Buying in Spain
When we found a house to buy in Costa Brava we set about trying to secure a Spanish mortgage, well this is where the ‘fun’ began.
The Spanish banks have a ‘policy’ which they apply to mortgages, where they add the cost of life insurance for 20 years and use this amount as part of the mortgage they will offer you. So not only do you end up paying for life insurance which in our case we did not need or want but your mortgage offer is reduced by a good 20% – 30%. Then to rub salt into the wound they usually insist you take up at least five years of over inflated house insurance. Both of these actions are Illegal in Spain, but this does not stop the Spanish banks doing it.
We were stuck between a rock and a hard place as we had paid 10% of the purchase price to the seller and would lose this if we pulled out, but we could not find any Spanish Banks willing to give us a mortgage without the life and house insurance included.
We were determined to find an ‘honest’ mortgage lender and not be ‘bullied’ by the Spanish banks, so we set about searching online and came across Worldwide Property Company (WPC).
I spoke to Dylan, the WPC contact and explained our situation. He said his company had stopped doing business with Spanish Banks due to the issues we found, but he was meeting with a Spanish company the next month to discuss mortgages without the life and house insurance and would like to help us.
Dylan advised us to ‘postpone’ the completion date so we could use the mortgage company he was talking too. We did this and after a lot of phone calls, requests for financial information and e-mails we were offered a very favourable mortgage without the added life insurance and house insurance.
We had the added complication of me being self-employed so needed to supply more financial documentation and letters from my accountant. Dylan advised and liaised between all the parties involved and helped us secure the mortgage.
I can’t say it was an easy or un-stressful experience getting a Spanish mortgage but what I can say is with Dylan’s help we achieved what we thought was the ‘impossible’, securing a good and fair mortgage offer from a Spanish Bank. We do feel a little like David who battled and defeated Goliath (Spanish Banks) with Worldwide Property Company being the hero of the day.
We would like to thank Worldwide Property Company, especially Dylan, for all his hard work and going that extra mile to help us. We strongly recommend to those looking to secure a mortgage in Spain to talk to Worldwide Property Company.
Russell & Justine
