Spanish banks are setting up their own Estate Agencies to sell repossessed properties.

Periklês · 15-02-09, 10:43

This might be old news, but El Pais reports here that Spanish banks are trying to reduce the number of reposessed houses and apartments by selling them through their own Estate Agency departments. (No mention of trying to avoid the reposessions in the first place

).

Quote:

Santander have made the first move by establishing Altamira Santander Real Estate, to put stock on the market worth 2,700 milliion euros. The bank has 20,000 employees as first buyers of their offers, but as a kind of pilot scheme, will start to sell to the general public via the internet and catalogues in their branches.

Santander are not the only bank. Banesto are doing something similar, and La CAM, Banco Sabadell, Unicaja, Caixa Galicia, Banesto, Caixa Catalunya, Cajasur, Banco Popular and Ibercaja also have such plans.

Quote:

Some institutions do not want much publicity for this iniciative, in order not to damage their image of solvency. The actual number of properties reposessed is a closely guarded secret. Apartments are offered with a generous discount of between 20% and 30% below the inicial value. Some, such as CAM and Caixa Catalunya are offering finance.

I hate banks. Always have done. Clearly there are some cases of reposession which are unavoidable, but they do nothing to help in cases of difficulty. What would you think of a bank if you were sitting in a branch and you found a catalogue of reposessed properties which they were selling off cheaply? Nice bank, or nasty bank?

macbee48 · 15-02-09, 10:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Periklês

What would you think of a bank if you were sitting in a branch and you found a catalogue of reposessed properties which they were selling off cheaply? Nice bank, or nasty bank?

It would make me very wary of having anything to do with them.

Periklês · 15-02-09, 11:05

I should point out that not all the properties are reposessions (but the numbers are secret). Some are from developers who have gone bust. The article states that the total debt to banks in Spain is 3,000 million euros by developers, and 6,000 million euros by families.

snowbirds · 15-02-09, 11:11

I doubt that the really good properties will even get on those lists. They will be gobbled up by friends and families at bargain prices

Janet · 15-02-09, 11:58

and bank employees ... and guess where they get the finance?

The mortgage itself will be almost certainly be covered even if the properties are sold at 30% below market value, but the penalties won't be.

So now they get the property, they get yet another chance to mortgage the same property, and they get the penalties paid by insurance ... they are being paid three times over for the same thing while the poor sold who lost the property struggles to repay the penalties which have doubled his mortgage.

I hate banks too, but it interests me that El Pais have led with Santander doing this. As the article says, others are doing it too, but it's Santander's name that's being headlined. Journalists aren't fools. If there is a more loathed institution in Spain then I'd like to know what it is.

Lifeline · 17-02-09, 01:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Janet©

and bank employees ... and guess where they get the finance?

The mortgage itself will be almost certainly be covered even if the properties are sold at 30% below market value, but the penalties won't be.

So now they get the property, they get yet another chance to mortgage the same property, and they get the penalties paid by insurance ... they are being paid three times over for the same thing while the poor sold who lost the property struggles to repay the penalties which have doubled his mortgage.

Actually it gets even worse. It is not uncommon that properties do not find a buyer at auction. That means that the bank gets to 'buy' them at 50% of their value (and the bank will have cunningly done a revaluation before it went to court... so this is a bargain 50% we are talking about). When they resell it through their estate agent - they can pocket the difference.

If 50% does not cover your outstanding mortgage (and LOTS of costs), then unless you have a dacion en pago, the bank WILL chase you for the money, even if you have moved back to the UK. In order to circumvent the complications and high costs of pursuing overseas debt, Spanish Banks are apparently selling these debts on to UK debt collection agencies.

Janet · 17-02-09, 01:26

I understood that if there was no sale at auction, which would be understandable and usual given that the minimum auction price has to be the value of the mortgage plus penalties, then there was no minimum set for a subsequent sale. On that basis, I understood that the bank could buy them for a nominal sum ...

Lifeline · 17-02-09, 18:32

50% of the valuation is the minimum that the bank can buy it for, but the property is normally be re-appraised after the requerimiento notarial and these appraisals are not generous! You can follow this link for more information about the repossession procedure. We have had a depressingly high number of messages on the Lifeline site about mortgage problems and have tried to post as much info as we can in order to help people.

Janet · 17-02-09, 18:35

There is also a thread on this forum about repossession HERE.

Janet · 30-03-09, 01:04

First Bank agency I've come across, no doubt there are (or will soon be) many more.

CAM Bank www.cambankproperties.com

Thanks to Paperlily for the pointer.