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Christina Brady with us from Blacktown
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financial management so homeowners in
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Spain can now release Equity from their
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Spanish property if the mortgage has
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been mostly or fully paid off off yes
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it's the same in the UK I think what
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people don't realize is equity release
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is just taking out a lifetime mortgage
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on your property and in the UK it's
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available to over 55s and and what
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you've got to do is you've either got to
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when you take your Equity you've either
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got to if you've got an existing
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mortgage you've got to pay that off
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or else you can't have it and so in
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Spain really it's got to be debt free to
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get Equity release now the one problem
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with Equity releases say what's the
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catch the one problem is and this
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happened before I remember I think they
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were quite popular after the crash or be
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and what happened is people found out
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that the loan plus the interest was more
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than the value of their
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property so they could so actually so
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you you pay interest on the money you
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release it's on the amount that you ow
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it grows so it grows and grows and they
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couldn't get enough um income or
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interest on what they borrowed to pay
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off the debt so when they died they
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actually owed more money and their
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beneficiaries of their estate had to pay
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off that mortgage and that was a big
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problem so nowadays when you get an
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equity release there is one thing you've
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got to make sure you've get and I've got
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to make sure this is it you've got to
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have a no negative equity guarantee
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so if you take out an equity release
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that company has got to guarantee that
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when you die and that property is sold
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so the only time that property you've
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got a lifetime interest you can live
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there till you die or until you get put
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into long-term care and when that
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happens they've got to guarantee that
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there will not be any comeback on you so
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you've got to have that guarantee and if
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you go to any company for Equity release
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and they will give not give you a no
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negative equity guarantee walk away well
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it's just getting to sound a little bit
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complicated so what are the rates you
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get for your Equity depends right if
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obviously you usually you can take up to
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I I don't know what it is in Spain 60%
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but I think in the UK it's only 50% of
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the value of your property you can take
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as Equity release and then it depends on
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what they let you yeah and it depends
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what they you need you negotiate on your
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mortgage rates obviously if you'd done
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this before rates went up it'd be a lot
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less so now if you take out a mortgage
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they may be charging you 6 8% yeah some
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8.9 so you've got to be very very
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careful that's why you need to make sure
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you've got this no negative equity
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guarantee because say there's a crash in
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the market and they sell that property
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and it doesn't cover that mortgage
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you've taken out things in the past have
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been a little bit difficult with some
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Spanish Banks um so I know I'm I'm Ching
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my words carefully um but um so can you
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go to somebody who can help you with
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your Equity release rather than going
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directly to the bank where you have the
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mortgage there are companies that do it
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I'm afraid at Blacktail we don't
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recommend anyone does it because there
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so many people had their fingers burned
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before and I still have people in who
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are still going to court in Spain where
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as we said the property value does not
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Now cover the mortgage and those
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companies are trying to force these
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people out before they're dead and take
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that property and it has been going
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through the courts I know one company
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did one lot of clients did actually win
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their case but they're still waiting for
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the money and for it all to be settled
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as we know in Spain it takes such a long
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time to do anything so people have got
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to be very very wary and people come to
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me and they say can you help or can you
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recommend with anyone with eity release
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I would say no I would say if you are
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going to do it at least do it through a
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bank as long as they will give you this
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guarantee okay the guarantee is all
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important it it it does make sense
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doesn't it perhaps for people over a
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certain age say 55 if they want to stay
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in their own home yeah but most of them
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use it to do homeing improvements what's
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the point in that I can see you doing it
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if you want to go on a world Cruise or
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you want to give some money to your
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grandchildren to go to university but to
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do house improvements on a house that is
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no longer yours and when you die it's
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going to you know it's not even going to
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your children what is the point um I
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don't understand I'd rather downsize and
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buy something that I didn't need to work
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on and have that cash anyway MH so there
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are different ways of thinking about
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Equity relief yes there are yeah and OB
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you can go to your financial advisor
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should talk about that yeah and I would
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say in my opinion I'd rather downsize
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owe nobody no not owe any money to
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anyone and know that I had something at
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least if I wanted to leave to my
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children or something I could sell if I
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need long-term care because if you take
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Equity release and use up all the value
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of your house when you going to
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long-term care how are you going to pay
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for it you don't want to end up in a
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state institution or your or your family
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putting you on a plane and shipping you
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back to the UK and you end up a Gatwick
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Airport and you're putting some state
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home you don't want that so you've got
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to think very very carefully and
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salesman for some Equity release schemes
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are very smooth very professional and
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could talk you into selling your own
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mother really so be very very careful I
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had someone in the other day who said
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we're thinking about Equity release and
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I said well what about your long-term
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care and they said well we was assumed
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if one of us got ill the other one look
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after you I said well say one of you
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dies and one of you needs long-term care
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where are you then you haven't got
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enough savings you haven't got anything
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you've got to think about the financial
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impact not just you're getting cash now
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to spend most of us are living longer
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and most of us will need care but
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speaking from my own point of view most
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of has get a little bit more confused
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the older we get as well so we kind of
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need help in this and these people are
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very convincing you know if you're in
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your 70s and they're trying to create
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create you know convince you to do extra
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release Al that it would be very
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difficult to get at that age please be
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very careful even in your 50s and 60s
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you know financial terms can can be
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confusing they can bamboozle you they
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can give you figures you don't
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understand please please please think
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very very carefully before you step on
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that L why you see quite a few people
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perhaps downsizing because doesn't leave
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ites much more sense or sell your
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property and go into rented property
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invest that money lot of people do that
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too actually lots of people in Spain did
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that especially with the inheritance tax
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rules which now luckily in the v Ria um
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but and in meria and in and Lucia but
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there's still some areas and it could
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always come back if the pp loses power
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and we get back in you know it could
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change but as I said I'd rather consider
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down sizing or selling and going into
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rented accommodation if you're going to
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rented accommodation invest that in a
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lowrisk investment giving you a rate of
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return that will pay your rent and then
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you've got that money to fall back on if
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you need it at a later date