Houses for Sale in Spain

A Brilliant Story About Expectations and Money Laundering

Yesterday I was in the Santander bank with a client opening a bank account. The reason we finished up there involves the incompetence of another bank, Banesto, of which you can hear more about here “Why There Is No Hope For Some Spanish Banks”. Anyway something really funny happened. Or rather it is funny if you know anything about Spain.

Why You Shouldn’t Buy a Bank Repo Property (Part 4,735)

A new report that ADICAE has produced (The consumer organisation protecting people from abuse by banks) reported in Global Edge here, shows what banks are doing to overvalue the properties they have in stock and then try to sell them by offering 100% mortgages over a period of up to 50 years while not offering mortgages to people on properties that are not in their portfolio, ie the general market.

Are the Spanish Banks Preparing to Break Ranks

Banks in Spain are a homogenous bunch usually. They don’t compete too much on concession of mortgages although if you are a “good” client they might well give you maybe 0.25% less on your mortgage rate as long as you sign up for their insurance, credit cards etc…

What to Do When You Cannot Buy A House For Sale In Spain

Currently bank lending is difficult. This was driven home to me this week on taking some Spanish clients to see a house in Cheste, you can see the house at the link video included. They love it. There are many reasons. It is cheap, it is well positioned, it has everything they want yet isn’t too big, and it is within their price range… in theory. However bank lending may preclude them from being able to buy it currently.

And Sometimes I Despair Of Spanish Banks Too

As a follow up to my story on here a few days ago about why I sometimes despair of sellers of Spanish property I thought today it was time to tell the story of the Spanish banks too..

Now Spanish banks had a very easy time in the decade leading up to the property crash and because of this they maybe got a bit too confident in their own power.

Giving A House Back To The Bank

Spain is different and sometimes Spain is very different.

In the USA it is easy to give a property back to the bank. In the UK it is easier than here. In Spain it might be quite hard. Speaking to a friend last year he told me that a bank manager in one of the coastal resorts had compared his bank to a video shop with people returning the keys into a box and skipping the country. However it is not that easy to do this with the advent of the EU open borders policy. Now they can get you in the UK if they so mind.

Spanish Banks Trying to Corner the Market

One of the things that you learn when you have lived in Spain for a time is that things are not what they seem in many cases. This may well be why “Spain is Different” still holds true. What on the surface can seem a totally normal thing has millions of tentacles and subplots underneath. Today’s question is what are the banks doing? Now Spanish banks look safe and have not had the huge upheavals of the States or The UK. However there is something going on and I would like to make a few suppositions here as everybody loves a good conspiracy theory.

Carcast About Mortgages and Price Drops in Spain

Video carcast about mortgages and price drops in the Spanish Property Market with special relevance to Valencia.