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There is not many things more pleasurable than having a second comfortable little nest to call your own.
However it is very wise, before taking the plunge, to think if you really do want to own a second home, or is as a result of the happy holiday that you have only just returned from and the affects of the sun, good food and especially simply too much of the cheap wine and spirits you enjoyed so very much. when you were there.?
How many people, particularly when we are talking about Spain, have holidays there year after year, and when they retire they cannot wait to buy a property and live there for the rest of thier lives to only a few months later, apparently having managed to achieve their dream, start complaining bitterly that their Spanish neighbours in the idyllic village do not speak English? Many complain about the food when they cannot find the chips and deep fried battered fish, and chips with egg, etc. that was so much part of their daily diet in Benidorm and similar resorts. Then where are the Irish bars and the morning noon and night karaoke?
Life in the real Spain, France and Italy, etc.may well be very different from the country you enjoyed so much on holiday, when the hotel owners, waiters, bar staff and so on did all have a very good grasp of English, but when you go to the places that do not have many tourists, it is like being in great Britain where not many ordinary waiters, shop assistants, etc. speak any other European language, or at least not at all fluently.
The average restaurant in a remote little town in these countries is not going to serve up sausage and mash, pies and beans and fish and chips, as these are only available in the resorts flooded by The Brits .
However for those wanting to own a second home in the real Italy, Spain, etc. there is nothing much better in life, and if you are one of these people, the first important step is to think of the ways of financing the purchase before even looking for a property.
It is possible to obtain a foreign mortgage, but you will be required to put down a deposit of at least 30%.
Therefore, a better way for those with equity in their British properties is to take out a remortgage or secured loan.
If someone has lived at their property for some time, they should have a fair amount of equity to use as collateral for a secured loan or a remortgage.
The maximum secured loan is normally 100,000, but that can buy a nice beach front flat for example in Calabria in Southern Italy or for that amount there are a number of areas in France where a little three bedroom house can be yours for that amount.
Remortgages have no maximum as such because as long as there is sufficient equity in a property, and the borrower has enough income to meet the payments, remortgages have no restriction.
With secured loans available with interest rates from 7.9% ,and remortgages from under 2%, they are low cost ways of paying 100% of the purchase price for your home in the sun.
