A non-resident mortgage in Spain — paid by you, not by the bank
Most brokers in Spain and Portugal are paid by the lender. That decides, before anything else, which lenders you are shown. Here it works the other way round, and this page sets out what follows from it — including the licence details you can verify without asking us.
How much can a non-resident borrow for a property in Spain?
For buyers without Spanish tax residency, Spanish banks lend as a rule up to 70 % of the lower of purchase price and tasación — the bank's own valuation, not the asking price. In Portugal the ceiling is usually 80 %. The loan-to-value is only half the calculation: purchase costs of roughly 10 to 13 % in Spain are financed by no lender, so realistic planning starts at 30 to 40 % equity plus those costs in cash. Two further constraints catch people out more often than the loan-to-value does. A new build cannot be mortgaged until it has been completed, signed off and registered, which means the developer's instalments run out of equity for eighteen to thirty-six months. And the loan has to be repaid by the borrower's seventy-fifth birthday — with two borrowers it is the age of the younger that counts, which is why a co-signature can turn thirteen years of term into twenty-three. Fifteen to twenty institutions are approached per case, because the awkward cases sit with very few of them.
What a non-resident can borrow, and what has to come from equity
For buyers without Spanish tax residency, Spanish banks lend as a rule up to 70 % of the lower of purchase price and tasación — the bank's own valuation, not the price on the listing. In Portugal the ceiling is usually 80 %. The gap is not the whole story: purchase costs of roughly 10–13 % in Spain are not financed by any lender, so realistic planning starts at 30–40 % equity plus those costs in cash.
Two constraints catch people out more often than the loan-to-value does. A new build is not mortgageable until it has been completed, signed off and registered, which means the developer's instalments run out of equity for 18 to 36 months. And the loan must be repaid by the borrower's 75th birthday — though with two borrowers it is the age of the younger that counts, which is why a co-signature can turn 13 years of term into 23.
Why the fee model decides which lenders you get to see
A broker who lives on the lender's commission can only put forward lenders who pay one. That is not a criticism of anyone's character; it is arithmetic. The consequence for the buyer is invisible and expensive: an entire segment of the market never appears in the comparison, and it tends to be the cheaper segment.
Because the fee here is paid by the client on success, that constraint disappears. The prepared file goes to lenders that pay no commission at all — including online banks that no commission-based broker submits to, simply because the work would not pay for itself. Preparing the case properly and presenting the borrower is what makes those lenders willing to look at a non-resident file in the first place.
In practice this usually shows up as a better rate on the loan actually arranged — in the order of 0.25 to 0.7 percentage points against commission-brokered offers, from our own brokerage experience rather than a published survey. It is the regular case, not a promise: the rate in any individual case depends on the property, the loan-to-value, the fixed-rate period and the borrower's standing. The comisión de apertura, the arrangement fee Spanish banks commonly charge, also drops away in many of these cases.
Set against the fee itself, that is the calculation worth doing before deciding how a broker should be paid: a one-off percentage of the loan against a lower rate for the whole fixed-rate period. The fee page sets out the exact figures and the worked example.
How many lenders are actually approached — and what that produces
Access covers more than 30 banks across Spain, Portugal and Germany. Per case, 15 to 20 institutions are approached: Spanish clearing banks with a non-resident desk, regional cajas, cross-border specialists and German lenders willing to secure against a property abroad.
The reason for approaching that many is that the awkward cases sit with very few lenders. Of 15 to 20 institutions approached, two will lend against an unencumbered property already held by a non-resident. One pays a developer's stage payments before the building has been signed off. A single-lender relationship does not find those; a comparison across the whole panel does.
Licence, register and supervision — verifiable without asking us
Brokerage is carried out under the licence of Olga Nikushkina as a mortgage credit intermediary under § 34i(1) of the German Trade Regulation Act, supplemented by § 34c for other loans. The entry in the German intermediary register carries the number D-W-132-ZUCB-95 and has existed since 26 September 2016; the competent authority for both licence and register is IHK Mittlerer Niederrhein in Krefeld. Activity in Spain is notified under § 34i(4) through the BAFA; in Portugal the transaction runs through a locally licensed intermediary. Professional indemnity cover is held with Allianz. Siegfried Perini is entered in the register as a person directly involved in brokerage and advice.
All of it is free to verify at vermittlerregister.info, by number or by name. There is deliberately no Banco de España intermediary number here: cross-border service from Germany is a different regulatory route, and the German register entry is what documents it. Advice is given in six languages (DE/EN/FR/NL/ES/RU). The full table, with the verifying authority named line by line, is on licensing and supervision.
Who pays the broker — and how can the independence be checked?
The fee comes from the client, not from the bank, and only if the mortgage completes. That single fact decides everything else: a broker paid by bank commission can only present lenders that pay one. We put the prepared file in front of lenders that pay nothing at all — including online banks no commission-based broker approaches, because the work does not pay for itself. Access covers more than 30 banks across Spain, Portugal and Germany; 15 to 20 of them are approached per case. The licence under § 34i(1) and § 34c of the German Trade Regulation Act carries adviser-register number D-W-132-ZUCB-95, entered on 26 September 2016 with IHK Mittlerer Niederrhein, notified for Spain under § 34i(4) via the BAFA, with professional indemnity cover at Allianz. Every one of these entries can be checked free of charge at vermittlerregister.info. Advice is given in six languages (DE/EN/FR/NL/ES/RU). The fee page sets out how it is calculated.