Excluding domestic buyers the figure rises further, with an average loan size of £2.8m, if the vehicle or client buying property was foreign or offshore.
Foreign and offshore cases accounted for 52% of Enness’ business volumes in Q1 and the high net worth brokerage expects this trend to continue throughout 2012.
Hugh Wade-Jones, director of Enness Private Clients, said: “We have spent a large amount of time developing relationships in the Middle East, East Asia and the Channel Islands, and this concerted effort has paid off when you look at the percentage of our volumes such business now accounts for.
With continuing economic uncertainty in the Eurozone, money is going to pour out of countries such as Italy and Spain, so we are also looking to forge partnerships in such regions.
“Although private and overseas institutions have provided a valuable service in a sector that many high-street lenders have shied away from, we have noticed some banks are becoming increasingly uncomfortable lending to clients whose money originates from countries where there has been political unease. As a result, a number or perfectly legitimate clients from these countries have been affected.
Wade-Jones described a case via a family office where a Libyan client was unable to get a remortgage with his private bank, which was refusing services to any clients from countries that had seen a political uprising in the last 12 months.
“The client lives in the UK and his business is US-based. We have been able to work with the client and a range of alternative private bank lenders to secure the finance and ensure he is not unduly affected by this somewhat bizarre decision,” said Wade-Jones.
