Which banks do Mortgages in Portugal?

[traxx]

I'm thinking about buying a holiday place in Portugal but Barclays are the only UK bank I can see that offers Mortgages

Who am I missing?
Anyone got any experience of this?

[Eric Mc]

Two words of warning - exchange rates.

[scotal]

There are a couple of firms that do it, hae you spoken to any of the portuguese banks at all? You may well find they are better than uk offerings. Depends whether you are prepared to take on the loan in Euro, and therefore have currency risk, assuming you earn in GBP, or whehter you borrow in GBp, and therefore have no currency risk on the interest payments, but could suffer on the cost of changing into the euro at the time of purchase and at the time of disposal.

[Racing Rod]

Check out the local/country taxes on buying and selling, friend of mine was horrified by the tax that would have been payable if you buy in your own name and sell at a later date, the latter being the main area of concern.

He formed a Portuguese company, bought the property as it's sole asset and then several years later, sold the company and avoided a major tax bill. Things may have changed but do check !!

[anonymous-user]

Barclays used to offer overseas mortgages (Italy, Spain, Portugal and France) in both Euros and Sterling, at least they did when I worked there.

[Alfa_75_Steve]

With the exchange rates where they are at the moment, I probably wouldn't bother.

We did look at doing this a few years ago, never got around to it, then the exchange rate started going in the wrong direction and we abandoned the idea.

[MrCheese]

if you are doing this the offshore company route or under-declaring the value be very careful - the Portuguese authorities have been clamping down on the common avoidance techniques and will continue to do so in the future. Foreign property owners are an easy target.

Barclays are good for mortgages - I found them very straightforward and quick.

[Not Ideal]

MrCheese said:

if you are doing this the offshore company route or under-declaring the value be very careful - the Portuguese authorities have been clamping down on the common avoidance techniques and will continue to do so in the future. Foreign property owners are an easy target.

Barclays are good for mortgages - I found them very straightforward and quick.

+ 1 - Portugese authorities are definitely wising up to these holes in the system and are targeting foreign property owners.