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Mortgage for expat

jnetuser
Jun 17, 2020
7
Question

We are trying to secure a mortgage for a new apartment that we have signed the sales agreement for. We have applied for permanent residence and should get a confirmation in the next 2-3 months (have annex16bis for confirmation) but at the moment we only have temporary residence card. We already contacted 2 banks and they are hesitant to start the mortgage application without a permanent residence card. Do you know any banks which offer mortgages to expats who have not yet got permanent residence? Our financial situation is very healthy with no outstanding loans and low EMI-to-NetMonthlyIncome ratio. It seems quite surprising that there is no option for expats without permanent residence card to get a mortgage in Belgium - hope someone can help?

J

Oh dear. I hope you got your Notaire to make sure there's a condition "no mortgage" clause in the compromis, otherwise you're going to have to pull out and lose your 10% deposit.

Unlike us, a bank would have had chance to have a look at all the details of your application, including your exact residential status, finances and nationality. There is no hesitation. Either they say yes, or they say no.

Caveat emptor...

Jun 20, 2020 15:49
Oppressed in Oppem

We had this problem. Contact Carol of Immotheker Finotheker in Stockel and ask for the Axa mortgage.

Jun 20, 2020 21:49
Richard

Try KBC they gave me a mortgage even though I was not a resident but then again I am (was) a European citizen (UK).

Jun 22, 2020 11:22
jnetuser

Thanks all for your replies. I did not get any notification for your replies and stopped tracking the message in the forum after a few days - so just saw your replies when I did a Google search for 'mortgage Annex16bis' and this was the first result (of only 5 results - so apparently not many people in a situation similar to us where they are very close to getting permanent residence and applying for mortgage)!

@J - We did include a clause for mortgage cancellation till Sep, when we are likely to receive an approval of the permanent residence. We had discussed the situation with the builder and they were kind enough to increase the cancellation clause to 3 months rather than the normal 1 months, which they offer to others.

@OPPRESSED IN OPPEM - I had contacted Hypotheek Winkel earlier and they had suggested AXA as well but their interest rates were pretty bad (around 2%) compared to other banks which would otherwise offer us around 1.3%. Did you get a good rate with AXA compared to other banks?

@RICHARD - we had contacted KBC as well earlier and they did not raise this issue (I had sent them copies of our cards) but they wanted more personal contribution from us than the other banks, which we cannot arrange at the moment. But even with KBC, maybe it is possible that they did not yet notice it, because one of the other banks got all our documents, even opened bank accounts for us, made us sign the application and then after a few days, mentioned this as an issue!

For now, I am still checking with a few other banks. But worst case, we will have to wait till Sep for the approval of our permanent residence and proceed based on that, I guess.

It is still surprising to me that non-EU expats cannot then get a mortgage in Belgium except may be with AXA and KBC (to be confirmed still). Do let me know if you get any other info on this still please!

Jul 10, 2020 18:35
Loneresource

Hi @Jnetuser, We are in same situation as you were/are, so would be happy to know the status of your application at KBC.
Were you able to get a loan at KBC without permanent resident card?
Thanks in advance.

Oct 13, 2020 11:33
BELL

Thank @jnetuser for initiating this discussion. I'm facing the same problem now. Have you managed to get the mortgage with which bank? And how about your situation @LONERESOURCE? Anybody with a Type-A card manages to get a mortgage in Belgium?

Sep 23, 2021 18:27
sheetallaad10

Can someone update which banks are apt with Type A card to receive mortgage ? thanks a lot

Mar 21, 2023 16:05