# International Mortgages



## Cemie (Nov 4, 2011)

Hello! I just joined this community; nice to meet you all.  

My husband and I are United States citizens who would really like to move to Portugal. We have found the perfect home through a wonderful realtor and would like to make this our primary residence and live there full time. We both work online so getting a job in Portugal would not be necessary. However, we are having a lot of difficulty finding a bank that will give us a mortgage loan.

All the US banks I've tried won't lend to someone buying a home in a foreign country, except for one which required a minimum loan of $25 million. The Portuguese banks require a minimum 50.000 euro loan at a maximum of 70% - 80% of the value of the property. The home we'd like to buy is 53.000 euros, which makes it impossible for us to meet the requirements. 

Have any of you been in this situation before or do you have any suggestions? Thanks so much for your help.


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## robc (Jul 17, 2008)

Cemie said:


> Hello! I just joined this community; nice to meet you all.
> 
> My husband and I are United States citizens who would really like to move to Portugal. We have found the perfect home through a wonderful realtor and would like to make this our primary residence and live there full time. We both work online so getting a job in Portugal would not be necessary. However, we are having a lot of difficulty finding a bank that will give us a mortgage loan.
> 
> ...


Hi Cemie and welcome to the forum.

Mortgages are a difficult subject in the current climate, in fact they have been for quite some time.

We are in the process of building our house in Portugal and are both UK citizens and Tax Payers, we ended up arranging a mortgage on our existing house in the UK which we will eventually sell to clear off the mortgage. This was a far easier option than taking a mortgage out in Portugal, which can be done, but suited us better.

Are you able to mortgage a house in the US to raise funds that way?

Will you be paid in Portugal in $'s or €'s, This may make a difference as to where would be best to raise a mortgage to maybe try and smooth out any exchange rate volatility.

I am sure more will be along with advice, I wish you success

Rob


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## Cemie (Nov 4, 2011)

Hi Rob,

Thanks so much for your kind response. Unfortunately we're currently renting; this will be the first house either of us has purchased. I'm going to keep contacting more banks in the meantime, even though it's not looking promising. Hopefully we'll get lucky if we search long enough.

Also, we get paid in $ so I'm fairly sure there will be a fee or service charge for turning it into euros when the need arises. Thanks for mentioning that - I'd actually forgotten that additional expense.

Lauren


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## robc (Jul 17, 2008)

Cemie said:


> Hi Rob,
> 
> Thanks so much for your kind response. Unfortunately we're currently renting; this will be the first house either of us has purchased. I'm going to keep contacting more banks in the meantime, even though it's not looking promising. Hopefully we'll get lucky if we search long enough.
> 
> ...


Hi Lauren,

I know you need to have a number of posts before you can PM.

There are a few institutions who may well help you, I think they will almost certainly want to have most, if not all of your other banking services, (checking a/c, savings and loans, credit cards etc.) with them but it may be worth a shot.

There are some of these in Portugal and some in the wider Europe area.

Once you can PM drop me a PM and I will give you some names.

Rob


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

Hi Lauren. You need at least 5 posts before you can PM. So keep posting. Lots of information on here and there are several members who I am sure can pass on very accurate information.


:welcome: to the FORUM


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## Cemie (Nov 4, 2011)

Thank you both so much for your help! I don't care how long it takes, we're not giving up until one of the banks says yes. I'll keep posting and reading and as soon as I can, I'll shoot you a PM.


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## siobhanwf (Mar 20, 2009)

There is lots of good information on here Lauren so enjoy the reading as well as the writing :ranger:


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Have you checked your Visa status, it's very unlikely that a Portuguese bank would lend to someone who does not have Permanent Residence and your status is different to a EU citizen.

Coimbra €53,000 sounds extremely cheap even in today's market. If Portuguese banks will only lend as you say then a dearer property? 

You've also posted you run an Internet business, the bank will want to see audited accounts, and a note on internet you need to make * absolutely certain* that the property you buy has good internet connection not as easy to achieve as you might think.


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## Cemie (Nov 4, 2011)

canoeman said:


> Have you checked your Visa status, it's very unlikely that a Portuguese bank would lend to someone who does not have Permanent Residence and your status is different to a EU citizen.
> 
> Coimbra €53,000 sounds extremely cheap even in today's market. If Portuguese banks will only lend as you say then a dearer property?
> 
> You've also posted you run an Internet business, the bank will want to see audited accounts, and a note on internet you need to make * absolutely certain* that the property you buy has good internet connection not as easy to achieve as you might think.


Thanks for the insight, canoeman. Unfortunately, I don't have residency yet. I feel like I've entered a catch-22, where I've been told I cannot buy a house without residency, but I cannot get residency without having a permanent place in Portugal to live. :confused2: I know there are other people out there who have done it, but it will probably take me awhile to figure out how.

I definitely plan on verifying that whatever place we purchase has reliable internet access - we wouldn't be able to make our living without it! It's good to know that not all places offer this; we were under the impression from people we talked to while over there that internet is more easily available than electricity. Which kind of sounded strange...


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## canoeman (Mar 3, 2011)

Internet more available than electricity, possibly with a dongle but unless you have a 3G mast close to your property forget it.
You really need to be in an area, locality that has fibre optic cabling, or close to an internet hub, to guarantee stability and speed.
Have you thought of renting? qualifies as a permanent residence, but mortgages in the current Portuguese climate are scarce to say the least, certainly for Portuguese Nationals. 
You've mentioned Penela and Poiares, Lousa has a bit more going on.


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## Cemie (Nov 4, 2011)

Good to know about the internet - we definitely won't commit to anything before researching it. 

As far as renting goes, it's not something we wanted to do (I've been renting at the same place for 7 years now and could probably have afforded a renovation home in Portugal with what I've spent here ), but if that's what's required to establish residency, I'd be more than willing. It's seems like there are a lot of places available for rent if need be.

Thanks for the info on Lousa - I'll check the real estate sites to see what's available there as well. I'm not dead set on living in Poiares or Penela, those were just the towns where we found 2 houses we loved. It may be that we have to go back again and look at more properties before we make a final decision.

Thanks again!


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## wink (Aug 23, 2011)

I approached my bank last week to arrange a temporary overdraft (three days) until a cash transfer arrived from my bank in Amsterdam, I had €7400 in my Espirito Santo account here and needed €3000 to assist with the purchase of a car. Despite the fact that I have a regular income deposited into my bank monthly, which exceeds the overdraft I required, the bank manager informed me that he was very sorry but he was unable to assist. Times are hard, even for the banks it seems!


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## Cemie (Nov 4, 2011)

wink said:


> I approached my bank last week to arrange a temporary overdraft (three days) until a cash transfer arrived from my bank in Amsterdam, I had €7400 in my Espirito Santo account here and needed €3000 to assist with the purchase of a car. Despite the fact that I have a regular income deposited into my bank monthly, which exceeds the overdraft I required, the bank manager informed me that he was very sorry but he was unable to assist. Times are hard, even for the banks it seems!


Wow, that's really disappointing! However, it really puts things in perspective. Obtaining a mortgage will not be an easy task, I'm afraid. I hope you were able to get the car you wanted.


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