Have your Bank been charging you more than they should for your mortgage?. Time to revenge its coming ...

From 2013 the spanish courts have been repeteadly considering null and void the mortgage floor clauses. You can see our note on our blog in 2013. This clauses were designed to protect banks from negative interest rates.

http://javierherrerallamas.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/mortgage-floor-interest-abolished-take.html

Last week a Spanish court ruled that the country's banks leaders can no longer sell mortgages with so-called floor clauses. All main banks are involved, including Caixabank, Barclays, Bankia, and Banco Santander. Caixabank and Bankia.

The court said banks had to repay customers what they had lost since May 2013, when Spain's Supreme Court declared these mortgages, whose rates cannot fall below a benchmark, were invalid if they had not been presented clearly. This means the ruling is only retrospective to May 2013.

This ruling by a local court in Madrid followed class action suits by customers alleging that banks had not properly explained the clauses to them, which prevented them from benefiting from the euro zone's record low interest rates.

Most of the estimated 4m mortgages affected were sold during the 1997-2007 property boom when buyers were paying top prices for their homes. When the bubble burst they were unable to benefit from falling interest rates.

It is estimated that those affected pay from €179 (Euribor +0.5%) to €213 (Euribor +1%) more on a €150,000 mortgage than they would if they didn’t have a fixed minimum rate mortgage.

As the recession set in and people were unable to meet their mortgage repayments, they were evicted in growing numbers, peaking at an average of 500 a day in 2012. Under Spanish law homeowners cannot claim bankruptcy over a mortgage as it is regarded as personal debt.

So even after the banks foreclose and repossess a property the former owner still has to pay off the mortgage, as well as associated legal charges.

Some Spanish banks  have already removed the mortgage floor . Since the third quarter of 2015, Caixabank has eliminated most of its mortgage floor clauses. Banco Sabadell, the fifth-largest in Spain which has so far refused to get rid of the clauses, said they would analyse the ruling and take a decision later.

Banks including Barclays and Santander face a €5bn (£4bn) bill after a Spanish court ruled that millions of fixed minimum rate mortgages were null and void because of the “lack of transparency” in the way they were sold during the property boom.

Last October the European Commission asked Spanish banks to remove the clauses and even repay customers over the whole life of the loan, beyond the May 2013 limit. The European court in Strasbourg is expected to rule on 26 April whether the banks’ liability should extend beyond that date. The European commission has already said it believes the payments should be backdated to the date the mortgage was signed, on the grounds that if a clause is declared null, it’s null from the beginning.

So, it is clearly time to press your bank to get some of your money back. 

Javier Herrera Llamas

2013. Time to invest in Property?

1st term of the year has been a very busy time, and shown a firm revival of the sales on property in Malaga from investors.

I was really puzzled about this, as it seemed hardly compatible with the housing crisis.

So I decided to look outside of Spain to be able to understand what was going on. 

I found that BNP Parisbas Real Estate, part of the French bank, listed ten good reasons for investing in Spanish property today, in a new guide to investing in Spain, aimed at foreign investors.

The main reason they give is prices, which have fallen to their lowest level since the crash began, and now represent a “unique opportunity,” they argue. 


Prices have fallen faster than rents, driving up rental yields on prime property. Forecasting that prime property prices will recover within the next 5 years, they conclude this is the time to invest.
The other factors they mention include Spain’s structural reforms, infrastructure, strategic position as a gateway to Europe from Latin America and Africa, world-class corporations and a well-trained workforce.

Also, Price Waterhose Cooper (PwC) & Urban Land Institute  issued a  report ‘Tendencias del mercado inmobiliario europeo 2013’ . They suggest investors to be alert to opportunities that may arise in connection with the sale of repossed properties in Spain. 

They also recommend to keep an eye open for secondary Spanish cities´ opportunities, and find partners  that can provide valuable information about where the real bargains lie, what assets should be considered and which ones are to be avoided, and what properties are about to come out to the market.

So, I come to the conclusion that we're getting closer to find  points where supply and demand are balanced. Don´t you think so?

Javier Herrera Llamas