GUERNSEY bank Bristol and West International, a subsidiary of the Bristol and West Building Society, is now offering mortgages for British properties from its representative office in Hong Kong.
They include fixed-rate mortgages at 6.4 per cent for two years and 9.5 per cent for four years. The bank's variable mortgage rate is currently 8.64 per cent.
The new mortgage service is only available to British expatriate buyers but manager Donald Tew said the lending criteria might be changed later to include Hong Kong Chinese.
'We are just testing the market at this stage and would rather limit our operations to British expatriates while we see how things develop,' he said.
Bristol and West International opened its Hong Kong representative office one year ago and has since been joined by another British competitor, Woolwich Guernsey, a subsidiary of Britain's third largest building society, the Woolwich Building Society.
According to Mr Tew, the large number of British expatriates who buy property at home while based in Hong Kong should generate considerable demand for the service.