Breaking down the barriers to foreign national lending – Coombs

International investors continue to acquire UK property because of structural pillars that have remained fundamentally intact since the Victorian era – clear title, enforceable property rights, an independent legal system, and a Land Registry that provides ownership clarity many jurisdictions cannot match.

The value of property held under overseas company ownership has risen from £15.9bn to £125bn over the past decade – and that covers only overseas-registered companies. The true market, once foreign individual buyers and UK special purpose vehicles (SPVs) with foreign national UBOs are included, is considerably larger – and consistently under-served by mainstream finance.

Why the banks walk away

For many high street lenders, foreign national lending can be a problem to be avoided rather than solved. Credit account information services (CAIS) sharing only capture UK-based lending activity – a borrower who has serviced mortgages and credit facilities abroad for 20 years will show up as a blank page. That blank page can read the same as a bad one, and when you add the compliance overhead of international funds and foreign ownership structures, the result can be a decline based on inconvenience rather than merit.

And it is not just the high street. Some specialist lenders are constrained by warehouse lines or institutional capital that quietly rules out foreign national borrowers at the eligibility stage. Aspen is different – being equity-funded means there is no funder behind us applying a checklist. If the deal makes sense, we can do it.

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For specialist lenders willing to look beyond the bureau search, the question shifts from “what does the system say?” to “does the evidence support this loan?”. Getting that evidence right is where brokers can make or break a case.

What brokers need to know

Know your client’s structure before you approach. Is the borrower purchasing personally, through a UK company, an overseas-registered company, or a trust? Each carries different requirements, and clarity on structure from the outset saves time for everyone.

Don’t leave source of funds to the last minute. Source of funds evidencing is a requirement on any loan, but for foreign nationals, the documentation can take longer to retrieve and organise – funds may arrive from overseas accounts, asset sales, corporate distributions, or trust structures, each of which needs to be clearly traced.

Don’t assume foreign national cases have to be slow. With the right lender and a well-prepared submission, a foreign national case can move as quickly as a domestic one – where timelines do extend, it is usually down to lenders without experience in this space or documentation gaps on the submission, not the nature of the borrower.

Work with a lender that is structurally set up for this. Funding structure matters when the borrower type or source of funds isn’t typical. Equity-funded lenders, like Aspen, are free from the typical constraints of funding lines – meaning your foreign national clients are assessed on the merits of the deal, not the limitations of a funding line.

Legal opinions, remote signing, and overseas structures

Deals where a company is registered overseas or the transaction involves foreign law often require a foreign legal opinion – confirming legal status, capacity to transact, and that there are no impediments to the security. Certified ID and proof of address will similarly need to be notarised in the borrower’s home jurisdiction, but both are routine steps with the right lender.

Remote signing is well-established, but different jurisdictions have different requirements for witnessing and notarisation – starting the process early ensures it never becomes a bottleneck at exchange.

Foreign trusts and overseas-registered companies introduce additional considerations around ownership structure through to beneficial owner level, trustee powers, and whether the structure permits the transaction – all of which are well-trodden territory for an experienced lender in this space.

For those who develop fluency in this space, the opportunity is real and largely uncrowded. The clients are there, the properties are there, and the gap is simply finding a lender set up to serve them.