The Intermediary –- June 2026 - Flipbook - Page 12
RESIDENTIAL
Opinion
Are we underwri
world that no
here’s a growing sense
that expat and foreign
income borrowers are
still being assessed
against a model built
for a far more domestic
market. When you look at how people
now earn, where they live, and how
oen they move between countries,
it’s clear that the borrower landscape
has changed quite significantly
over time.
At the same time, parts of the
underwriting process have not always
moved at the same pace. So, what you
end up with isn’t necessarily a higherrisk profile, but it is a situation where
cases can feel harder to place than they
perhaps should be, particularly where
affordability is not really in question.
The expat market is growing. Office
for National Statistics (ONS) data
shows that 693,000 people emigrated
from the UK in the year to June 2025,
including around 252,000 British
nationals. More broadly, British
nationals are also leaving the UK in
greater numbers than those returning.
The profile of the expat borrower
is also becoming more varied. It’s
no longer just salaried employees
working for large firms.
Increasingly, you’re seeing
contractors, self-employed
professionals, and income coming
T
from multiple sources, oen across
different currencies. So, in many
cases, the complexity is not new. It’s
just more visible, and perhaps more
frequent than it used to be.
Cases get stuck
If you speak to brokers, they’ll tell you
fairly quickly where things tend to get
stuck. It’s not that there’s no demand,
because there clearly is, but some of
these cases do not sit as neatly as they
might have done in the past.
Foreign income is a good example
of this. In some cases, lenders may
still view UK tax residents earning
income overseas with caution, even
where that income is stable and
well evidenced.
Contractor income can present
similar challenges, although for
different reasons. The structure of a
contractor’s earnings can sometimes
raise questions around sustainability
or affordability, despite the borrower
having a strong and consistent
track record.
Historical adverse credit can also
influence how a case is viewed, even
when the issues have long since
been resolved.
Individually, those points all make
sense. You can see why they’re there.
But when you step back and look at
the case as a whole, they don’t always
CHRIS BLEWITT
is head of mortgage distribution
at Darlington Building Society
point in the same direction. Quite
oen, what you actually have is a
borrower with strong income, a clear
plan, and the ability to sustain the
loan, even if the route to geing there
is not completely straightforward.
That’s where the disconnect starts
to show. Not in the strength of the
case, but in how it’s interpreted. And
that’s usually the point where brokers
start to feel they’re working harder
than they should be to get something
over the line.
The role of deposits
One of the more consistent themes
that comes through in these scenarios
is the role of the deposit. In a lot of
