Buying a US home from the United Kingdom

Where the British buy

British buyers accounted for 4% of all foreign purchases of US homes in the year to March 2026: about 2,700 homes worth $1.2 billion, the largest share of any European country. In the previous year's survey Florida was their first choice by a wide margin, with California second. Within Florida, the British are the largest foreign buyer group in the Orlando area, at 18% of international sales there, and about one in five British buyers in the state chose the Miami area.

Around a quarter of British buyers in the 2025 survey bought purely as a holiday home, and nearly one in five bought for a child studying in the United States. Our guides to Orlando, Florida and Boston cover the places those buyers ask about most.

Your route into the United States

British citizens with the right of abode in the UK can visit under the Visa Waiver Program, which is all you need to view property or use a holiday home. It gives no right to live or work in the United States, and owning a home does not change that.

If you are moving, your status decides the mortgage. Employer-sponsored visas and green cards lead to standard loans. Entrepreneurs often look at the E-2 investor visa, and here the UK has a peculiarity: the treaty dates from 1815 and covers only UK nationals who actually and permanently live in the UK, the Channel Islands or Gibraltar and are domiciled there. See US mortgages on an E-2 visa and on a work visa.

A purchase that looks familiar and is not

In England and Wales an accepted offer is "subject to contract" and binds nobody until exchange, which is why sales fall through. The government's own guide allows about 12 weeks from that point to moving in, and the average sale takes about five months.

In the United States the contract is binding from the moment both sides sign, usually within days of the offer. You pay earnest money, typically 1% to 5% of the price, and the purchase normally completes in 30 to 45 days. There is no chain in the British sense. There is also no solicitor acting for you unless you hire one: in most states a title or escrow company runs the closing. Your protection is the set of contingencies in the contract, for financing, appraisal and inspection. See how the US timeline compares.

Financing from Britain

A buyer who lives in the UK cannot use the standard loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are for US residents. The alternative is a foreign national loan from a lender that sets its own terms. Our guide to foreign national loans explains what is fixed by regulation and what to ask.

Three points are specific to British buyers:

• Sterling. Your deposit and, for a holiday home, the income that pays the mortgage are in pounds. The loan is in dollars. Decide how you will handle the exchange rate for both.
• Credit. The UK's three credit reference agencies each give you a free statutory report. The same company names exist in the United States, but a US credit file is separate and starts empty.
• Raising the deposit against a UK home. Some buyers remortgage in Britain and buy in cash in America. That keeps the borrowing in sterling and avoids a US loan. Ask your UK lender about its conditions, including if you later let the UK property.

HMRC and a US home

While you live in the UK. UK residents are normally taxed on income and gains from anywhere in the world. Rent from a US property and a gain on selling it go on your UK return. The United States taxes them at source, and you claim Foreign Tax Credit Relief so that the UK tax is reduced by what you paid there.

If you move to the US. Residence is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, which counts days in the UK and ties such as a home, family and work. In the year you leave, the tax year can be split into a resident and a non-resident part if you meet the conditions. Return within five years and some gains made while you were away become taxable in the UK after all.

Your UK home. Private Residence Relief means no capital gains tax if the property was your main home throughout. The last nine months of ownership always qualify, and periods spent working abroad can count as occupation if you live in the home both before and after. If you let it, relief covers the years you lived there plus those final nine months. Once you are non-resident, any sale of UK residential property has to be reported to HMRC within 60 days, even if no tax is due. If you keep the home and let it, the Non-resident Landlord Scheme applies to the rent.

ISAs and pension. You cannot pay into an ISA once you are non-resident, though you can keep it. The UK State Pension can be claimed abroad if you have enough National Insurance contributions, and the rules on paying voluntary contributions from abroad changed in April 2026.

Inheritance tax on both sides

Two regimes can apply to a US home owned by a Briton. The United States requires an estate tax return from people who are neither citizens nor residents once their US assets exceed $60,000. The UK, since April 2025, charges inheritance tax on the worldwide assets of long-term UK residents, meaning anyone resident for 10 of the last 20 tax years, and continues to do so for between 3 and 10 years after they leave.

The UK is one of the few countries with a US treaty covering both estate and gift tax, which exists to stop the same asset being taxed twice in full. How it applies depends on your circumstances, so settle the ownership structure with a cross-border adviser before you buy.

Questions people moving from Europe ask

Continue your research

• Foreign national loans: US mortgages for buyers living in Europe
• Orlando and Central Florida
• Florida
• How long a US home purchase takes, compared with Europe
• Start a personal US mortgage scan