Penrith BS relaunches expat residential and foreign currency lending

Penrith Building Society has re-entered the expat residential and foreign currency markets after withdrawing the products from sale in July.

The Society says its decision has been made due to broker demand for the products and it will pay a procuration fee of 0.45% gross. 

The expat/foreign currency range offers an increased LTV of 80%, a reduced minimum loan amount of £50,000, and an interest-only option. Both products are also available on a joint borrower sole proprietor basis.

Tim Vigeon, head of product development at Penrith Building Society, said: "The Society has a track record of identifying and developing products to meet the needs of customers which require manual underwriting and are not available via high street lenders.

"Our expat residential product allows us to lend to UK expats living abroad wishing to buy a property in the UK to live in. We can lend to applicants providing they don’t live in a country that is on the FATF list as well as applicants who live in the EU (with the exception of Italy or Holland). 

"We have seen more people living in the UK who are paid in a foreign currency for their pension or due to the nature of their occupation. Our foreign currency product allows applicants to be paid in more than one currency."