Saffron BS ends expat lending in EEA

“We will be honouring pipeline cases from applicants within these countries who have already submitted a full application,” the mutual said.

The decision comes as part of the fallout from Brexit. It is still lending to non-EEA countries.

From this afternoon borrowers in 27 countries will no longer be able to access the lender’s discount and fixed rate deals.

The restricted countries are:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Saffron Building Society chief commercial officer John Penberthy-Smith said the majority of the mutual’s ex-pat buy-to-let customers were outside of the EU.

“The recent changes post-Brexit mean that for the foreseeable future – until it is clear how to engage with member states – we are reluctantly withdrawing the product from the EU membership countries,” he added.