[Anonymous]

Bargain-hunting Britons target cheap holiday homes as Spanish property prices continue to fall.

Bargain-hunting Britons are jumping on to the Spanish property ladder as house prices continue to fall, a specialist mortgage broker has reported.

Overseas mortgage specialist Conti has seen a 33 per cent rise in Spanish mortgage enquiries over May and June compared to previous monthly averages.

That comes despite the monthly house price index from appraisal company Tinsa, showing that Spanish property values were down by 10.8 per cent year-on-year.

Claire Nessling, director at Conti, says there is a combination of factors which are contributing to the boosted budgets of buyers. She said: ‘The Spanish market has reached a low point, so buyers are using it as an opportunity to shop for a bargain.’

Meanwhile, the growing strength of the pound against the euro and historically low interest rates are making holiday homes attractively affordable.‘It ticks a number of boxes that Britain doesn’t; including the weather,’ she added.
As a provider of mortgages in 45 countries, Conti says there is a healthy appetite for lending in Spain. It adds that figures from the Spanish National Statistics Institute, INE, show that the annual decline in property sales in May was 9 per cent, a lot less than the declines from January to March this year, which were between 21 and 33 per cent.

Ms Nessling said: ‘If you are looking for the long term market, then it is [a good time to buy], for holiday and retirement homes.’

Bargain-hunting Britons target cheap holiday homes as Spanish property prices continue to fall

[Anonymous]

Yawn !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[angie]

😆 😆 😆 I’d be very dubious about names with the word ‘con’ within them, even the mortgage broker mentioned is Simon Conn 😆 😆 😆

[Anonymous]

i would be more wary of the brits buying because they must be stupid therefore probably gangland drug dealers lol

[logan]

I wonder really what the point is in writing this junk or jakesuper thinking it merited a post when everything in the link has been covered before. No Brits are not snapping up properties, they would have to be dumb cash buyers unaware of the realities.

[Fuengi (Andrew)]

@angie wrote:

😆 😆 😆 I’d be very dubious about names with the word ‘con’ within them, even the mortgage broker mentioned is Simon Conn 😆 😆 😆

😆

I remember when I was setting up a bank account here in spain. I have the choice between 2 accounts.

Con….. or Sin…..

[angie]

Fuengi, surely in any Bank, that has to mean ‘with scam’ or ‘no scam’, or ‘with high charges’ or ‘without’? 😉

[DBMarcos99]

The article doesn’t tell us anything illogical – as prices fall (and the pound increases in strength against the Euro) there will naturally be more Brits looking around for a bargain property.

Where this forum could be of help is in pointing out the good and bad areas to look, and the real costs of buying etc.

[logan]

Marcos.
1.You cannot now get a mortgage in Spain on a property not owned by the bank.
2.The tiny few banks that may consider a mortgage on other property will advance only about 50% LTV and if you have any existent debt such as a mortgage elsewhere forget it. You will have to prove you don’t by the way.
3) If you buy a so called ‘bargain’ the Hacienda will insist you pay taxes on their own valuation which will date from 3 years ago or longer. That tax has to be added to the costs which are substantial.
4) Any cash buyer who is still foolish enough to venture into this broken market where every financial analyst unconnected to selling will tell you it has a minimum of 25% still left to fall. I think further because in Spain incomes are falling off a cliff.
5) Sterling has only appreciated against the Euro because of weak Euro area growth and market uncertainty. Britain is worse at -0.7%, so expect Sterling to revert back to 1.15 very soon once the EU get their act together and provide funding to keep things afloat.
6) Property is falling in value in the UK, banks are not lending to buy second homes.

[DBMarcos99]

Good points about the mortgage issue. If we buy, we’ll be looking at a 100% purchase for a long period and suspect there will be further bargains (as those not selling via banks will have to lower prices to compete).

[Anonymous]

The banks have to get real first and lower the prices they are advertising at before other sellers lower theirs.
As logan says the tax charged on the sale will not be at purchase price but at the price the property was valued at peak so you could buy for £200k but pay tax on £400k that is a big difference and until this is looked at and changed i won’t be rushing to buy.
I think i will be waiting at least 2 years before i start to look,i am not doing it as an investment but as a retirement home but being 44 i am in no rush, but i want to get a place and make it how i want it which will cost and saving £200k worth of tax could help pay for that.

[Author]

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