Banks that treat overseas income, including from shares, favorably?

Hi folks,

I am in the process of buying a house in Melbourne together with my partner, with her as owner and me as servicing guarantor. She is an Australian citizen and I am a US citizen on a partner visa, which is pending permanency. Both of us are living overseas in, where I work for a foreign organization and she works for the Australian government. I get paid in USD, while she gets paid in AUD. I have also have a substantial shares portfolio in the USA, and we had planned to use earned dividends to help service our loan. Today I made an inquiry with CBA and received a letter as follows:

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In your circumstances, unfortunately due to recent regulatory and bank changes, there have been recent lending restrictions applied on non-residents, as well as using foreign income (US Share Dividends).

For applications where a non-resident is involved, it does mean the maximum loan to value ratio the bank can lend is 70%, down from the previous 80% allowable.

Also we are not able to accept foreign income for specified temporary residents of Australia (ie if you were to earn an income in any currency other than AUD, given you’re not a PR yet).

Another restriction is we’re not able to use dividends received from a share portfolio that is not held within Australia. Previously it could be considered on a case by case basis for very strong applications, however they have now advised it’s not eligible income for servicing use, in any circumstance.

Unfortunately what this means is it would need to pass our servicing requirements solely based on your partner's income if that’s being earned in AUD.

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This is extremely unfortunate for us, and appears like it will disrupt our plans in a big way.

Are all banks operating in this way now, or are some more favorable towards foreign income, including from foreign shares?

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Thanks Rolf. Are you aware of any banks that would particularly amenable?

The thing we're most concerned about is whether they'll favorably consider my US shares and foreign non-AUD income. If they don't then we're going to be knocked back in a big, big way.

 

Thanks again Rolf.

Just to clarify, what exactly do you mean by "doing a 90% with offshore income"?

Foreign earned currency will likely be USD and GBP.

Any specific suggestions on brokers? Anyone interested in lending a hand?

 

Right. I wonder why CBA is being so prickly? Off the top of your head do you know which banks might be more willing to play ball?

 

Macquarie may be able to help take 90% of the share dividends if consistent and evidenced with previous 2 years’ Australian tax returns, if it's not the sole source or majority of income required to meet loan serviceability.

 

Upto 90% lend is possibly. I've been able to help 457 visa holders recently with overseas income a loan.

 

Thanks guys. This forum and the people in it are invaluable, truly.

As professional finance brokers, how quickly are you usually able to get loans approved and ready for settlement once a purchase has been made?

 

The bank is saying they think you may depart and its too hard to prove income / assets.
Use a good broker and dont approach a bank direct.

 

http://www.afr.com/real-estate/resi...wn-on-foreign-property-buyers-20160418-go9ber

 

So I've done some investigation today and it seems like many of the banks are now either negative towards foreign income or reject it completely in their assessment. I spoke with NAB and CBA in particular, and both said that they flat out will not consider income from my US shares account (they will only consider ASX listed shares held in an Australian account).

One ray of light appears to be Bankwest, which seems very happy to consider foreign income as well as shares. Can anyone else confirm this from their experience?

 

U try ANZ?

 

I haven't tried ANZ yet. Can anyone here confirm that they would still accept income produced by a US shares portfolio (US companies, in a US account, in US dollars)?

 

Try HSBC........or Citibank...they are used to dealing with overseas investors in Australia.

 

Just spoke with Bankwest and they've changed their tune - not willing to entertain income from overseas shares. Trying to get through to HSBC, Citibank, Westpac, and NAB. This is getting pretty stressful.

 

Spoke with Westpac and they're no longer willing to consider overseas dividend income either.

 

ANZ says they might consider, but can't commit