirement at approximately 54% loan-to-value. By finding a lender whose criteria accommodated every part of his circumstances, we secured a solution for a case that fell outside much of the expat lending market.
Frequently asked questions.
Every client and every mortgage is different, but there are some questions we are asked regularly.
From affordability and deposits to complex income, expat mortgages and specialist property finance, our FAQs explain how different lenders may approach different circumstances.
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