New Opportunities for Antipodeans

January 1st, 2008

With the current credit crunch and global economic indicators pointing south many banks are having to explore new or alternative ways of exploring their markets.An example of this is the niche market that has opened up for expat Australians wishing to either invest back home or are thinking or returning and want to buy a house. ‘Australian expatriates living in Europe are being offered special mortgages to buy property in Australia as the big four banks combat the lowest domestic home loan affordability rates in more than two decades.’

Offshore mortgages can be set in the foreign currency earned, such as British pounds or the Euro, with loans based on interest rates set by their respective central banks. In the current environment those foreign interest rates for repayments are lower than loans based on the Australian dollar

Officially there are an estimated 320,000 Australians and New Zealanders living and working in the UK although there is evidence to suggest the number could be as high as 750,000 when dual passport holders are included.

The ANZ has now joined the Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac in operating a London-based one-stop-shop mortgage service. ANZ Expatriate Mortgages associate director David Laird said that in just a few months the niche market had proved a success with a number of prospective clients utilising the loan run through a different currency. ‘There can be both potential benefits and risks in cross-country loans so we work closely with customers to ensure they’re choosing the right loan for their needs and help them develop strategies that are designed to manage any potential risks,’ he said.

A spokeswoman for the Commonwealth’s London operation, which was the first to target expatriates in 2005, said the entry of another bank into the market only served to ensure better deals were being offered to potential customers. ‘Most young Australians still have the dream of purchasing their own property and those lucky enough to be earning very good money in the UK are keen to build a property portfolio,’ she said. ‘The benefit of purchasing a property while you are still working offshore is that those repayments don’t seem as ominous when you are earning British pounds.’

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 1:06 pm and is filed under Personal Loans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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