Category Archives: Mortgage services

A number of clients who currently hold CAM bank mortgages and are in arrears have recently received letters in the UK from a lawyer firm telling clients that should they fail to bring the mortgage up to date it is possible CAM Bank may pursue assets in the UK. Whilst clearly the bank has the […]

Increasingly all banks in Spain have been adding compulsory and for them profitable products to their mortgage offers. It is in fact not legal in Spain for the banks to tie clients into products outside buildings insurance and a bank account unless the client gains a rate benefit for doing so. This seems to however […]

Over the last few months the Lloyds Spanish group including Banco Halifax Hispania Lloyds TSB es Lloyds international have as part of their integration planning been discussing bringing their Spanish Mortgage criteria’s into line with each other so that whichever arm of the group a client accesses the terms and risk assessment are the same. […]

Whilst many bargains exist in Spain low exchange rates are negating some of these benefits. Many cash buyers are torn between accessing property at low purchase prices versus the real cost given current Sterling to Euro rates. Whilst setting up a Spanish euro mortgage to overcome this is one solution many buyers are put off […]

Mortgages in Spain annual reviews Many property owners in Spain who have loans have been looking forward to their annual review. Because Euribor rates peaked last year at over 5% and are now 1.41% mortgagees have been expecting their mortgage to rate to drop to around 3% or below. For most people this has been the […]

Whilst many buyers in Spain are currently price and discount focussed when looking for a distressed or discounted property other considerations should be taken into account. If you buy a property that forms part of a large development with many vacant units you may get it at a very good price but what are the […]

Recent articles suggest Scandinavian buyers are active in Spain taking advantage of low prices and the fact their own economies are holding up better than most.

The other good news for these buyers is that unlike their European counterparts they have access to Spanish Mortgages via a Scandinavian bank whose loan to values have stayed at 80%, have low bank arrangement fees, very competitive rates and offer interest only up to 10 years.

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.