Mortgage for spanish property?

ageandjo

Hi

Can someone point me in the right direction to look for a mortgage to buy a spanish property?

Many thanks

Ian_W

3 options really, though you could combine option 1 with either of the other 2.

1. Remortgage your UK property - provided you have sufficient equity to release this is usually the simplest and cheapest way to raise finance to buy a Spanish property.
2. Borrow from a UK based bank that lends on Spanish homes. 9yrs ago when we did it these were few and far between with only Abbey and RBS [Gibralter] but there are plenty more now - LTSB, Barclays, Norwich & Peterboro to name but a few. You will need to prove earnings but the advantage if you're UK based is that repayments are in Sterling. Max LTV is usually 80%
3. Borrow in Euros from a Spanish Bank. Usually agents or developers will have contacts and you can borrow 70-80% of the value. Advantage at the mo is that Euro interest rates are lower than UK BUT you will have conversion costs and currency risks as you'll have to convert your UK earnings to make repayments unless you're living out there or earning income in Euros from letting.

Legal and bank costs are quite a bit more than UK based lending as the mortgage has it's own deed [escitura] which has to be registered. Remortgages are therefore not as common as in UK.

This isn't a recommendation, indeed I thought they were rather expensive, but this broker is long established doing overseas mortgages so a look at their website wiouldn't harm you.
https://www.mortgagesoverseas.com/

Hope that helps.

brannyrhino_2

http://www.leedsbuildingsociety.co.uk/spain/euro_mortgage.html

http://www.npbs.co.uk/mortgages/spanish-mortgages.asp

Neither come recommended as i have never been fortunate to buy a property in Spain

abbieV

Reading this thread prompted me to register so I could make comment

We purchased a property in the costa calida region of Spain near the Mar Menor at a place called Torre De La Horadada not long ago. This was as a replacement for a private pension that we could make use of...

It is a decision we never regretted although you will hear plenty of horror stories about the purchase of property in spain... I think the main thing to remember is it is spain not uk and because of this things are different..don't expect it to be like the uk housing market just as scotland here is different


As far as new property is concerned, and I am sure someone will shout me down for this but people often express the view that commissions are high for the estate agents etc but this is paid by the builder... I agree this may inflate prices. but going straight to the builder direct if you can, the price remains the same and and it is very hard to get good discounts...

Resale is different, but remember spanish law is that if the property carries the debts of the owner so if it is sold to someone else you 'buy' those debts as well...so you need a good lawyer, which you can get but they are all so busy with the growth in the area, ours for example missed the fact there were some local taxes built up on the property we bought.... it was in fact our estate agency that noticed this and held up the sale until an agreement was reached...

Yes you pay in the long run for estate agency involvement but you on whole pay same price for property. Buying in Spain is as stressful as here add in the fact that you are doing so in a foreign country and you don't have any idea of the rules and it makes it even more stressful, this is where our agent filled the gap...small is better for me because they depend on you more unlike some of the bigger companies i have heard horror stories about...but again these stories again may not be from the horses mouth.

As i said earlier this comes direct from our experience, pm me and I'll send photos of our property to show what you can have over there which by the way is a lot cheaper price wise than here for mortgage and size..

The people we used were on a link i will post, they also arranged a european mortgage, it's under their finance section.


*****************
i have removed link, if you wish to know who we got a mortgage through pm me
*****************

I leave it to you to make up your own mind about this but this was just our experience

Abb

Ian_W

Hmmm Abbie,
I would say welcome but it is a bit strange that 2 posts - one quite an old one - "prompted" you to register simultaneously to answer them both - also see
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=2490754#post2490754.
No connection with lexus estates then?

Actually the post wasn't about whether to buy but how to finance such a purchase. Your views on your purchase are interesting but your comments about EAs are IMO a bit misleading, or at least made through rose coloured specs following your recent purchase!

A good spanish lawyer WOULDN'T have missed those taxes owing, ergo - yours wasn't a good one - these are basic checks that an BELOW AVERAGE Spanish lawyer should have carried out, called Nota Simpla I believe, as basic as checking the deeds in the UK to make sure there are no legal charges.

Spanish EA's like in the UK work for the seller, whether it's a resale or from a builder. Treat what they say with a HUGE pinch of salt, like here there are good ones and bad ones but they don't earn their [average] 5% commission unless they make a sale so they'll use fair means or foul to get one. Anyway when we sold recently I advertised free on the internet, got a buyer privately and spent 0.8% of the sale price on a very good lawyer and I thought the 4.2% in my pocket was much better moneysaving - surprise, surprise my buyer didn't seem to find it a problem either having no EA to hold their hand.

abbieV

in the other post i stated that i had also posted here...two similar questions on same subject. i see you regularlypost on a lot of things that are similar...most of your arguement if you read what i said, you would see that i have more or less said what you did ian w

i tried to be honest and don't want to enter into an tit for tat arguement you clearly wish having looked at your posts....

this is why i have only read posts and not registered in the past, you have your response now pick on someone else...i shall not be posting again on this subject... by the way who killed jfk?

abbieV

I meant to say that if someone can tell me how i'll remove the link

kenshaz

abbieV wrote:

I meant to say that if someone can tell me how i'll remove the link

no but the guide might want to

Ian_W

abbie,
I'm not looking to enter into any tit for tat arguments and last I heard the Warren Commission said Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK - if it's good enough for the then US Supreme Chief Justice, it's good enough for me!!

Just that your post didn't really relate to the OP's question and did appear to be promoting a particular Spanish EA. If you want to remove the link, and that's entirely a matter for you, press the EDIT button on post #4 and delete the text showing the link.

You'd be surprised how many times these threads get spammed by people promoting some commercial venture under the guise of offering advice, if I misread that as your intention please accept my apology and don't let it put you off posting.

BTW, I still think your lawyer was a complete buffoon for missing the fact that local taxes were owing. It really is sooooooo basic, I wouldn't use him again if I were you.

seven-day-weekend

I don't pretend to be any expert on the subject, but we have bought a resale house from an estate agent in Spain. Their help and advice was invaluable (because of the language problem.)

However, I've just noticed your OP is about a mortgage. We didn't need one....so I won't go any further!.

kenshaz

seven-day-weekend wrote:

I don't pretend to be any expert on the subject, but we have bought a resale house from an estate agent in Spain. Their help and advice was invaluable (because of the language problem.)

However, I've just noticed your OP is about a mortgage. We didn't need one....so I won't go any further!.

Still interested in your story