Remortgage To Fund Children’s House Purchase For Expat in Dubai

One of the main stumbling blocks our clients face on a day-to-day basis when it comes to property transactions is that their wealth is tied up in their main residence.  

And although they have the wealth to achieve their property ambitions – they don’t have the liquidity.  

Helping your children buy a house when they’re at University is a common example of this. If you don't have the cash to buy outright, options can seem limited. And your children certainly won’t be able to get a mortgage with no income – no matter how big the deposit.

This case highlights how a reorganising of your borrowing can open new possibilities - even if you have complex income - especially with an expert mortgage broker by your side. 

The Scenario 

Our client, a solicitor based in Dubai approaching retirement age, wanted to help his daughter studying at Edinburgh University avoid the run-down student rental accommodation she was faced with.   

His initial thought was to gift his daughter money for a deposit so she could take out a small mortgage, but with no income as a student, it wasn’t possible.

So, he came to us for a solution. 

The Solution 

The family home was a £2.3m property in Richmond in which his wife and son were living, with a small £200k mortgage outstanding via a mainstream bank. 

We explored his options, and provided the following: 

• Remortgaged the London home on an interest-only basis, raising £450k to clear the existing repayment mortgage (£200k) 
• The client could then use the remaining £250k along with some of his existing cash to purchase the Edinburgh property for his daughter 

The added flexibility in interest only: 

• The interest-only mortgage meant there was no repayment commitment – they planned to downsize the London property when his son moved out, and would be able to comfortably repay the mortgage with the difference 
• This freed up his cashflow in the meantime 
• But it narrowed the lender pool, as not all lenders allow interest-only with the repayment method of downsizing 
• And he also needed a specialist expat lender to accommodate his Dubai residency and Dirham earnings 

The foreign currency, interest-only factor, and logistics of this case made it a challenge, but without our solution, he’d have had to potentially draw his taxable pension funds to secure the property.  

Instead, we unlocked the value in his existing property to creatively finance both homes.