Latest News and updates

For sometime now I have been asked by clients what I know of the Japanese Yen mortgages being offered in Spain. I have now been trying for some weeks to understand how this offer is being made and how real the offer is. My initial concerns about its validity purely stem from the fact that […]

Spanish Mortgage bad debt rules change Finally, yesterday the Bank of Spain announced a relaxation of the rules applied to banks when they have mortgages in arrears. Previously the level of funds a bank had to move to their balance sheet to cover bad debts was very high in comparison to the rules covering banks […]

John Howell Associates one of the leading international but UK based legal firms has announced it is to close from the 10th July.

Yesterday afternoon with no prior notice or indication Leeds and Holbeck in all but name withdrew themselves from the Spanish mortgage market. Is this a sign of further problems in the UK?

This weeks Spain “Paradise Lost” programme on ITV 1 was an overview of the market in Spain both now and in the preceeding years.

In May this year, the Bank of Spain and Spanish government passed a new rule that reduces the validity of valuation reports from 6 months down to 3 months. This change is a reflection on the volatility of values of properties in Spain and the Bank of Spain’s requirement to ensure that loans do not […]

UCI the mortgage-lending arm of Santander and BNP Paribas is one of the few providers still actively and aggressively providing Spanish mortgages. UCI only provides Spanish Mortgages via brokers and third parties so no mortgages no business which may explain why they are still very much in the market. Loan to values which were once […]

Latest rumours suggest that at least one bank in Spain has significant enough problems for the Bank of Spain to be required to step in.

Mortgages in Spain linked to purchase price After years of selling Spanish properties and advising clients to under declare purchase prices (to avoid the full buying taxes but without informing client of capital gains tax exposure at a later date) some Spanish estate agents have done the complete reverse and are now convincing buyers and sellers […]

In an effort to try and offload some of the property stock that many Spanish Banks now hold on their books due to developers going bust; a number of banks are looking at discounting heavily the properties and providing virtually no cash in deals to the right clients. Amongst the banks considering this are Sol […]