Re-mortgage of Irish property while living abroad

SomeRandomer

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Hi - a relative of mine lives abroad (in Europe but not the EU) and has an apartment in Dublin that's rented out. She spoke to AIB a few weeks ago inquiring about re-mortgaging, and the AIB person told her that it wouldn't be a problem living abroad, all she would need was a credit check from the country she lives in.

She then rang AIB back a few days later with the intention of doing the re-mortgage application over the phone, but the person she spoke to that time told her they don't do re-mortgages for people living abroad as the property is seen as a buy to let.

So I'm wondering is this normal and also why the first person told her it wouldn't be a problem

- has anyone managed to re-mortgage a property when living abroad?
- do the banks see a rental property as a buy to let, and if so do they treat those differently when it comes to re-mortgaging?
- do any lenders offer re-mortgages when the owner lives abroad?

Thanks.
 
Hi just wondering if anyone can answer this?

Would really like to know if anyone re-mortgaged an Irish property when living abroad.
 
What exactly are you trying to do? Switch lender, or release equity?

It's a rental, so it's a buy to let. That's how banks will treat it.

Banks will lend to non residents for investment, but the monthly rent usually has to be at least 1.2 times a stressed Mortgage payment (i.e. interest rate increased by 2%).

AIB will consider this, but they will treat it as a buy to let (which it is). I don't know they're exact criteria.

If your income is non Euro, it's complicated as it's treated as a foreign currency loan under the Mortgage Credit Directive. Having the rent being more than the stressed Mortgage repayment gets around that.
 
Hi thanks for the update.

I should have been more specific - she's looking to switch lenders as the rate from her current lender (BoI) is pretty high and AIB do a good rate, 2.9 % variable if I remember correctly.
 
She might be better off switching to a fixed rate with BOI - 3% for a choice of terms, and just say nothing about it being rented.

Any other banks will treat as BTL and rate will be over 4%.
 
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