New help for expat buy to let investors facing UK tax changes

Skipton International has launched a guide to help expat buy to let investors trying to make sense of the UK government’s changes to mortgage relief.

The phasing out of mortgage interest tax relief on buy to let properties from April this year to April 2020 will potentially push over 400,000 UK resident lower rate tax payers into a higher bracket, as well as impacting on higher rate tax payers. 

This could also impact upon the UK tax bracket for expats with investment property, says Skipton.

Nigel Pascoe, director of lending at Skipton International, says the change - following on from a slew of other fiscal and regulatory changes - means it is a good time for ex-pat investors to review their positions. 

Skipton launched buy to let mortgages in 2014 in response to the difficulties some British expats faced when trying to invest in buy to let property in England and Wales. Since then, the Guernsey-registered bank has completed over £190m of expat loans. 

To the end of May this year Skipton has had more than double the number of enquiries for expat mortgages thasn during the same period in 2016. 

This included a 124 per cent rise in enquires from British expats in the United Arab Emirates, a 118 per cent increase from British expats in Switzerland, and a 162 per cent increase from British expats in Hong Kong.

“Buy to let remains a popular long term investment for British expats and we don’t expect the phasing out of mortgage interest rate relief to change this” insists Pascoe.