Bigger deposit, bigger rate: expat buy-to-let pricing turns upside down in third quarter

20 October 2026

• New research shows 46 lenders offering loans to expats
• More expats demanding Ltd company products, HMOs and holiday let products

British expats buying property to let with a 40% deposit are now paying more for their mortgage than those putting down 20%, according to mortgage broker FORTO Finance.

The first iteration of the FORTO's expat mortgage monitor found that on 28 September the rate for an expat buy-to-let mortgage at 60% loan-to-value (LTV) stood at 5.89%, compared with 5.70% at 80% LTV. The 70% LTV rate was higher still, at 5.99%.

The reversal happened in a single week. Between 14 and 21 September, the 60% LTV buy-to-let rate rose by 82 basis points and the 70% LTV rate by 80 basis points. Over the same week the 80% LTV rate rose by just one basis point.

For most of the quarter the 60% LTV band had been the cheapest buy-to-let reading on the index, falling as low as 4.96% in late August.

The jump came as swap rates climbed above 4.70% and the major high street lenders repriced their fixed-rate ranges twice in September in the face of renewed inflation fears over the conflict between the US and Iran.

On 17 September the Bank of England held Bank Rate at 3.75%, with three of the nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee voting for an increase.

Across the quarter, average residential rates were 5.06% at 60% LTV, 5.16% at 70% and 5.44% at 80%. Average buy-to-let rates were 5.24%, 5.36% and 5.70% respectively.

Anthony Curtis, director at FORTO Finance, said:

“Expat pricing is set by a small number of active lenders, so a single repricing can move a whole band. That is what happened in the third week of September. Anyone assuming that a bigger deposit guarantees a better rate should check with a broker before committing. This is actually a weird quirk of a very specialised market; the large fees involved with some of these products mean the low headline rates don’t tell the whole story.”

The index also tracks the number of lenders in the expat mortgage market. FORTO Finance identified 46 lenders offering mortgages to expats.

Esmé Rook, operations manager and paraplanner at FORTO Finance, said:

“The expat market is wider than it is deep. While there are 46 lenders in the market, there are fewer than 20 that are actively developing their proposition, and many of them are mutuals using manual underwriting. A good broker, specialising in this corner of the mortgage market, will know which lenders are genuinely engaged in any given month.”

New product launches in the quarter were concentrated in specialist property types and borrowing structures.

In August, Skipton International launched limited company buy-to-let lending for non-UK resident directors, available at up to 65% LTV with a minimum loan of £200,000 and a £4,999 application fee. In September, Saffron Building Society added expat HMO products including for large HMOs. And another building society raised the maximum LTV on its three-year fixed expat residential mortgage from 80% to 90%.

Anthony Curtis said:

“The new products are aimed at limited companies, HMOs and holiday lets. That reflects how demand has shifted and influenced the wider expat property investor landscape. Expats landlords are more likely to want to hold property through a company and more likely to be looking for yield. Lenders are creating products for those borrowers. The move to 90% LTV on residential lending is the exception, and a welcome one.”

The quarter also brought changes to the countries lenders will accept. In September, Marsden Building Society scrapped its country exclusions list. It now assesses applications against live data from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and will not lend to applicants living in, or with financial links to, countries on the FATF black and grey lists. Residents of the EU and EEA remain outside its criteria because of the absence of service agreements, and Australian residents are excluded because of legislative restrictions.

Skipton International has not accepted new applications from EU residents since 31 March, citing the EU's revised Capital Requirements Directive.

Other lenders continue to use broader criteria. Suffolk Building Society considers most countries of residence except those subject to UN sanctions, while GB Bank lends to residents worldwide, subject to exclusions.

Esmé Rook said:

“Where an expat can borrow is increasingly decided by regulators rather than by lenders' credit committees. Linking criteria to the FATF lists makes the rules transparent, but it also means they can change overnight.

“Expats need to ensure their broker is checking country criteria on the day they submit an application, not the day they take the enquiry.”

FORTO Finance will publish the index quarterly. From the next edition, it will also report a count of dedicated expat products.