[katy]

There is an interview with a marbella Notary in todays Sur. He is retiring and says that when he first came to the town there were only 6 notaries, now 14.

States that property transactions have been falling since 2003. At first by 10% to 15% per annum but a 70% fall in 2008. Wonder what 2009’s figure will be!

[Chris M]

Well I was telling journalists in early 08 that the market was 90% off since 03 and I think you will find it peaked at around 95% down, for foreign buyers that is.

[Inez]

I have been quoting that since 03 which was why I stared the auction house. No one wanted to listen then!!!!!

They are listening now!

[DrRobert]

So, given the downturn, what do these 14 notaries do all day then?

[katy]

Well this one is retiring 😀 I suppose they do other types of contracts?

[Anonymous]

Notaries perform any kind of public contract such as forming limited companies, Contracts between companies, transactions. land leases, mortgages and loan agreements (remortgages even) public works contracts etc etc, so there is still a lot of work. In fact it is because you have to go to a notary that changing your mortgage is so expensive (I believe 172% is the typicl charge for a loan or remortgage)

[Inez]

172%??? Can I have a pint of what you were on yesterday?? 😆

5 – 6% is the standard charge overall for a remortgage.

[Anonymous]

That should have been 1/2% (ie the notaries fee for remortgage) and relates to the cost of the Notary not the remortgage

I have never seen such high charges (5-6%) for a remortgage except from English mortgage brokers. I remortgaged last year with Banco Popular and the total cost for a €123,000 mortgages was €126,000, so about 2.4% (and that was because of various insurances I was encouraged to take out.)

Also a lot of banks at the moment are offering zero charge remortgages if you switch to them

ING Direct do, Santander do. Obviously they get this money back somehow, but there is no upfront cost to you.

In the case of Santander you have to have had your mortgage for 6 years with the other bank. They pay all the survey fees, notary fees etc

Caixa Catalunya were offering a multi currency mortgage with a 2 year interest only period. The interest rate was tied to the Yen or whatever currency you selected and you could change the mortgage denomination at any time. You were also guaranteed never to owe more than your original sum (so taking the effective currency risk out). The interest rate at the time was about 2% so on an interest only mortgage of €200,000 the payments would be €334

This also had a zero cost transfer

Some good deals can be had but you have to spend some time researching

Anyway the point I was trying to make was that Notaries do a lot more than just property transactions

Regards

Vince

[Anonymous]

I also think that the banks would re-mortgage on 70% of their own valuation of your property rather than what you actually owe on the mortgage. Since most people are in negative equity I believe it is very tricky to re-mortgage without putting in a lot more funds?

[Author]

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