If you're an ex-pat with a Brazilian permanent residency, is there a way to get a loan from an American bank for a real estate purchase in Brazil?

Has anyone done this?

The time honered quesition, tovoltando is right. In my line of work, where ever i am in the world expats ask if they can get a loan to buy a house/apartment. They make good money, but dont have a banking record in that country and/or interest rates are way to high. I have NEVER come across a western bank who is willing to lead money to a person who wishes to buy a house in a developing nation or where ever.The only way to get the cash is to take a loan in your home country i.e. second mortgage, and if you are lucky enough to be able to get a second mortgage do not tell the bank you wish to use the money  to a house overseas as it could create untold problems. Just say you need the money for home improvements etc, also do not even tell your bank that you no longer live in the country, again this will create untld problems.

If you are taking an equity line of credit out or a second mortgage (whatever you want to call it), they don't care what you spend the funds on.  You are borrowing on property you already own, they have appraised, and have a secured interest in.

I don't know if you have HSBC in the US, but in the UK if you have a premium account with them and have a good record with them with this account they say they will arrange this for you worldwide. As they have HSBC in Brazil i'd imagine they would try and sort this out for you, depending on circumstances, but i've not tried it myself so couldn't give you any clues on whether they will actually do this or not.

To open a offshore Premier HSBC account in an offshore zone such as jersey you need to be working for a large international company that HSBC as a relationship with, such as Schlumberger for example, or open the account with a min of £50k GBP, and have at least 3 months banking records showing a regular income. Then you may qualify for a local mortgage in Brasil (typically and 3 and a half times provable income, up to 5 times income with a 10-20% deposit, however, this will be a R$ loan pegged to local interest rates.

 

As for tamashin comments about fraud etc, he is technically  correct however one has to consider a banks lending criteria, and when applying for a loan/second mortgage certain key words will trigger a Red flag i.e Certain business venture/Overseas etc. This could and sometimes DOES apply to second mortgages as well. Especially given the current global credit issues that are at the forefront more now than say a year ago.

 

I personally think we expats can have a bit of a raw deal when it comes to accessing credit markets and wish there was more out there for us.