[honloong]

Hi,

Do you know whether a foreigner can obtain a loan for property in HK. Say you have been working and have a HSBC account overseas that clearly shows you have a steady income, can you obtain a home loan in HK without having a history of income in HK?

Hon

[KnowItAll]

The history of income in HK is not as important as being able to pay the loan in HK with income in HK being deposited regularly in your HK account.

If you don't have an income in HK, you're a liability that the bank may or may not want to touch. At this point the best bet is to use your HSBC overseas branch to start the negotiations and processes.

[KnowItAll]

Oh yeah .. no need to use bold in the posts. Generally everything does get read and answered here.

[JAherbert]

I reckon no chance.
Hong Kong banks are very conservative and hence highly profitable.
Credit is generally not extended to non-residents unless you have equal cash in a time locked account or other colateral.
I guess the question could be: Would any bank lend money to someone, if the colateral (property) is located in another country beyond your reach for recovery - I would say No.

[honloong]

Hey moderator,

Thanks for the info. What happens if I am buying the property and the rents generated more than cover the monthly repayments of the loan? Do they take that into account? and foremost they are actually holding the property as collateral in case I default. In any case do you know any major banks that allow borrowings from foreign investors other than HSBC?

PS: sorry about the bold writing.

kind regards,
Hon

[honloong]

Herbert,

I think I ask moderator the same question. Isnt the bank essentially holding your property as collateral if you default on payments. I just want to know exactly what the policy is. ie. does the bank have a policy that restricts borrowings to any person without an income history in HK or do they consider it on a case by case basis depending on their assessment of your ability to pay the loan?

Thanks for you info.

Hon

[kevin]

The bank may be holding the property but look what happened a few years ago. if the price fall the banks will be losing money.

Anyway, banks may consider you if you are living in Hong Kong or can show some strong ties with Hong Kong and can prove to them that you have some form of regular income.

if you are not living here and just have an HSBC account somewhere overseas then I think it will be very difficult. You may be able to try some of the smaller Chinese banks but don't get your hopes up too much.

[JAherbert]

Originally Posted by honloong

Herbert,

I think I ask moderator the same question. Isnt the bank essentially holding your property as collateral if you default on payments.

Banks demand collateral, any collateral. It doesn't need to be the property deed. However as I said, I reckon no chance....you might run away.....and leave the bank holding another unwanted property.

Remember too that banks are still (in March 2004) processing cases for thousands of bankrupt properties recovered from owners that couldnt pay, because the property value dropped like a rock since 1997 and those folks lived here.

In my opinion, rental income, wouldn't be considered.

If you have cash, no problem. If you want to get into property market get a group of friends, use cash, and use a company to buy.

my 2 cents.

[honloong]

Hey guys, thanks for the info you have provided.
I rang about 4 major banks in HK and all said wont lent.
So finally I rang my local HSBC and they were very helpful in managing to trackdown someone from HK HSBC (apparently I was talking to the wrong people and given that I rang the HSBC mortgages hotline, it seems a bit ridiculous).

Anyway the final story is they can examine your case but generally they will only extend a loan to a maximum of 40% of the property value.

So finally I have been able to find the correct policy. So I hope this info finds itself to be useful to people.

And a big plus to this forum too. I posted a similar message on the gohome forum and did not get one reply. So keep up the good work