Brilliant Views 180º in Olocau, Valencia

This property is excellently presented and this is one of two videos about it. Find the other on our YouTube site and find the property itself here on our homepage for Valencia Property.

Only 230k or nearest offer and you have yourself a really nice place overlooking the beautiful Turia River Valley. Houses for sale in Spain don't come any better viewswise.

Photo Scandal in Spain. A Bit Cheeky

The Spanish Tourist Board has done it again. They have been caught out using photos from the Bahamas to promote Spain. The image here, taken from the Guardian newspaper is being used in the campaign but unfortunately it was not actually a lovely beach in Spain.

So have you got any good photos of Spanish beaches to share with us all?

And a question, any idea where the photo below was taken?



This blog holds the original

I Have Found a Bank that Will Fund You

If you want to buy a house for sale in Spain things have been difficult recently. You may have noticed that there is a bit of a credit crunch going on at the moment. This week I have been speaking to banks for clients who want to renegotiate their mortgages because they are finding it hard. The banks have had differing points of view from, let them lose the house to we will do whatever we can to help up to a point.



Today I found a bank that is still lending to non residents meaning I may not have to totally refocus the website and business model to only take cash buyers. I will keep the name under my hat but suffice to say if you are a viable client and you need a mortgage of up to 80% maximum of valuation then I may well be able to get you the finance lacking in the market at the moment. You will have to link yourself to the bank in terms of credit cards, direct debits and insurance but at least you will be able to buy the house or flat.

One caveat of course is that Euribor is currently around the 2% mark, do not expect anything less than Euribor plus 1.75%-2% as the banks themselves get their money by offering rates to investors much higher than the 2% Euribor rate. See the graph above for the lemming like jump the Euribor has taken recently.

Telefonica Versus Graham. Graham Wins

Well if you read my blogs last week about the national disgrace that is Telefonica you might be surprised at the news that i have now got my clients ADSL Broadband Internet connection through Telefonica even though the stupid company stated that the lines were saturated, they couldn't do it and it was impossible.

I thank you for the applause. If you want me to do the same for you I will only charge 200 Euros, a straitjacket, three bottles of rum and a wig after I have again torn all my hair out.

A little victory in life's great tapestry but we should all celebrate our small victories I think.

And why could I do this, because I learnt Spanish. You can too if you go to this link (Oh and if you get a bit bolshie on the phone and at the same time have the patience of a Saint.)

Banks, Interest Rates, Mortgages and House Sales

I am closely working with some banks at the moment renegotiating people's loans so that they get a respite from the payments which rocketed last year and stay that way until the next revision, 12 months after the last in Spain as Trackers don't exist.

All banks in Spain generally lend money at a rate above Euribor, the European base rate. Euribor today stood at 2.08% and traditionally here banks lend at around Euribor +1. However no banks are lending as i said in my last blogs, they have no money as interbank lending has collapsed due to the lack of confidence in the market. The only funds coming into the market are coming through government guarantees on bank securities they are selling abroad backed by mortgages. Can you see where this is going? In order to sell them they are having to offer around 5%. The other source of income is from depositors' cash which they can only attract at around 4-5%. Therefore all money they are borrowing they are getting at rates well above Euribor. thus they will not lend it at Euribor plus rates or if they do the plus is now +2% or more.

What does this mean? If you have a mortgage in Spain then make use of it, remember the mortgage stays on the property not with the person here. If you are selling a house make use of the property having a mortgage on it at a good rate because that is now a major selling point. Without that mortgage it is virtually inconceivable that you can sell to anyone other than a cash buyer because the banks will not give out new mortgages. The only downside, let's see if your bank will finance the buyer, even if they have excellent credit history and a lovely high income.