Buying property or business in Corfu

Jessiepig · 17 June 2018 at 1:03PM

Hi I!!!8217;m asking for any advice/ help with regards to buying in Corfu. Ourselves and my daughter and partner are considering buying a small guest house which we would live in part of.
We can do equity release for about £200000 but wondered if you can get a mortgage to buy property abroad or do you need the cash?
Could my daughter and partner get a mortgage towards a property in Corfu.
We would be looking to do this in the next 6 months or so.
Thank you

sal_III · 17 June 2018 at 2:20PM

There are many factors like your age and incomes that would determine how much you can borrow both from UK and abroad.

I doubt that UK Lender will give you mortgage against a property in Corfu, so you might have to look at Greek Lenders, not sure what state their financial system is in nowadays, but it wasn't in great shape several years ago. So you might have better luck with equity release from the UK property and cash buy the one in Corfu.

IMHO if you have no real income in UK and plan to do an equity release without repaying and/or plan to sue the potential income from the guest house to repay it - it's a bad idea. You might easily end up with empty hands if the business is not profitable (as many end up being).

need_an_answer · 17 June 2018 at 3:00PM

You would probably need the specialist advice from someone who knows the Greek market.

Occasionally someone on this type of fourm will know something but its probably a question that is better posed on a forum for international or at least European users,maybe an expat forum might be better.

MSE doesn't have ex pat links and most of the posters here deal with more domestic UK Scotland and Wales.

You may also be better approaching a financial advisor who also specialises in overseas properties/mortgages and ventures.

Best of luck with your plans.