Available, routine, and structured differently enough that assuming a UK process will apply is the mistake.
This page explains how foreign national lending works in principle. Terms are quoted by lenders against your circumstances, not by us. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier for the current position on any building we cover.
British buyers finance Miami property regularly. It is not exotic and lenders in Florida do it as a matter of course.
What you are accessing is foreign national lending, generally from portfolio lenders holding the loan on their own books rather than from the conventional US mortgage market. That distinction explains most of the differences that follow.
The terms are not the terms you would get at home, and the process is not the process you are used to. Both are workable. Neither should be assumed.
A larger deposit. Foreign national loans require materially more equity than a domestic borrower would be asked for. This is the most significant practical difference and it should shape your budget from the outset.
No US credit history required. Portfolio lenders assess the borrower on documented income, assets and banking history rather than on a US credit file, which is why the channel exists.
More documentation, differently formatted. Expect to evidence income, source of funds and assets to a standard that may exceed what a UK lender asks, and to have documents certified or apostilled.
Different pricing. Foreign national loans price above domestic equivalents. Rates move with the environment and vary by lender, so we do not publish figures and would treat any quoted to you without a full picture of your circumstances as indicative at best.
Insurance and association requirements. Lenders look at the building as well as the borrower, including the association’s financial position and insurance. A building with underfunded reserves or an insurance issue can be difficult to finance regardless of the borrower.
In a preconstruction purchase you commit at contract, pay deposits in instalments across the construction period, and complete years later. Financing is arranged at closing, against a building that by then exists and can be valued.
Most preconstruction purchase agreements contain no financing contingency. Your deposits are committed whether or not a mortgage is available when completion arrives.
The gap between contract and completion is where the risk sits. Rates move, lending appetite moves, your own circumstances move, and the building must satisfy the lender when the time comes. A buyer who assumed financing would be straightforward and finds it is not still owes the balance.
The practical instruction: speak to a lender before you commit deposits, not before you complete. Understand what you would qualify for, what proportion you would need to bring, and what would have to change for that to fail. Then decide whether the deposit commitment is one you can honour without the mortgage if it comes to it.
The association’s budget and reserve position. Florida’s tightened structural and reserve requirements have made this a live question for lenders in many buildings.
Insurance adequacy, which in coastal Florida is a moving target.
The proportion of the building owned by investors rather than occupied, and whether any single owner holds a large share.
Rental restrictions and whether short term letting occurs, which affects how some lenders classify the building.
This is worth knowing at shortlist stage rather than at application, because it can eliminate a building for a financed buyer that would be perfectly fine for a cash one.
A meaningful proportion of British purchases in this segment complete without a mortgage, either because the buyer holds dollars or because the sums involved do not require leverage.
Whether to finance is a question about your overall position, your alternative uses for the capital, and your tax advisers’ view in both countries. It is not a question a broker should answer for you and we will not.
What we will say is that the answer should be settled before deposits are committed, because the preconstruction structure removes the option to change your mind cheaply.
The deposit schedule and the absence of a financing contingency are both in documents you can read at the start. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will get you the schedule in writing and introduce you to lenders who do this daily.
The sequencing is the whole point, and it is the part sales galleries rarely raise. Contact the desk at Miami Dossier and we will go through the current position on any building we cover, including the parts a sales gallery would rather skip. Where a question is legal, tax or structuring, we introduce you to advisers who handle that properly rather than answering it ourselves.