International mortgage

Discussion in 'Loans & Mortgage Brokers' started by youngsoulrebel, 11th Jul, 2011.

Join Australia's most dynamic and respected property investment community
  1. youngsoulrebel

    youngsoulrebel New Member

    Joined:
    1st Jul, 2015
    Posts:
    1
    Location:
    Melbourne, vic
    I have a $300K mortgage with the Commonwealth bank. As interest rates are 0.5% in the UK & the $AU is very strong I was thinking about transferring my loan overseas. Is this possible? How do I go about it? What are the pitfalls? Is it worth it?
     
  2. Simon Hampel

    Simon Hampel Founder Staff Member

    Joined:
    3rd Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    12,394
    Location:
    Sydney
    You won't be able to secure a foreign loan against your Australian property - the banks won't let you ... far too risky for them!

    There may be other means of taking advantage of the difference in interest rates, but that's a very different game and one I'm not familiar with.
     
  3. Terry_w

    Terry_w Lawyer, Tax Adviser and Mortgage broker in Sydney Business Member

    Joined:
    18th Jun, 2015
    Posts:
    41,672
    Location:
    Australia wide
    Some banks used to allow it.

    When I was working in Japan many years ago the NAB Japan did loans in Yen for Australian property. You had to be earning money in Yen and if you ever returned to Australia or stopped earning in Yen then the loan would have been called in. LVRs were around 70% from memory.

    St George also used to allow foreign currency loans for people working in Australia.

    This has probably all changed now.
     
  4. vanessa__

    vanessa__ V J Tait & Associates

    Joined:
    1st Jul, 2015
    Posts:
    23
    Location:
    West Pennant Hills, Sydney, NSW
    Hi,

    Not sure if you have resolved this issue. A lot of the banks in Australia are very open to better deals at the moment, so I would speak to your bank and even some other banks and see if they will give you a reduction in interest. It will probably mean refinancing but hey if you save some money it will be worth it. A lot of banks are also contributing to the cost of refinance as well so you may come out in front.

    You might also want to look at fixed loans which at the moment are generally cheaper than variable. You do have to be careful with fixed loans though and I would not recommend taking them for a long period say 3 years at most.

    You should investigate the loan market.