Whether you are looking to buy a property in Spain or seeking to re-mortgage your property to raise additional finance, finding the right mortgage can be a daunting task. The one thing I will say at this point is that you must change the way you think about having a mortgage.

The “British” way is to reach retirement and own your home outright. Having paid for 25 or 30 years it is comforting to most people to lose this monthly burden. However, here in Spain, because of the Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and the concerns about the legality of some new-build properties as well as the Valencian land grab situation, it is sensible to have a mortgage.

A recent well publicised demolition of a property in Vera, Almeria, highlighted this. Had the owners taken a mortgage on the property, they would have had the strength of the lending bank behind them to fight the demolition. Do you think the bulldozers would have been sent in so quickly, if a major bank had a financial interest in the property?

Exchange rate fluctuations can also be minimised on a good proportion of your capital, if you get a mortgage for as much as you can, say 70%. We all know that interest rates at this time in 2007 were standing at 1.46€ to £1.00, today they are at about 1.27. In these circumstances, if you keep your funds in sterling, you have the chance to wait until the rate improves, and will still have a cash buffer in case of things not working out in Spain, with which to start afresh in the UK.. Also for people living here on reduced pensions, as a result of the strength of the euro, releasing funds from the property may help to keep up the quality of life and make the difference between staying here in the sunshine and going back to the UK.

Arranging mortgage finance in Spain can be far more complicated than in the UK, especially following the “credit crunch”. You can try to arrange one yourself, as I did last year, when I came to Spain, but in hindsight it would haven been MUCH easier to use someone, with knowledge of most Spanish and UK lenders in Spain. I can save you a lot of phone calls and legwork, in finding the BEST deal to suit your individual circumstances. There is no such thing as a standard set of rules and requirements. Arranging an “agreement in principle” from a number of lenders and then deciding, which will be best for you is all part of the service I provide in conjunction with my colleagues.