“Expat mortgage” describes two different products, and searching for one gets you the other. The most common version is a UK buy-to-let for a Briton who has moved abroad. The other is finance for a property outside the UK. They point in opposite directions, and applying to the wrong lender wastes weeks.
This guide is about the second one: you are British, buying in Spain, Portugal, France or the UAE.
The quick answers
- Which product do I need? If the property is abroad, a lender in that country — not a UK expat buy-to-let.
- Will my UK bank lend on a house in Spain? No — not the high street and not the international arms. We checked each one.
- How much deposit? Generally 30 to 40%, plus purchase taxes that cannot be borrowed.
- Does my UK credit file help? Not as a score. It may be requested as a document.
- Does Brexit change anything? Little for the mortgage; more for the paperwork and the time you can stay.
- What gets it done? A bank in the destination country. Every completed Spanish purchase through Upscore was financed by a Spanish bank.
Which expat mortgage do you actually need?
Ask one question first: where is the property? Everything follows from that, and the search results do not sort it for you.
| You live abroad, buying in the UK | You live in the UK, buying abroad | |
|---|---|---|
| Common name | Expat mortgage, expat buy-to-let | Overseas mortgage, international mortgage |
| Who lends | Skipton International, Suffolk Building Society, Family Building Society, NatWest International, Barclays International Banking, Santander International | A bank in the destination country. No UK lender covers Spain or Portugal |
| Security | UK property | Foreign property |
| The hard part | Proving foreign income to a UK lender | Cash, and a document list in another language |
Four of the lenders that rank most visibly for “expat mortgage” sit in the left column. If your property is in the Algarve they are not options — not because they would decline you, but because their product is not for that. Which lenders actually lend on property abroad sorts the lists out.
Will a UK bank lend on a property abroad?
No, and we checked every lender that ranks for the term in August 2026. Barclays International Banking is headed “UK mortgages for international citizens”. Santander International states “property location: England and Wales”. Skipton, Suffolk, Family Building Society and NatWest International are all UK security. Every one of them lends on UK property.
HSBC Expat is the one that comes closest, and it does not lend either — it refers you, and only “as long as we already offer HSBC personal banking there.” HSBC’s own Spanish site says it does not offer personal banking in Spain, so the referral cannot reach Spain or Portugal. The exception is the UAE, where HSBC’s local arm lends to non-residents at up to 60% of value.
The reason is legal as much as commercial: a UK lender would need to repossess under Spanish or Portuguese law, and the standard UK mortgage is not built for that. Nor is such a loan regulated the way a UK residential mortgage is — check what a firm is authorised to do on the FCA register before sharing financial details. Which lenders actually lend on property abroad goes lender by lender.
What does a local bank need from a British applicant?
Passport and a local tax number — an NIE in Spain, an NIF in Portugal — six months of statements from every account, three to six months of payslips or two to three years of accounts, your SA302 or P60, every existing debt payment wherever it sits, a UK credit report, and sworn translations of the income and tax documents.
Two items cause most of the delay: the tax number, because a non-resident usually needs a representative to obtain it, and the translations, which cannot start until the documents are final. The full list by market is in mortgages in Spain for non-residents.
Does your UK credit history count?
Your score does not travel. Your file can, because the bank asks you to bring it.
Spain, Portugal, France and Italy do not use credit scores — Spain’s system records loans and defaults rather than producing a rating, and a first-time British buyer comes back empty on both the Bank of Spain’s CIRBE and the private defaults register. Empty is the good result, and there is nothing to build beforehand.
What surprises people is the other half: a credit report from where you live is a standard item on the non-resident document list. The bank cannot pull it, so it asks you — and reads it for undeclared debt and past defaults. The 800-plus score on the front page carries no weight; an unpaid account on page four does.
How much deposit will you need, and what limits it?
Plan on cash rather than a percentage, because the percentage hides the taxes.
Non-resident lending in Spain and Portugal generally runs at 60 to 70% of the lower of price or valuation, against 80% for residents — so 30 to 40% deposit, plus 10 to 13% in purchase taxes and fees in Spain and 8 to 10% in Portugal, none of which can be added to the loan. And because the loan is calculated on the lower of price and the bank’s valuation, a low valuation increases the cash you need without reducing what you pay.
In Upscore’s Spanish applications from British residents, the median loan-to-value requested is 75% and 56.8% ask to borrow more than 70% of the price (n=437). That gap is the most common reason an application stalls, and it is arithmetic rather than credit.
Existing debt is not the disqualifier people assume: British applicants who already carry debt complete at 1.03% (n=390), because carrying a mortgage usually means owning an asset. What closes files is the ratio — across Upscore’s Spanish applications, among applicants whose housing costs already took more than 35% of their income, none completed a purchase (n=333).
What has Brexit actually changed?
Not your ability to buy. There is no restriction on British citizens owning property in Spain, Portugal or France, and no bank treats a British applicant as ineligible on nationality — the UK government’s guidance on buying property abroad covers the legal side.
What changed is the paperwork and the time you can stay: British citizens are third-country nationals for immigration, and there is an extra layer on the tax side — see selling property abroad for the exit. And Spain’s proposed measure on non-EU buyers has not been enacted, so any page treating it as current law is wrong.
“I bought an apartment about 4 years ago and had to do some shopping to find the best deal. The options were rather limited because non-residents won’t have a paycheck they can get a hold on or any other assets they can go after if something goes wrong.”
— r/ExpatFIRE, Non resident mortgage in Spain?
Which route actually completes?
Across the 2,045 British buyers in the Upscore pipeline, every completed purchase in Spain was financed by a Spanish bank — Sabadell in eight cases, CaixaBank in four, UCI in one. None went through a British lender.
Thirteen completions indicates direction rather than a precise share, and Upscore works with local banks, so our dataset is shaped by that: of the files reaching us none close with a UK lender, which is not the same as UK lenders never closing.
The second pattern matters more for what you do next. British buyers who have identified a specific property complete at 3.68%, against 0.29% for those still weighing options before they start looking (n=163 and n=346) — nearly thirteen times. Knowing your range early is useful; narrowing to an actual property is the step that changes the result.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a mortgage abroad while living in the UK?
Yes, usually from a bank in the country where the property is. Your UK high-street bank will not lend against foreign property; a few UK international arms will, within narrow criteria.
How far back do lenders look at my finances?
Six months of statements and two years of tax returns, with three to six months of payslips. Our FAQ on how far back mortgage lenders look covers what they check for.
Can I remortgage my UK home to buy abroad instead?
Yes, and it is common for people who own outright or nearly so. It converts a mortgage on a foreign property into one on the house you live in — a different risk, not a worse one, but make it a deliberate choice.
How long does it take?
Across Upscore’s completed purchases the median is 4.7 months from first enquiry to completion, with a wide spread. Bank choice affects it materially.
Will I pay a higher rate as a non-resident?
Usually a higher margin rather than a different product. What moves it most is how much of the price you are borrowing — see Spanish mortgage rates for non-residents.
The bottom line
Sort out which product you need first — the property’s location decides it, not yours. If the property is abroad, the lender is almost certainly in that country.
Then work the two numbers that decide it: the full cash requirement including the taxes that cannot be borrowed, and your monthly commitments against your income. Neither involves your credit score.
Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks in Spain, Portugal or the UAE will approve your profile. Free, under fifteen minutes.
