Tancrede de Pola (OP Columnist)
ROLL on 2016. The last 12 months have been unbelievable and I expect the next year to be even better.
2015 will most certainly go down in the memory as the year in which everything turned around.
Banks began lending again, mortgage rates dropped and borrowers were finally given value for their money.
On a business level, the Finance Bureau relocated to its new office in Guadalmina and added an insurance service to the business, while on a personal note I began writing for the Olive Press!
Arguably the best news to come out of the last 12 months was the removal of all clausulas suelos clauses (floor clause) from mortgage agreements in Spain. Estimated to be responsible for a whopping 90% of Spanish housing evictions, the minimum-rate interest clause had been costing mortgage holders an average of €3,000 a year for far too long.
But with that finally sorted out, I hope 2016 will see the end of the compulsory insurance clause which forces the borrower to take out insurance with their lender rather than being given the choice to shop around.
And with a stable property market and mortgage rates starting as low as 1.5% (+ Euribor), I expect an even greater boom in the property sector next term.
Banks are seemingly happier to lend to less straight-forward clients – such as self-employed investors and non European nationals – and I am sure that things will continue to get better and better for the borrowers.
That even includes high-end buyers taking out large mortgages as what was previously considered as ‘unsafe’ is now seen as being much more appealing to lenders.
Merry Christmas Olive Press readers and I’ve no doubt that it will be a happy new year.
