Spanish Mortgages Guide

Overseas Living Group - Spanish Mortgage Guide

Spanish Mortgages Home Page
Spanish Mortgages General Info
Full Status Mortgages
Self - Cert Mortgages
Property Valuation For Mortgage Purposes
Personal Identification
Equity Release
Property Identification
Approval in Principle
Mortgage Products
Final completion at the Notary
Registration of the property and N.I.E.number
Mortgage fees and taxes
Spanish Property Taxes

It’s not as easy as back home! The following information is provided as a guide to arranging a mortgage in Spain. We hope you find it useful. You can of course go direct to a bank and arrange a mortgage yourself but you need to be aware that, in a nutshell, “it’s just not as easy as back home”.

In the UK & Ireland there are a few dozen banks & building societies, in Spain there are nearly a thousand. The UK & Ireland has a mature, well regulated mortgage market; there’s lots of competition, it’s easy to get information, and there’s a huge range of different types of mortgage. In Spain it couldn’t be more different! You’ll find it hard to get written information and that most banks only offer standard repayment mortgages, you will be told ‘yes’ only to find it all seems to take an age and then stops! 

If you want to be sure you’ve got the best mortgage for your particular circumstances then you have to do a lot of research, many banks are expensive so you have to search the market, for this reason alone it can be worth talking with a good mortgage adviser or Spanish mortgages packaging experts like IMS mortgages based in Spain. There is also the added complication of the very different culture and language, if you are not used to the ‘Mediterranean way of doing business’ and not fluent in Spanish it can get very frustrating., So whether deciding on a bank, submitting the initial application or in what happens afterwards between application and completion it really is not as easy as back home! There are many different variations of mortgages available and different banks have different criteria. It is true that Mortgage lenders are interested in finding good customers, however what constitutes a good customer will vary from bank to bank. The bottom line is that a good customer is one who enters into an arrangement to make monthly payments on their mortgage and keeps up those monthly repayments for the full term of the mortgage without missing any payments. Of course you have a free choice and this guide is designed to provide you with useful information about arranging a mortgage in Spain.
Should you decide to use an Independent Adviser then hopefully you will consider Overseas Living Group.

So please remember when searching for a Spanish Mortgage:

1. An initial broad ‘yes’ from a bank in Spain often doesn’t mean ‘yes’. It must be tested

2. Language and culture are barriers, even when people in the bank seem to speak good English

3. The culture is to be helpful which often means the bank saying ‘yes it will be fine’, they accept your application and then you hear nothing until weeks or months later when the answer becomes ‘no’

4. Very little information is available in writing from banks and they oftenchange criteria during the application process

5. Local bank managers are unlikely to have authority to approve many types of mortgages - it will need to go to head office

6. When applications proceed to head office “changes to conditions” can often occur

7. Some banks will use UK credit reference agencies to verify your credit rating and others will not – these checks will also reveal other loans, mortgages and credit cards

8. Some banks will lend on valuation, some take purchase price into account as well

9. There are 6 main bases for interest rates in Spain, including 4 different Euribor rates so Euribor + 1% doesn’t mean one rate

10. It is unfortunately not uncommon for banks, lawyers and some brokers to add charges very late in the process so when you are ready to complete at the notary you have to make a decision, if you want to argue at that late point, you could risk loosing the sale

11. There are a number of people involved in the whole process including the bank, your lawyer, the vendors lawyer, the estate agent, the developer, the Notary, the valuation company and the Gestoria – they all need managing and chasing to achieve a timely completion

12. Things in Spain are never black & white but are various shades of grey!

If you have any questions or would like a mortgage quote we will be pleased to help. Please contact us using the following form Spanish Mortgages Enquiry For  Spanish mortgages contact Olg mortgage specialists. For Information on a mortgage in Spain click the following link: Spanish Mortgages Spain 100 % Mortgage rates from just 3.9%