Financial
Banking
In order to facilitate the payment of household bills and other local expenditure, you will need to open a bank account in the country that you have chosen to purchase. It is often a shrewd move to do this before you embark on your inspection visit and where possible, we have included application forms to open a bank account within our Concise Guide to Purchasing Property abroad series.
Opening an account before you leave may sound premature but will incur little or no expense and will strengthen your purchasing position if someone else is interested in the property that you wish to purchase. In any case, you will be required to open a local bank account in order to facilitate payments to the developer and/or mortgage lender if applicable.
Currency Exchange
We regularly hear horror stories of purchasers exchanging tens of thousands of pounds into a foreign currency at their “friendly” high street bank at normal retail exchange rates. Whenever you exchange more than £1000 into a foreign currency you must obtain a wholesale exchange rate for the transaction.
We recommend the following panel of wholesale currency exchange companies.
You should register for currency exchange services as soon as you decide that you may wish to purchase abroad and prior to the inspection visit. Registration for the service is free of charge and will enable you to take advantage of attractive exchange rates as they may occur due to market fluctuations, prior to your visit.
Currency Converter (may take up to 5 seconds to load)
Mortgages
In Portugal, mortgages are readily available to the non-resident purchaser who wishes to buy property and generally, a borrower is able to borrow up to 80% of the property valuation, over a term of up to either thirty years or to age 75, whichever is the shorter. Most mortgages here offer a variable rate on a capital repayment basis although some lenders offer an option to pay interest-only for an initial period of up to three years. We have access to all the major banks in Portugal and are able to source the most appropriate mortgage available to you, depending upon your individual circumstances. Mortgage approval in Portugal is carried out in three stages: 1) A financial assessment is made to establish the applicant’s ability to service the loan. 2) When the loan is approved, an independent valuer is instructed by the bank to carry out a valuation of the property and to report to the bank. 3) Subject to a satisfactory outcome to stages 1 and 2 above, a formal mortgage offer is made.
