DON’T PANIC YOU CAN STILL BUY !!!
October 19, 2016
OK don’t panic, you were going to buy a small property in Spain for about ??? euros but now the pound to euro rate is poor. This of course means that your budget won’t go as far. What can you do?
- Don’t buy
- Wait and see what happens
- Buy anyway
- Look for alternatives
- This is the simplest answer though you may be disappointed. Or you may need to buy a smaller property or more basic property than you planned.There are still plenty of cheap options available though they may not be in the location you were thinking about.
- Waiting to see what happens could mean you have to wait until Brexit is completed and the dust has settled. On the other hand the pound may strengthen and we will be back to square one! Even economists have no idea what or when things will happen as with the best will in the world exchange rates don’t do what is expected all the time! Waiting could mean that prices in the Spanish property market will rise while you are waiting so you are still in the same boat! British buyers may have problems, but for those buying in euros anyway, things won’t have changed. The property market will continue with its ups and downs. At the time of writing pricesareup. As new phases are built, many developers are also charging higher prices.
- You may feel you might as well buy anyway. If your budget is small it may make the search for a property you can afford more difficult. This is where a Spanish Property specialist will be able to advise where the best deals can be found. Often they will have access to properties not on the open market. You may, if you can, need to find some extra money in your piggy bank to fill the gap caused by the exchange rate. Take care not to over-stretch yourself as money worries will take away some of the pleasure the property gives.
- Look at different ways of buying ( see also number 1). We recently wrote a blog about clubbing together with friends or family to buy in Spain. This could be one solution. Another possibility is using your money as a deposit and having a mortgage. There is still availability on certain properties to have a 115% mortgage. This means thatall fees incurred with the purchase are accounted for. Mortgage payments may be relatively small. So, though you may finish up with a larger more expensive property you get the use of it straight away by using your budget to cover mortgage payments. Plus you avoid any price rises you may have incurred while waiting to buy! There is of course the possibility of re-mortgaging your own property in the UK. This again is where specialist advice will be needed to get the best deal.
With resales if you see a property you like and the vendor is British, we can make the negotiation quite simple – he/she as vendor is at present going to get more pounds for the euros which buy the property, whilst the cost to the purchaser who has the monies in pounds will see that this effectively cancels out the drop in the exchange rate of pounds/euros. Everyone’s happy!!
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