18 Mar 2013 14:40:You are quite correct Andy that brokers do charge a fee for arranging a mortgage. As to them "telling a bank anything" I think you are living in the past when it comes to the Spanish mortgage market. While many brokers used to operate that way, thankfully most of them had to disappear with changing economic conditions changing following the "crisis". Banks now triple check everything and it has become a lot more difficult to get a mortgage than in the days of "Dodge City."
Some may say it is closing the door after the horse has bolted and they would probably be right but The Bank of Spain has now made it so difficult for non-residents to get mortgage funding here that many of the banks simply prefer not to do it and have closed their books to new non-resident borrowers. Add to that they can get more bang for their buck by lending to the Greek Govt with the debt being underwritten by the EU (EURIBOR currently set at about 0.5% when they can get 8% plus from Greece) vanilla mortgage lending has simply become too much of a chore for them. Were it not for the fact that banks that have traditionally lent to residential borrowers have been directed (and incentivised) by the BOS to support the mortgage market (and thus the construction market) to some degree, I suspect lending would have dried up completely.
As to Stuart Errington’s enquiry as to FSA passporting etc. Mortgages in Spain have never been a regulated financial product. Banks (and brokers to be fair – although to my own knowledge there are only three remaining on the Costa del Sol) can tell you as much or as little as they like. For ourselves, all of our personnel were professionally trained and qualified in the UK prior to moving to Spain and since we established here in 2003 we have always operated according to FSA guidelines/procedures when it comes to transparency, advice, provision of written quotes, key facts letters etc.
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Broker Recommendations
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