By James Warrington · Legal & Finance
Financing property in another country while your income, assets, and credit history are held in a different banking system is one of the most structurally complex aspects of international property buying. Several specialist lenders — HSBC Expat being the most widely recognised — have built products to address this gap. Understanding what those products actually offer (and where they stop) is essential before treating international mortgage availability as a given.
HSBC Expat: what the product actually covers
HSBC Expat, based in Jersey, is a private banking and wealth management entity of HSBC Group that serves international clients — primarily British, European, and Hong Kong-based professionals working abroad. It offers mortgage products in specific markets for property purchases in those markets, but it is not a universal overseas lender. HSBC Expat mortgage availability in 2026 covers: UK residential property (for British expats living abroad), and a limited selection of overseas markets where HSBC has a physical banking presence and in-country risk assessment capability.
For most Mediterranean property markets — Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Greece — HSBC Expat does not directly offer mortgage products. What it does offer, however, is credit facilities that can be pledged against assets held with the bank, and in some cases portfolio lending (borrowing against investment assets at rates tied to the underlying portfolio value, rather than a property mortgage per se).
The confusion in most "HSBC international mortgage" searches arises because HSBC advertises its Expat proposition generally, and many buyers assume that access to HSBC banking and an HSBC relationship means access to HSBC mortgage products in their destination market. This is not always the case — check specifically whether HSBC offers mortgage products in the jurisdiction where you are buying before progressing with any application.
The residency list that decides most applications
Where HSBC does lend — UK property for a non-UK resident — eligibility turns on residency before anything else. It will only consider an application from someone living in one of fourteen countries and regions. The published list is Australia, Egypt, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malaysia, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America.
Read what is missing. There is no EU country on that list — not Spain, not France, not Portugal, not Germany, not Ireland. Nor Canada, India, Thailand, New Zealand or Saudi Arabia. If you are a British expat in Lisbon or Dubai, one of you qualifies on residency and the other does not, and no amount of banking relationship changes it.
This single fact resolves most of the enquiries we get about HSBC expat mortgages, and it is the thing least likely to appear in a broker's opening pitch.
The income and deposit bars
If your country of residence is on the list, HSBC publishes the rest of the gate, and the figures differ by what you are buying.
Buying a home to live in. A basic annual income of at least £75,000, and a maximum loan-to-value of 75% — so a deposit of at least a quarter.
Buying to let. A basic annual income of at least £50,000, or £75,000 if you are self-employed, with a deposit of at least 25% of the property value — rising to 40% for mortgages above £1 million.
Note the direction of that: the buy-to-let income bar is lower than the residential one, which is the opposite of most people's assumption. Note also that these are basic income figures. HSBC's own materials exclude variable income from parts of its assessment, so bonus and commission-heavy packages qualify for less than their headline total suggests.
We have deliberately not published a rate. HSBC offers fixed, tracker, discount and variable products on interest-only or capital repayment terms, and any number printed here would be stale before you read it. Criteria move slowly; pricing does not.
What actually drives the rate you are offered
Several people arrive here searching for an HSBC expat mortgage rate, so it is worth saying what determines one rather than printing a number that will be wrong by the time you read it.
- Loan-to-value. The single largest factor. The gap between a 75% and a 60% LTV product is usually wider than the gap between two lenders at the same LTV, which is why finding another 10% of deposit often beats shopping around.
- Whether the property is for you or for letting. Buy-to-let is priced separately and generally higher.
- The currency you earn in. Lending against income in a currency other than the loan's is a risk the lender prices for, and some will not do it at all.
- Product type and fee. A low headline rate with a large arrangement fee can cost more over a two-year fix than a higher rate with none. Compare the total cost over the fixed period, not the rate.
Buy-to-let, as its own case
If you are buying to let rather than to use, treat it as a different application. The income bar is lower — £50,000, or £75,000 if you are self-employed, against £75,000 for a residential purchase — but the deposit is at least 25%, rising to 40% above £1 million, and pricing is separate.
Two things catch people out. Lenders assess the rent the property should achieve as well as your income, so a weak rental valuation can reduce the loan regardless of what you earn. And a mortgage taken on a residential basis does not permit letting: if your plan is to use the place some weeks and let it the rest, say so at application rather than discovering the restriction later. Our guide to deciding whether to let at all covers that choice.
If your income is not in sterling
Foreign-currency and foreign-national applications are where most expat mortgages actually fail, and rarely for the reason applicants expect.
It is seldom the amount. It is provability: audited accounts rather than self-declared income, payslips in a format the underwriter recognises, a credit history the lender can actually see, and an address history that does not have gaps. An applicant earning well in a country where none of that is straightforward is a harder case than one earning less in a country where it is.
Start assembling documents before you find a property, not after. It is the part of the process most likely to add weeks, and the one entirely within your control.
Skipton International: the specialist alternative
Skipton International (Channel Islands) is consistently the most recommended specialist lender for British expats buying residential property abroad. It offers mortgage products in the UK (for expats buying while overseas) and in specific overseas markets including Dubai and selected European jurisdictions. Its products are structured for borrowers whose income is in a currency other than the property's transaction currency — a common expat scenario.
Rates in 2026 for Skipton International expat mortgages (UK property): roughly base rate + 1.5–2.5%, with LTV caps at 70–75% for non-residents. Overseas market products (where available) are typically priced higher to reflect the additional jurisdiction risk the lender takes on. Minimum loan sizes tend to be £150,000–£200,000 equivalent.
Barclays International and Lloyds International
Barclays International (also Isle of Man-based) offers mortgage and banking services to high-net-worth expat clients, with mortgage availability primarily focused on UK property purchased by overseas-based British nationals. Lloyds International similarly targets UK property for expatriates rather than property in the destination country. These are useful for UK buyers who have relocated abroad and want to buy UK investment or retirement property while earning overseas.
Local bank financing: the often-overlooked first option
For most European property markets, a local bank in the destination country is more competitive than an international expat lender. Portuguese banks (Millennium BCP, Santander Portugal, BPI) will lend to non-residents at 60–70% LTV with documentation requirements that are demanding but manageable: Portuguese NIF, proof of income (payslips, tax returns, employer letter), bank statements, and a valuation of the property. Spanish banks similarly lend to non-residents at 60–70% LTV. Italian banks are the most restrictive for non-resident foreign nationals, and typically require a banking relationship established before the mortgage application.
Greek banks have tightened non-resident lending significantly following the financial crisis and capital controls of 2015–2016; cash purchases dominate the Greek market for international buyers.
Home-equity financing: the clean alternative
Many buyers with significant equity in their primary residence find that the most cost-effective financing for an overseas property purchase is a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or remortgage on their existing home, with the drawdown used to purchase the overseas property cash. This approach simplifies the transaction (cash buyer in the local market), removes currency mismatch risk from the mortgage, and often achieves better rates than any international mortgage product. The risk is concentration — your primary residence is now partly funding a second asset — which requires careful consideration of downside scenarios.
For specific, up-to-date product availability, work with an independent international mortgage broker (Holborn Assets, Niche Advice, Chartwell Finance) who can search across available products rather than being limited to one lender's range.
Before you apply
Two things worth doing in order. Check your country of residence against the list above, because if it is not there the rest of the process does not begin. Then confirm the current criteria directly with HSBC — the figures here are taken from its published non-UK-residents terms and are accurate as we write, but lending criteria are revised without announcement, and mortgages on UK property are explicitly stated not to be available to residents of every country.
Nothing here is financial advice, and we take no commission from any lender named on this page. If your residency rules you out of HSBC, the specialist lenders above exist precisely for that case, and a fee-charging independent broker will cover more of the market than any single bank's own desk.