Suffolk Building Society has announced a raft of product and criteria changes to help brokers place more complex cases for landlord and expat clients.

The society has revealed it will accept applications from first-time buyer expat landlords who are residing abroad and who have not owned a property before, but wish to purchase a rental property in the UK now.

Suffolk also said it will no longer require returning expats to spend a set amount of time in the UK before applying for a mortgage.

Non-UK nationals will also be accepted on a joint application where one applicant is a UK national. This means that the non-UK partner can now be named on the mortgage.

As well as accepting first-time buyer expat landlords, Suffolk will now consider applications for first-time buyer buy to let properties in England and Wales.

Furthermore, landlords wishing to purchase or remortgage their own residential property will now be considered regardless of how many buy-to-let (BTL) properties they have in the background, as long as the BTL portfolio is self-financing. Previously, the society had a limit of 10 BTLs in the background but this has now been removed to help landlords.

“We know our niches extremely well and have a very good understanding of the issues facing brokers in these markets at the moment,” said head of intermediary relations at Suffolk Building Society, Charlotte Grimshaw.

“It matters to us that we’re there to support those whose circumstances means they need a specialist lender on their side – particularly as everyone faces the uncertainty of the current economic climate.”

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