The Euro Is Down – Time To Buy?

The EURO has kept crashing due to the trouble in the eurozone economies. Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Ireland have all been in various kinds of trouble and as a consequence you will now benefit from buying Spanish property in any other currency than the EURO itself.

Is it a good time to buy then ?

Yes and no. If you have savings in pounds, dollars, francs, Swedish kroner, rubles or whatever it might be, they will buy you more of a Spanish dream property than ever before. Not only are the prices well below their peak in EUROs, the euro itself is also cheaper to buy. Overall of course that makes coming to Spain and buying a property a unique and cheap option at the moment. However, there is a flip side to the coin. No mortgages are available from Spanish banks as they’re all overly exposed to the local property market, several of them at a level where they risk collapse.

Foreign banks in a variety of countries do have mortgages for solid customers wishing to buy a house, but may still refuse to provide one for a house in Spain. Plainly spoken, a EURO collapse or Spanish euro exit would deliver another blow to the Spanish property market and as such turn any equity into a negative immediately and/or compromise the ability to repay in case of a forced sale.

In other words, it can´t be ruled out that Spanish properties will continue to fall in prices, in the case of a default or Euro-exit it could be sudden and drastic. However, if you simply look at the prices, the value you can get right now and the long term attractiveness of the properties on the market right now, there are some fantastic bargains to be had if you have the money yourself. Buying to keep is perfectly timed, buying to enjoy is rarely a bad idea, buying with a long term purpose is most likely an excellent investment – but buying on a tight budget and a 100% mortgage with the aim of flipping the property soon is a game of Russian roulette.

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