Mortgages In Portugal For Foreigners

In this tough financial climate we continue to find ourselves, many are left with their assets floundering in the wind, so to speak! Financial institutions have several duties to inform, including, on one hand, to publicize and advertise on their websites and through the regular contacts with clients, the measures provided for in this Decree-Law (including the terms and deadlines to adhere to the moratorium), and on the other hand, to provide full knowledge of all measures provided for in this Decree-Law prior to the formalisation of any credit agreement whenever the client is a beneficiary entity.

As mentioned before the rates can be lower than in the UK, for example in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal the rates can start as low as 3.5%. In the less established markets like Bulgaria and other eastern European countries the rates can start at around 6%, whereas countries like Greece and Cyprus roughly fall half way between the two at 5%. The borrowing criteria are typically tougher than in the UK and you should expect to be able to borrow only around 70-80% of the property's value.

One of the key problems is that the financial institutions will not release what their real position is. The same thing is true of situations here in the US. Banks are allowed to carry items on their balance sheets that do NOT have to have the true value posted.

For a Portuguese mortgage, you will generally need a minimum deposit of 20% of the property's purchase price, because the borrowing varies from 60% to 80% of the purchase price or valuation price, depending on the lender, with loans available on a variable rate or fixed rate basis.

For the last few years there's been a noticeable increase in the level of client's looking at local financing, mostly due to the excellent rates on offer, often under 1%, as well as clients from the UK looking to hedge their bets on the exchange rate fluctuations.

Our dedicated Currency Partners are equipped with the best information to find you the best exchange rate for your funds and can even offer a 'forward contract' which fixes the exchange rate for your purchase for up to 12 months to ensure you are protecting your funds as you enter the purchase process.

There are not too many fundamental differences between a foreign mortgage and a UK based one, but bear in mind that the risks of buying a property are the same as in the UK. In Europe it is not the norm to see Mortgages offered interest only and it is very rare to see buy-to-let mortgages.

The rule of thumb is, the more established the market, then the easier it is, so in emerging markets like Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, The Caribbean and Israel, you can get a mortgage - but the rates will be considerably higher (see below), the amount they will lend is less and they also have stricter borrowing terms.

You have a number of options when buying real estate internationally - you can apply for an international mortgage from an offshore bank, you can approach a lender in the country in which you want to buy, you can re-mortgage existing property if you have accrued equity on your home and use the released capital to buy overseas, or you could even approach your local bank and see if they offer mortgages to buy abroad.

You may be interested to know that many of the world's leading banking institutions have offshore and international arms and that because of their global presence the likes of HSBC and HBOS for example all offer international mortgages and specific mortgages and home finance solutions in various countries.

If you do not borrow the money in Euros, you may need to pay up to 5% to 10% in bank and conversion fees before you can use it for purchasing Portugal Golden Visa (Read the Full Posting) a property in Portugal Currency fluctuations can work for or against you - the cost of converting currency will always be against you.

Interest rates are usually variable, based on Euribor plus a percentage (12-month Euribor is currently -0.16%), but up to 20 year fixed rates are available. Their team of specialists is based in the Algarve and has a combined experience of over 30 years in the financing and mortgage markets in Switzerland, UK and Portugal.