Non-resident mortgage on foreign income: will a Spanish bank fund a new-build?
For buyers with income outside the eurozone, a new-build sharpens everything: the lending limit, the equity requirement — and an exchange-rate exposure that runs for two to three years. The bank will ultimately assess your income in euros, not in your own currency.
Non-resident mortgage on foreign income: what changes on lenders and equity for a new-build?
A non-resident mortgage on foreign income works for a Spanish new-build, but with fewer lenders and more equity. Banks apply a haircut to non-euro income and set the lending limit below the 70 per cent of tasación customary for non-residents. During the two to three years of the build, the exchange-rate risk on your developer instalments stays with you.
What changes against the euro case
Author & regulatory separation. Content author: Siegfried Perini.
Mortgage brokerage in Spain and Portugal is carried out under the §34i GewO licence held by Olga Nikushkina; in Portugal through a locally licensed intermediary. This information does not replace legal or tax advice.
Income in another currency means tighter lending limits
Non-resident mortgage on foreign income: earning in francs, pounds, dollars or dirhams means tighter Spanish lending limits — and years of currency risk.
Foreign-currency income works — with more equity: In many cases, but at a lower loan-to-value. The spread between institutions is considerable.
We do not recommend a foreign-currency loan
Rarely sensible for private buyers and tightly regulated.
Can I get a non-resident mortgage on foreign income for a Spanish new-build? Yes, a non-resident mortgage on foreign income is possible for a Spanish new-build, but the field of lenders is considerably narrower and the requirements are higher. Two effects compound.
First, banks apply a haircut to non-euro income and set the lending limit below the 70 per cent of tasación customary for non-residents, so your equity requirement rises.
Second, an off-plan purchase leaves two to three years between the private contract and drawdown, and the exchange rate moves across that period: your developer instalments fall due in euros, your income does not.
Anyone funding those instalments from current non-euro earnings carries the currency risk during exactly the phase in which no bank is yet involved. What makes it plannable is euro capital in place before the first instalment, not a hoped-for rate on the payment date.
The bank will ultimately assess your income in euros, not in your own currency.
First, the lending. Spanish banks already assess non-residents cautiously. Where income arrives in another currency, the financeable share can fall further — the bank prices the currency risk into its assessment. The equity requirement rises accordingly.
Second, the construction phase. The instalments to the developer fall due in euros, spread across years. Anyone funding them from another currency carries the exchange-rate exposure on every single instalment. An adverse move makes the project more expensive without anything changing on site.
What can be structured
The instalments can be planned from the payment schedule in the private contract, borrowing against a property in Germany shifts the financing into the euro area, and the bank is chosen by how it assesses foreign-currency income.
Make the instalments plannable. The payment schedule is in the private contract — the amounts and approximate dates are known. That is the basis for planning the currency side rather than hoping.
Euro security instead of foreign-currency income. Where a property exists in Germany, borrowing against it shifts the financing into the euro area — loan, security and developer instalments then sit in one currency. Choose the bank accordingly. Institutions assess foreign-currency income very differently.
The gap between two banks can exceed anything negotiation with one will achieve.
We give no exchange-rate forecasts and recommend no FX products — that is outside our licence and would be unprofessional. What we do: build the financing so that it depends less on the currency.
Typical constellations
Cross-border commuters into Switzerland on a franc salary. Germans posted to Singapore, Dubai or London. Self-employed professionals invoicing largely in dollars. The same logic applies to all of them in Spain — and on a new-build the construction phase amplifies it.
This is core work in our practice: we broker across three platforms in Germany, Spain and Portugal, and we see the cases where the house bank declines because it does not recognise the pattern.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get a Spanish mortgage at all on foreign-currency income?
In many cases yes — but at a lower loan-to-value and therefore a higher equity requirement. The spread between institutions is considerable.
Is a foreign-currency loan an option?
Rarely sensible for private buyers and tightly regulated. We do not recommend it as a standard route.
What if the rate turns during construction?
The euro instalments become more or less expensive in your home currency. Which is exactly why the question of which currency funds the build is not a side issue.
Does borrowing against German property help here?
Where German property exists: yes, because loan and payments then both run in euros. Without it, the route does not exist.
New-build in Spain — let us work through the construction phase together
We check which part of the price has to come from your own funds, what a German bank can raise against existing property, and what the Spanish bank takes on at completion — free of charge, no upfront cost.
Related pages
Aval bancario or seguro de caución: are your off-plan instalments protected?
Aval bancario or seguro de caución: every instalment paid to a Spanish developer must be secured from the first euro. What the law requires.
Developer mortgage subrogation: must you take it over, or can you redeem it?
Developer mortgage subrogation: at handover the buyer may take over the developer's loan share for their unit — or bring their own financing.
Building mortgage for a self-build in Spain: how does the bank pay out?
Building mortgage for a self-build in Spain: the hipoteca de autopromotor releases funds against construction progress. The plot counts as your equity.
Mortgage interest rate in Spain: when is it fixed on a new build?
Mortgage interest rate in Spain on a new build: approval comes at the end, two to three years after the private contract. Why, and how to limit the risk.
IVA tax or ITP: does a new build in Spain cost you more than a resale?
IVA tax and AJD instead of ITP, equity during the build instead of at the notary: in Spain, new-build and resale differ across the whole process.
Off-plan property in Spain: what to check before you sign the private contract?
Off-plan property in Spain: the private contract binds. What to settle beforehand — protection, licence, financing clause, equity plan.
Content by Siegfried Perini — local brand representative since 2019, active in real estate since 1992, entered in the German intermediary register (§ 11a GewO) as a person directly involved in brokerage and advice. Point of contact for German-speaking buyers in Spain and Portugal. Brokerage by Olga Nikushkina, mortgage credit intermediary under § 34i German Trade Regulation (GewO); in Portugal through a locally licensed intermediary.