Questions about obtaining a UK mortgage with Polish girlfriend.

Hi there,

Just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jonny, i am English and have recently got engaged to my beautiful Polish girlfriend. We met through work whilst she was living in Poland and i was living in UK. Things moved on and we have now been living in UK together with my parents since January 2007. We are now engaged to be married (in Poland) probably early 2010.

The reason i have joined this forum is to ask some advise from any Polish people who have arrived in UK within last 2 years and are in a similar situation to myself and my fiance.

My main question is "Has anybody applied for UK mortgage in a similar way to myself (1 polish, 1 english in relationship).... and more to the point. How did they get on???

I am becoming increasingly infuriated with how my fiance gets treated whenever we apply for anything concerning the Credit System. We have only just managed to get her a full UK bank account, and even that is only because it is a joint account. My worry is that we will not be able to obtain a mortgage next year even though we live comfortably and will have approx £20000 deposit by next year.

I would love to hear from anybody who is in a similar situation or has any advise.

Best regards,

Jonny.

I have no idea but maybe other people can help you.

Hey Jonny, I found myself in a similar situation, but as a Polish male, recently married to a Scottish female. When we went to buy a house in 2006 we were engaged, and we honesty had not trouble at all getting a mortgage. (from the bank of scotland) However, before getting the house, and sometimes now, I struggle to obtain credit.....getting a house is a completely different situation - you dont pay the mortgage, they reposses your home. When we spoke to the bank manager he said that this reason can actually make it easier to buy a house than get a credit card! I think the fact that you will have such a large deposit can only go in your favour too.

Hope this helps.....

Thankyou Danny, appreciate the reply.
I was thinking the same thing actually about the mortgage situation although I do think it will be much harder than back in 2006 due to the recent credit crunch, but that's just the same for everybody nowadays whether Polish, English etc....

If you don't mind, would you also have any advise on my Fiance getting a credit score, as i think she still has none. How did you start out when you came to this country?

Many thanks,

Jonny

No bother Johnny. I still have trouble with my credit score, and I sometimes struggle to get finance....but I'm not so sure whether thats to do with my nationalty as my wife sometimes has trouble too - and neither of us have any bad credit. The bank of scotland has an ultimate award account which we both have, and you pay 10 pounds per month for.....apparantly this can build your credit score (or so the bank told us) and getting a contract mobile phone, and making sure its paid each month on time can help.

To be honest though, the advise I was given by the bank was to try for a mortgage first....and if you are not successful initially, they should be able to give you some advise on what to do. You could always go to the bank now, and they are able to tell you after a half hour meeting whether you would be eligible for a mortgage, and how much they could offer you. In Scotland, this offer will remain for 6 months, before you would havto start the process again. If they say that you both would be entitled to a mortgage, then you can stop worrying.....if they say you are not entitled then at least you will have a year to build upon your rating!

I really hope that this makes sense, and it helps!

Many thanks again for the reply. I think we'll try and maybe get a store card or something to start with and pay it off over a few months. Then will try something bigger. I've got fingers crossed that by next year we'll be ok. :)

I'm surprised it's so difficult for Poles to get bank accounts over here. Don't the Natwest and Lloyds TSB even have Polish speaking branches ????

It depends on many things, not just the nationality.. how long you have been here, if you can provide a stable address for some years.. example a friend or relative who has been here for longer and what your line of work is. My partner opened a business bank account and got credit card etc. shortly after arriving in the UK and that was before Poland entered the EU.. but he had friends here who provided an address that they had been at for some years and were able to act as a guarantor. Maybe things are different now with the current credit crunch, but if you are both working and have a joint account I cant see why you couldnt get a mortgage, especially with your bank. Good luck.

I think for anyone in the UK, a mortgage would be a very dangerous investment at the moment.

What are peoples' thoughts about the forecasted 25% increase in UK house prices over the next few years, as bandied about in the newspapers over the last few days?

Personally I think now is a great time to buy, definitely for the first time buyer anyway, so long as you can secure a mortgage. When prices come down, they have to go up again.. not sure whether 25% is realistic as an increase, but who can say.

I'm planning to get on the property market in the next 6 months.

Anything is possible in the property market - lack of housing stock and rising population will have an impact on prices when the market becomes boyant again. Question is who will be able to afford them, since salaries are not increasing at the same pace.

Wht are your thoughts on the American market - Ive been looking at one area in particular where property prices are LOW and rental values comparitively high. Also plenty of potential room for capital growth Seems like a much better investment opportunity than anything Europe has to offer

I think any market which has a potential for investment with a good return is worth looking at, you have the added bonus of knowing someone in the US who can at least offer some 'on the ground' advice, the only advantage of buying property in Europe is that you are close to it - sort out any problems that arise, buying in the USA doesn't offer the same convenience.

I just read this very briefly this morning. I understand it is a five year forecast and they are apparently forecasting price drops 2008/9 and 2009/2010 but then an increase in house prices end yr. 2010 onwards and the main reasons <as usual> shortage of supply, more singles coming into the market <i.e. divorce rates increasing thereby increasing demand etc etc >

I also read that five year forecasts are notoriously unpredictable. So, it's a matter of sitting on what you have <or not have> and waiting to see what comes next maybe ?

I wouldn't buy or sell at the moment<if I had a choice> But I do wish mortgage rates would hurry up and go down a bit as I need to refix mine in October 2008 !


If I was buying this year I would really haggle over the price, that's why I wouldn't sell this year :)

Surely its best to buy something when its at its lowest price not when its just below its peak. Probably best to wait 2 years or so before things start to pick up again otherwise you're just throwing money away. housepricecrash.com is worth a look for anyone thats thinking of buying now as they have given varying predictions but all say that to buy now is financial suicide.

well my advice, buy buy buy spend spend spend, just do it man

Yes, that principle usually holds true but the position regarding obtaining mortgages is a bit mixed in the UK at the moment and it isn't that easy to get a good rate on a mortgage without a hefty deposit. So you may be ploughing a fair amount of your own cash into property at a time when property prices may well drop even further <forecast further drops over the next 18 months or so>

Of course it varies across the UK, where I stay at the moment we are not experiencing any major reductions in price but it is taking much longer to sell.


I personally think you have to weigh up the pros and cons. If you are buying a property for your main residence then I'm not too sure you should wait. Property prices <historically do fluctuate> and if you decide to move in the future, if your main home drops in value then the home you will be buying will also experience a similar drop <assuming you bought wisely in the first instance that is > and the opposite is true too <i.e rising prices>

If I was buying my first home and wanted to proceed this year, I certainly wouldn't be paying the asking price. I also would be waiting at least until the end of this year to see what will be happening with the mortgage rates and what deals may be on offer. The Governments view is that we have yet to see the full extent of the fallout from the credit crunch . That means it's going to get worse before it gets better.

It is a waiting game unfortunately I agree !

:)

What are the current avg prices in the UK per m^2 ?

I don't know maybe bubba can tell us. But it varies greatly across the UK. It really is down to location I'm afraid. Average prices, in my view would be quite misleading.

But I am no expert on average prices........but I do know the UK housing market a bit :)

Sometimes it makes sense to rent if property prices are falling. Why pay 200k for something that is going to be worth 150k in 18 months time?


Yes but if your upscaling rather than downscaling then this is a desirable situation. A 10% drop on a 300k house is bigger than a 10% drop on a 200k house. It narrows the gap and makes a bigger house more affordable even though your own house has dropped in value. In short if you're a first time buyer or if you want to move to a bigger more expensive property then a houseprish crash is a desirable situation. The trick is knowing when the market has bottomed out and timing your purchase accordingly. Not an impossible thing to achieve.

properties arent valued by the sqm in the uk G like they are in poland

here are some recent average prices for the uk

Average Cost: £218,112

Detached: £342,794 (not attached to another house)

Semi-detached: £197,416 (attached to another house on one side)

Terraced: £173,858 (attached to houses on both sides)

Flat: £200,344

OK. Thanks...

SO DO POLISH GET HELP WITH MONEY?