Skipton International has reached 1000 mortgages on UK buy-to-let properties for British expats, with over £200 million of loans.

The Guernsey-licensed bank launched the UK mortgages in 2014 in response to the difficulties many British expats faced securing loans on investment property in England and Wales.

Nigel Pascoe, director of lending at Skipton International, said: “We are delighted to have been able to help so many British expats secure UK properties and achieve their investment aims. Capital growth in UK property has been strong over the past few years and buy-to-let remains a very popular long-term investment for British expats.”

Skipton International says it has seen a “substantial” rise in enquiries for expat mortgages over the past year, in part due to to the devaluation of the pound following the EU referendum.

To the end of May 2017 Skipton had more than double the value of enquiries for Expat Mortgages compared to the same period in 2016. This included a 124% rise from British expats in the United Arab Emirates, a 145% increase from British expats in Switzerland, and a 175% increase from British expats in Hong Kong.

Pascoe said: “Many British expats who had been considering investing in UK property made the most of the devaluation of Sterling to use foreign savings. However, we must attribute the majority of growth to our team and the excellent levels of service they offer all our customers, for mortgages and for offshore savings.

“We have been offering savings accounts to British expats for over 20 years. Since launching our expat mortgages, we have made the process of taking out a mortgage with Skipton as straightforward as possible with many approved in principle by phone or using our online mortgage calculator.”