Remortgaging and refinancing in Spain

These dreaded days at the Notary are never short. For the life of me I cannot understand why they can't prepare the documents in advance, subject to them seeing the original documents on the day of the signing! Anyway, the world cannot be changed in one day. Or one decade for that matter.

Remember to take the same documents that you used for your original mortgage/hipoteca. This may include an expired passport that is not valid. Don't panic if you've thrown that old passport away after renewing it, but it makes things a lot smoother on the day of signing your linked mortgage if you have all the original mortgage's supporting documents.

Allow plenty of time at the Notary, like with everything else in Spain. Especially so if there are other peripheral contracts to be signed with the new mortgage, for example if you are obliged to take a life insurance with the new bank etc.

Your new bank will handle all payments, so ensure that you have deposited enough funds in the new bank's account to cover the expenses needed. This may include the cancellation fee for the old bank (yes, you don't pay the old bank directly, all is handled by the new bank), any Notary fees, the tax for Notarised Documents (impuesto de actos juridicos in Spanish), etc..

And a word of advice: make sure you cash in all your loyalty points with the old bank because somehow I don't see them giving you that toaster after they lose you as a customer!

Just a quick note to point out certain documentation points that you may not be aware of.

The same documentation that was used to contract your original mortgage has to be used for the linked / subrogacion mortgage. I.e. if you used your NIE and passport to take out the original loan, you will need to bring both your NIE and passport to the notary, otherwise it cannot be confirmed that you are the same person.

Another point is that if the original loan was made to 2 persons, say husband and wife, then again both have to be named on the subrogacion mortgage. I know this sounds too obvious but many have been fooled into believing that "the obvious" is what is done in Spain to their detriment!

Keep your money safe!

As I've mentioned in other posts, for linked (subrogacion) mortgages the new bank sends a document to the old bank detailing the new conditions that they have agreed with you. The old bank now has 15 days to respond. Just be aware that they will  probably take the full 15 days to issue the required documents, even if they have made it clear that their answer will be negative. Of course the reason is obvious, they gain time during which you will be probably making another payment towards your mortgage with them, just before you go. Such is life.

During this time the new bank is also sitting with their hands tied because their actions will depend on the old bank's answer, so don't expect much from that side either. All in all, expect a month's delay between having everything approved with the new bank and a new mortgage offer sorted out, and the actual signing. This may be critical if you perhaps have other ongoing business with the old bank and you want to keep everything "sweet" with them in the meantime.

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From my research over the last month it seems that very few banks are actually lending anything! Even with the new bailout on the backs of the working class, cajas and banks are not interested in giving mortgages, regardless of your creditworthiness. I've talked to BBVA, Banco de Andalucia, Barclays, Caja Granada, CAM, Santander, Banesto... Only Caja Granada and Barclays were actively interested in asking for my information to evaluate the case. I don't think this is a branch-specific condition, in fact, one of the bank employees said to me that they are just interested in surviving (off my taxes presumably), not taking risks.

I would be very interested what you readers experiences are. My intention was to provide some comparisons of rates/conditions but it's pointless if nobody is lending. Anyway, for what it's worth, I found that Barclays's Euribor + 0.59% was the lowest achievable rate.