The current economic crisis has forced the Spanish banks to find ways to allow their clients to survive the difficult situation many of them find themselves in. The result has been the introduction of much more flexible and affordable mortgages.

Until recently it was hard to get anything other than a traditional repayment mortgage in Spain, unlike other countries who offered a much broader range of financial products.

This is particularly true for expats, who are limited to the traditional high street banks that may speak their language, or to those they are introduced to by estate agents or developers. With a little investigation however, it is actually possible to find interest-free mortgages, multi-currency mortgages and flexible mortgages amongst others.

For example, Oficina Directa offers what they call an a la carte mortgage where you only pay the interest for at least five years, then start paying off part of the capital repayment (6 percent to begin with) on an increasing scale. You can choose to pay off some of the capital if you find extra cash, or pay none if you are having a particular difficult year.

ING lets you pay off extra capital with a minimum of only EUR 1,500 as opposed to other banks who place a minimum of the equivalent of 12 months payments. This allows you to reduce the size of your mortgage without any penalties and reduce the monthly repayment or lifetime of your loan.

Multi-currency mortgages have received a lot of interest because of their low interest rates and while previously reserved for business clients, they are much more accessible to individual clients.


The benefits are that you pay for your mortgage in another currency with a lower interest rate with two of the most popular being Japanese Yen and Swiss Francs. The figures make them appealing as they could reduce your monthly mortgage payments by a third in some cases. (Note however, multi-currency mortgages are also considered very high risk mortgages because of possible exchange rate fluctuations).

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