Maybank

Maybank today launched its latest mortgage facility ‘Overseas Mortgage Loan Scheme’, the first Malaysian bank to offer Malaysians a local mortgage loan facility in Ringgit for purchase of property in London, United Kingdom.

The Ringgit mortgage facility will finance completed or under construction residential and commercial properties in London Zone 1 to Zone 3, covering prime locations such as City of London, Westminster, Knightsbridge, Kensington and Chelsea.

Key features of Overseas Mortgage Loan Scheme include repayment in ringgit, high margin of financing up to 85%, flexible repayment and long tenure of up to 30 years or 70 years of age whichever is earlier.

“This milestone mortgage scheme brings tremendous savings to customers as the unique proposition of this innovative loan is Malaysians being able to borrow in ringgit for purchase of property in London with the loan taken in Malaysia. Borrowing in ringgit will protect customers from currency fluctuations on their monthly loan repayments and savings as the Sterling Pound is anticipated to rise this year from its current low exchange rate with the ringgit,” said Lim Hong Tat, Deputy President and Head of Community Financial Services Maybank.

Currently Malaysians purchasing properties in London have to obtain financing from UK based banks and pay the monthly installments in Sterling Pound, thus they are exposed to foreign currency exchange fluctuations.  Financing from UK based banks for Malaysian citizens currently is only available for “buy-to-let purposes”, namely, the property must be purchased for investment purposed and not for own occupation.

Lim said the facility is offered in the form of term loan, overdraft or a combination of term loan and overdraft. “We anticipate a take up of RM60 million for this new facility within the next six months. This is in view of attractive property valuation in London and overseas buying interest to peak before April 2011 when the new 5% sales tax is imposed for properties above GBP1 million. The current strong ringgit against the Sterling pound is also another factor that will encourage Malaysians to buy before the anticipated rise at the second half of the year.”

“The new mortgage is designed for high net worth customers as we note they are showing increasing interest in buying properties in that part of Europe, due to the favourable currency exchange rate, attractive property price as well as for those who have children studying in the London area. London currently offers attractive advantages for property purchase to non residents and the Bank has tied-up with reputable international real estate agencies to assist customers on UK regulations,” said Lim.

“This latest product will also help the Bank achieve our home financing to grow over 13% this financial year compared to the previous period. The new mortgage loan capitalises on the leadership position of Maybank to take up a more global role in offering its products and services. It is also aligned with our aspiration of humanising our financial services of meeting our customer’s need beyond local borders in a global environment including where Maybank operates. Any Malaysian can enquire on this new facility at any Maybank branch in Malaysia including our overseas office in London,” added Lim.