Editor's note: This brief was summarised by The Property AI Newsroom from a report by Mortgage Strategy. Read the original article for full details.

Marsden Building Society Eases Expat Buy-to-Let Mortgage Criteria

Marsden Building Society has announced a simplification of its expat buy-to-let mortgage criteria. The changes include the removal of the minimum income requirement and a reduction in documentation needed for both employed and self-employed applicants.

For self-employed applicants, only one year of accounts is now required, or two years if top slicing is involved. Employed applicants are now only required to provide their most recent payslip. Additionally, the mandatory employer’s reference requirement for buy-to-let cases has been removed.

The society has also eliminated its country exclusions list. Instead, expat cases will be reviewed using real-time data from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). However, applications will not be accepted from customers residing in, or with financial links to, countries on the FATF High-Risk and Increased Monitoring (Black and Grey) Lists. Applications are also not accepted from residents of EU/EEA countries, due to the absence of service agreements, or from residents of Australia due to legislative restrictions.

Requirements for additional borrowing requests have also been simplified across Marsden’s entire mortgage portfolio, making the application process easier.

These updates are relevant for UK letting agents and inventory clerks working with expat landlords, as the changes may streamline the mortgage application process and potentially increase the pool of eligible expat buy-to-let clients.