GENERAL MORTGAGE ALERT

Just a general advice that post Northern Rock and global credit crunch lenders in Spain are tightening criteria and procedures. Anybody who is approaching completion would be well advised to ensure they start making enquiries about arranging mortgages in plenty of time. In an environment that already has a relaxed attitude towards time these additional layers of processing and checks we are finding that approvals are taking a little longer to come through than they used to. Many of the lenders have had visits from external auditors to ensure procedures are being followed correctly and they are finally having to come to grips with this new fangled procedure called due diligence to ensure that applications and all documentation is bonafide. There are still good deals around and contrary to popular opinion the banks generally do wish to lend money but they also want to ensure that the downside risk to themselves is minimal.

And they charge you more for that lower downside risk!

Not sure that their downside risk is any lower as they have always tried to keep it minimal. In fact the risk is probably higher as there are likely to be a higher number of defaults through the next few years. Whether they have adjusted rates adversely or not depends on the lender - some have revised their rates upwards but some in fact have introduced slightly more aggressive pricing - perhaps those that have followed that route were too high in the first place!! LOL

This message was last edited by Smiley on 3/14/2008.