If any readers of the Someplace Else Ireland Newsletter are fans of Little Britain, they might remember a very funny sketch where a bank manager refuses to give a loan to a customer because “the computer says no”. That seems to be very close to reality these days, with lending conditions both here and in the UK the tightest they’ve been for almost a decade.
It feels like only yesterday that banks were falling over themselves to offer us financing. Young couples in their early twenties with relatively low salaries had no problems getting 90-100% mortgages on properties that should have been way out of their league.
Nowadays, it’s the exact opposite – I recently had a client on the phone with a mutimillion euro portfolio who told me he was refused a €40,000 topup on his mortgage – “not right now” was what they told him, but it may as well have been “the computer says no”.
It seems like the Irish banks are telling us to come back another time when we’re considered less risky - but why on earth should we do that?
Another option is to forget about Irish and UK banks and approach their global competitors that offer financing for property in countries that are undersupplied, underpriced, with very low mortgage debt and who are more than happy to lend to foreigners that meet their (very reasonable) lending criteria.
Romania falls very firmly into this category (75% LTV 30 years, 6-7%), as does Bulgaria (75% LTV 25 years, 6-8%), Germany (60-70% LTV 25 years, 5-7%) and many more.
There’s a lot of negativity out there at the moment, and it’s tempting to shrug our shoulders and wait until things get better in Ireland, but in my opinion that won’t be for a long time. In the meantime however, myself and my colleagues will continue sourcing exciting property opportunities and building relationships with banks in countries that have much better investment potential.
If anyone is interested in learning more, please give us a call, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
Kind Regards
Colin Murphy
It feels like only yesterday that banks were falling over themselves to offer us financing. Young couples in their early twenties with relatively low salaries had no problems getting 90-100% mortgages on properties that should have been way out of their league.
Nowadays, it’s the exact opposite – I recently had a client on the phone with a mutimillion euro portfolio who told me he was refused a €40,000 topup on his mortgage – “not right now” was what they told him, but it may as well have been “the computer says no”.
It seems like the Irish banks are telling us to come back another time when we’re considered less risky - but why on earth should we do that?
Another option is to forget about Irish and UK banks and approach their global competitors that offer financing for property in countries that are undersupplied, underpriced, with very low mortgage debt and who are more than happy to lend to foreigners that meet their (very reasonable) lending criteria.
Romania falls very firmly into this category (75% LTV 30 years, 6-7%), as does Bulgaria (75% LTV 25 years, 6-8%), Germany (60-70% LTV 25 years, 5-7%) and many more.
There’s a lot of negativity out there at the moment, and it’s tempting to shrug our shoulders and wait until things get better in Ireland, but in my opinion that won’t be for a long time. In the meantime however, myself and my colleagues will continue sourcing exciting property opportunities and building relationships with banks in countries that have much better investment potential.
If anyone is interested in learning more, please give us a call, we’d be delighted to hear from you.
Kind Regards
Colin Murphy
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