International-Mortgage-Broker.com would like to wish all readers a happy new year. Let us hope that 2009 brings more joy in the World property and lending markets than 2008.
We will be continuing our research into the ever changing International Lending market and as ever, always striving to look for ways to save clients money.
Our key strategies for 2009 are reducing client exposure to high interest rates, reducing exposure to foreign exchange rates and of course developing and strenghening global lending opportunities.
Interest Rates
Reducing exposure to high interest rates: This is the balancing act of keeping debt the same, but looking to borrow in other currencies against properties around the world. For example, if you have a property in the UK at the moment, it makes sense to increase your debt here (taking advantage of the low interest rates) and use the equity to pay down the loan on your property abroad - particularly in places like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa who are all suffering from high interest rates.
Currency Risk
Please remember the risks of currency exposure; ideally you should always have some income in the currency you are arranging a mortgage, to mitigate your exposure to currency risk. For example, many investors in Europe are currently suffering because their mortgage payments are in Euros, but their income is in Sterling.
International-Mortgage-Broker.com will continue to develop in 2009 it’s relationships with various City firms, banks and finance houses to look at hedging foreign exchange rate risk or at least mitigating the impact.
When buying property abroad, always also remember to seek independent tax advice in all the countries you are involved.
The Global Property Lending Market
We are very much looking forward to developing new markets in 2009; working with other brokers from around the World. This has always been part of our strategy, finding specialists in their own particular local markets. We shall continue to develop our links with Germany and are opening up lending opportunities in Panama and Mexico. We will also be looking to strengthen our lending in the Middle East and Asia, notably: Qatar, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, we continue to remain strong in most of the European countries, the USA, Canada and the Caribbean. Despite the high interest rates locally, we also expect to arrange a lot of lending in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand this year.
We will always strive to offer the best choices of local bank lending and access to International / Offshore and Private banks.
I hope this is of interest, please feel free to contact us via our website: www.international-mortgage-broker.com
Best wishes again for 2009.
Julian Fidler.