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Mortgage Broker vs Bank in Spain: Which Should a Non-Resident Use?

Mortgage Brokers in Spain: How to Choose One, and What They Cost

Most guides to Spanish mortgage brokers are written by brokers, including this one. So rather than rank ourselves first, this page does the thing a ranking cannot: it explains what separates a broker who is worth a fee from one who is not, what the law requires of them, and what the fee should look like.

Upscore is a broker. Read the criteria below and apply them to us as well as to everyone else.

The quick answers

• Do I need a broker in Spain? Not legally. It helps most when you are a non-resident, because the non-resident shortlist and criteria are not published anywhere.
• Are brokers regulated? Yes. Since 2019 a Spanish mortgage intermediary must be registered, and you can check it.
• What do they charge? Either a fee from you, a commission from the bank, or both. The question to ask is which.
• Is a bank cheaper direct? Sometimes on the fee, rarely on the outcome, and never if the bank you approached was the wrong one for your profile.
• Does it speed things up? It can. The median completion across Upscore’s Spanish purchases is 4.7 months, and the spread between banks is wider than the spread between applicants.

What does a broker actually do in Spain?

The valuable part is not negotiation. It is knowing which banks will look at your file at all.

Spain has no shared credit score, so each bank assembles its own view of you from your documents. That has a consequence people underestimate: two Spanish banks can reach different conclusions on identical paperwork. A decline from one bank tells you very little, and a good offer from one bank does not mean it was the best available.

None of the non-resident criteria are published. Banks advertise resident products; the non-resident version — the maximum loan, the maximum term, whether they accept self-employed foreign income, whether they lend on holiday-let properties — is something you find out by asking each one. That asymmetry is what a broker is being paid to close.

A broker who is worth the fee does four things:

1. Places the file with the two or three banks likely to say yes, rather than the one they always use.
2. Tells you before you apply what the file will not support, instead of after.
3. Manages the documents and the translations, which is where most of the calendar goes.
4. Handles the notary timetable, which nobody living in another country wants to coordinate by email.

What a broker cannot do is change the arithmetic. If your existing monthly commitments are too high relative to your income, no relationship fixes it. How credit scores work in Spain covers what the bank reads instead, and across Upscore’s Spanish applications, among applicants whose housing costs already took more than 35% of their income, none went on to complete a purchase (n=333).

Are mortgage brokers regulated in Spain?

Yes, and this is the first thing to check. Ley 5/2019, which brought the EU mortgage credit directive into Spanish law, created a legal regime for intermediarios de crédito inmobiliario — mortgage credit intermediaries — with registration, conduct rules, transparency obligations and a penalty regime.

In practice that means three things you can verify:

Registration. A Spanish mortgage intermediary must be registered, and the register is maintained by the Bank of Spain. Ask for the registration and check it. An intermediary who cannot produce one is operating outside the regime.

Disclosure of who pays them. The conduct rules require transparency about remuneration. You are entitled to know whether the intermediary is paid by you, by the lender, or by both — and whether they are tied to particular lenders or genuinely independent. A tied intermediary is not disqualified; it simply means their shortlist is shorter than it appears.

Pre-contractual information. The law standardised what you must receive before signing, including the FEIN — the binding European standardised information sheet, whose form comes from the EU mortgage credit directive — with time to review it before the notary. If a broker is rushing you past that step, that is a regulatory problem and not a service style.

For a UK or US buyer there is a second register worth knowing: a firm marketing to you from the UK falls under the FCA register for its UK activity, which is a separate check from the Spanish one.

What do mortgage brokers charge in Spain?

Three models, and the important thing is knowing which one you are in.

The question that gets you a useful answer is not “what do you charge”. It is: “are you paid differently depending on which bank I go with?” If the answer is yes, ask for the range.

Two costs that are not the broker’s and get confused with the fee: the bank’s valuation (tasación), paid up front and non-refundable whether or not the mortgage completes, and the gestoría charge for handling the registration at the land registry. Both are part of the 10 to 13% in purchase taxes and fees that cannot be added to the loan. The deed itself is charged on a published tariff set by the Spanish notaries’ association, so that line is not negotiable by anyone — including the broker.

Broker or straight to the bank?

Going direct works well in one specific case: you already have a relationship with a Spanish bank, and your file is straightforward. Resident income, salaried, low loan-to-value. Then the broker is adding coordination rather than access.

For a non-resident file the calculation is different, because the failure mode is not a bad rate — it is applying to the wrong bank and losing two months finding out. The pattern in our own pipeline is the same one in the SERP: the applications that stall are rarely declined on credit, they stall on cash and on documents.

There is also a bank-selection effect worth knowing before you pick where to apply. Across Upscore’s completed Spanish purchases the median runs at 144 days with Sabadell and 154 with CaixaBank, and substantially longer with UCI. And the pattern inverts by nationality: CaixaBank is faster with American applicants and slower with British ones; Sabadell is the reverse. Both cuts are small samples, so read them as direction rather than measurement — but the direction is a reason to ask a broker which bank suits your passport, not just your numbers. See mortgage in Spain for UK citizens for what you would actually be approved for.

“I do happen to have some experience with non-resident mortgages in Spain. I bought an apartment about 4 years ago and had to do some shopping to find the best deal. The options were rather limited because non-residents won’t have a paycheck they can get a hold on or any other assets they can go after if something goes wrong.”
— r/ExpatFIRE, Non resident mortgage in Spain?

“Had to do some shopping” is the whole job description. That shopping is either your evenings or someone’s fee, and the honest way to choose is to price both. If you are applying from Britain, the UK expat buying guide covers the UK-side paperwork.

How to evaluate a broker: seven questions

Apply these to any intermediary, including us.

1. What is your registration, and with whom? Spanish register, and the FCA if they market from the UK.
2. Are you tied to specific lenders? If yes, which — and how many banks are actually on your list?
3. Who pays you, and does it vary by bank? The disclosure is a legal obligation, not a favour.
4. How many banks will you approach for my profile, and which? A named shortlist beats a promise of “the whole market”.
5. What will my file not support? A broker who cannot tell you the weakness has not read it.
6. What happens if the valuation comes in below the price? The right answer involves your cash, not a renegotiation.
7. Who deals with the notary, and in what language? This is where a foreign buyer’s month goes.

A broker who answers all seven plainly is more useful than one who ranks first on a list — including a list they wrote.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a mortgage broker cost in Spain?
Either a buyer fee, a lender commission, or both. There is no standard rate, and the law requires the arrangement to be disclosed. Ask whether the payment varies by lender.

Do I need a broker to get a Spanish mortgage as a non-resident?
No, but the non-resident criteria are not published, so going direct means calling banks one by one to find out who will consider your profile.

Is a mortgage broker regulated in Spain?
Yes. Ley 5/2019 established registration, conduct and transparency rules for mortgage credit intermediaries, plus a penalty regime. Ask for the registration and check it.

Can a broker get me a better rate than the bank offers directly?
Sometimes on the margin, but the larger effect is placing you with a bank that will actually approve you at a sensible loan-to-value. In a market with no shared credit score, that matters more than negotiation.

Should I use a Spanish broker or a UK one?
What matters is whether they can place a file with Spanish banks and are registered to do it. A UK-based firm marketing to UK buyers should also appear on the FCA register.

Will a broker help if I have been declined already?
Possibly, if the decline was about bank fit. If it was about your debt-to-income ratio, the file has to change before the destination does.

The bottom line

The useful question is not who the best broker in Spain is. It is whether the one in front of you is registered, who pays them, how many banks they will actually approach, and whether they will tell you your file’s weakness before you apply.

Ask the seven questions. Then compare at least two banks either way, because in a market without a shared credit score the same paperwork genuinely produces different answers.

If you already have a property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which Spanish banks will approve your specific profile before you commit to anyone. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes. For the numbers behind it, see mortgages in Spain for non-residents and Spanish mortgage rates for non-residents.

Buy-to-Let Mortgages for Overseas Property: What Actually Changes

A UK buy-to-let is underwritten on the rent. A mortgage on a property abroad is not — most European banks will not count your projected rental income towards what you can borrow at all. That single difference undoes the arithmetic British investors arrive with, and it is the thing to understand before anything else.

This guide covers what a buy-to-let looks like when the property is in Spain, Portugal, France or the UAE: who lends, what the deposit is, how the letting is taxed on both sides, and where the model still works.

The quick answers

• Can I get a buy-to-let mortgage on a property abroad? Yes, from a bank in that country. What you cannot usually do is borrow against the rent.
• Is “expat buy-to-let” the same thing? No, and this is the most expensive confusion in the space. That product is a UK property for a Briton living abroad.
• How much deposit? Generally 30 to 40%, and investment properties are often held at the stricter end of the range.
• Can I let it short-term? Sometimes, and it changes both the lending and the licensing. Several banks apply stricter criteria to holiday lets.
• Who taxes the rent? Both countries, with a credit rather than a double charge. It is declared where the property is and again in the UK.
• Does it still work? On cash yield, often yes. On leverage, much less than a UK buy-to-let.

Will the rental income count towards the loan?

Usually not, and this is where the UK model breaks.

A UK buy-to-let is sized on an interest coverage ratio: the lender takes the expected rent, applies a stress rate, and lends what the rent supports. Your salary is almost incidental. That is why a UK investor can hold several properties on a modest income.

Spanish, Portuguese and French banks generally do the opposite. They size the loan on your personal income and your existing debt payments, and treat the rent as an unproven bonus rather than as servicing capacity. A few will consider a portion of a signed long-term lease; most will not consider a projection at all.

The consequence is arithmetic. If your income already supports a mortgage on your own home, the additional overseas loan competes with it — the rent does not create new headroom. Across Upscore’s applications, among applicants whose existing housing costs already took more than 35% of their income, none went on to complete a purchase (n=333). An intended rental does not move that ratio.

Two things follow, and they are the practical core of the piece:

1. Your borrowing capacity is capped by your day job, not by the property. Work out what you can service before you look at yields.
2. A smaller loan is disproportionately easier to get. Reducing the request from 70% to 60% of the price is the single most reliable improvement to a non-resident file.

Expat buy-to-let is a different product

The term “expat buy-to-let” almost always means something else, and applying to the wrong lender wastes weeks.

Most of the lenders that rank for “expat buy-to-let” sit in the left column. If your property is in Alicante, they are not options — their product is UK security. Which lenders actually lend on property abroad separates the two lists properly.

The four ways to fund it, and why three of them disappoint

Every guide to buying abroad lists the same four routes. For a buy-to-let specifically, they are not equally available, and it is worth knowing which ones close before you spend time on them.

The practical point: routes 2 and 3 are the ones British investors assume are available, and only one of them is. If you are counting on borrowing in sterling against the foreign property, that product does not really exist.

How much deposit do you need?

Plan on cash rather than a percentage, because the percentage hides the taxes.

Non-resident lending in Spain generally runs at 60 to 70% of the lower of price or valuation (against 80% for residents), and in Portugal the same range with a few lenders stretching to 75% for strong profiles. Investment and second properties are frequently held at the lower end, and some banks price them separately again.

Then add the purchase costs, none of which can be borrowed — our Spain property cost calculator totals them for a given price:

The Portuguese point deserves emphasis for an investor: IMT bands treat a main home differently from a second home or an investment, so the same property costs more to buy when it is not going to be your residence. The bands are published by the Portuguese tax authority. Spain’s regional rates are published by the Spanish tax agency. On the financing side, how a Portuguese mortgage works for a non-resident covers the rest of the process.

One more mechanic that catches investors: the loan is calculated on the lower of the agreed price and the bank’s own valuation. A valuation below the price does not reduce what you pay — it increases the cash you bring.

What if you want to let it short-term?

Short-term letting is where the lending question and the licensing question collide, and both have moved in the last few years.

On the lending side, several banks apply stricter criteria to properties intended purely for holiday letting, and a minority will not lend on them at all. It is worth asking the question in those words — “is this property intended for short-term tourist letting?” — before the valuation, not after, because a change of stated purpose late in the process can reopen the credit decision.

On the licensing side, the direction of travel across Spain and Portugal is restrictive. Tourist-letting licences are controlled at municipal or regional level, several major cities have capped or suspended new ones, and a building’s own community of owners can prohibit tourist letting regardless of what the city allows. Check three things before you buy: the municipal register, the regional regime, and the building’s statutes. A yield model built on nightly rates is worthless if the licence cannot be obtained or transferred.

This is the single most common way an overseas buy-to-let case falls apart, and it is not a financing problem.

How is the rental income taxed?

In both countries, with a credit rather than a double charge — but you file twice.

Where the property is, you are taxed as a non-resident landlord on the rent, usually with a restricted set of deductible expenses compared with a resident. In Spain, non-resident landlords file periodically rather than annually, which surprises people expecting one return a year.

In the UK, rental income from an overseas property is taxable for a UK tax resident even when the tax has already been paid locally. It goes on your Self Assessment, and you claim Foreign Tax Credit Relief for the foreign tax paid. The credit means you pay roughly the higher of the two liabilities rather than the sum — but the claim is not automatic, and it needs evidence of the foreign tax.

HMRC’s guidance on foreign income sets out the mechanics. Two details that matter for an investor:

Mortgage interest. UK buy-to-let interest relief was restricted to a basic-rate tax credit; the treatment of interest on a foreign property follows the UK rules for overseas property income, which is not the same calculation as the local one. Model the after-tax return on both sides, not just the local one.

Losses. Overseas property losses are pooled separately from UK property losses. They can be carried forward against future overseas property profits, but they do not offset your UK portfolio.

And the exit is its own event: see selling property abroad for the capital gains and repatriation side, and our guide to calculating UK capital gains tax on overseas property for the arithmetic.

Do you have to tell HMRC about the property?

You do not declare the property itself. You declare what it earns, and what you make when you sell it — and those you do have to declare, whether or not the money ever reaches the UK.

Three separate obligations, which people tend to merge into one:

• The rent, every year it is let. Overseas property income goes on the foreign pages of your Self Assessment return, on the arising basis, even where the tax has already been paid locally and even where the rent stays in a foreign account.
• The gain, when you sell. Both countries can tax it, and the arithmetic is not intuitive because the UK computes the gain in sterling — so exchange-rate movement between the two dates can create a taxable gain in pounds on a sale that broke even in euros. Our guide to calculating UK capital gains tax on overseas property works through it, and selling property abroad covers the repatriation side.
• Nothing, for simply owning it, in the ordinary case. There is no UK return that exists to register the fact of an overseas property — which is where the “do I have to tell them?” question comes from.

The follow-up question is how HMRC would know. The answer is that it generally already does: under the international standard for automatic exchange of financial account information, tax authorities in over a hundred jurisdictions pass account data to each other every year, and a foreign account receiving rent is exactly the kind of thing that gets reported. The practical advice from every accountant in this space is the same — the disclosure is cheap and the correction is not.

Non-domiciled and remittance-basis positions change parts of this, and the rules moved recently. That is a conversation with an adviser, not a guide.

Who actually lends, and what do they need?

A bank in the country where the property is, in almost every case. The document list is longer than a UK application and the translations are what stretch the calendar.

The credit-report line surprises British investors who have read that Spain and Portugal have no credit scores. Both are true: there is no score, and the bank still asks for the report. See how credit scores work in Spain for what it is read for.

Your existing UK buy-to-let portfolio is relevant here in a way investors underestimate. Every monthly payment on it counts against your capacity, and the rent it generates usually does not count in your favour — the asymmetry works against a leveraged UK landlord specifically.

Which banks, country by country

“A bank in that country” is the honest answer, but it is not a useful one. In practice a small group of lenders does most of the non-resident business, and they differ more in speed than in price.

Shares are of the cases Upscore presents and signs, not of each bank’s total book, and the Spanish sample is 42 signed files — direction rather than a market measure.

Fixed or variable, and what Euribor has to do with it

One structural difference that changes the yield model: in Spain and Portugal the default variable mortgage is indexed to Euribor plus a margin, reset every six or twelve months, while UK buy-to-let pricing works off a fixed period and then a reversion rate. If you want the same picture against your own profile, see the UK buyer’s route to a Spanish mortgage.

Three consequences for an investor:

• Fixed rates abroad are usually offered for the whole term, not for two or five years. That removes the refinancing cliff that UK landlords plan around — and it removes the option to re-fix cheaply if rates fall.
• The margin over Euribor is negotiable, and it is negotiated on your profile, not on the property. A stronger file gets a lower differential from the same bank, and it is worth knowing where rates sit across Europe before you accept the first offer.
• Banks frequently price the margin down in exchange for taking their products — home insurance, life cover, a salary account. Model the bundled cost, not the headline rate, because the products carry their own annual price.

Personal name or a company, and what about the currency?

Two structural questions that a UK investor asks early and that answer differently abroad.

Ownership structure. Holding UK buy-to-let through a limited company became common after the interest-relief restriction. Abroad, the calculation is not the same: a company purchase can change the transfer-tax treatment, the annual property taxes and the non-resident filing obligations, and in some regimes it is actively worse. It also narrows the lending options, because several banks will only lend to individuals on a residential-type product. Decide this with a local tax adviser before you make an offer, because changing it afterwards means a second set of purchase costs.

Currency. The rent arrives in euros and your life is priced in sterling, which means the yield moves without the property doing anything. If you also finance in euros, the mortgage and the rent are in the same currency and the exposure is limited to what you take home. If you finance in sterling — by remortgaging in the UK — you hold a sterling debt against a euro income stream, and a move in the rate changes the real cost of the loan without changing the payment. Neither is wrong; the mismatched version just needs to be a decision rather than an accident.

Two mechanics worth knowing, because they are cheap to get right and expensive to ignore:

• The deposit is a single large transfer at a date you do not control. Between agreeing a price and completing, the rate moves; on a €180,000 purchase a two-cent move is around £2,500. A forward contract with a currency broker fixes the rate ahead of completion for a deposit, which is the standard way buyers remove that risk. High-street banks are rarely competitive on the spread for a transfer of this size.
• The rent is a small recurring transfer forever. The spread that looks trivial on one payment is charged twelve times a year for as long as you hold the property, and it comes straight off the yield. Price it into the model at the start.

Does the model still work?

It depends which model, and the honest answer separates two things people merge.

On cash yield — buying with a large deposit and letting long-term — the case is often solid, particularly where purchase costs are lower and long-let demand is steady. The return is closer to a bond than to a UK buy-to-let: less leverage, less volatility, and much less dependence on capital growth.

On leverage — the UK model of a small deposit amplified by rent-based borrowing — it largely does not translate. The rent does not size the loan, the deposit is 30 to 40%, and the purchase costs are 8 to 13% of the price in cash. The multiplier that makes UK buy-to-let work is simply not available.

What our own data says about who gets there: British buyers who have identified a specific property complete at 3.68%, against 0.29% for those still weighing options before they start looking (n=163 and n=346) — nearly thirteen times. For an investor comparing markets in a spreadsheet, that is the relevant warning: the modelling stage is not progress, and the file only becomes real against an actual property.

“I bought an apartment about 4 years ago and had to do some shopping to find the best deal. The options were rather limited because non-residents won’t have a paycheck they can get a hold on or any other assets they can go after if something goes wrong.”
— r/ExpatFIRE, Non resident mortgage in Spain?

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a buy-to-let mortgage on a property abroad?
Yes, generally from a bank in that country. The difference from a UK buy-to-let is that the loan is sized on your personal income rather than on the expected rent.

Will the bank count my rental income?
Most will not count a projection. A minority will consider part of a signed long-term lease. Assume it does not count when you model your borrowing capacity.

What deposit do I need for an overseas investment property?
Generally 30 to 40% of the price, with investment properties often at the stricter end, plus 8 to 13% in purchase taxes and fees that cannot be added to the loan.

Do I pay tax on the rent twice?
Both countries tax it, but a double taxation agreement means you claim Foreign Tax Credit Relief in the UK for the local tax paid. The total is roughly the higher of the two, not the sum — and the claim has to be made.

Can I use a UK expat lender for a property in Spain?
No. Those products lend against UK property, and so does every other UK lender that ranks for the term — checked in August 2026. HSBC Expat refers rather than lends, and only where HSBC has personal banking, which excludes Spain and Portugal.

Do I need a licence to let short-term?
Usually yes, and increasingly it is restricted. Check the municipal register, the regional regime and the building’s own statutes before you commit — a community of owners can prohibit tourist letting even where the city permits it.

Can I remortgage my UK home and buy the overseas property in cash?
Yes, and it sidesteps the whole problem of the rent not counting. It also converts a mortgage on a foreign property into a mortgage on the house you live in, which is a different risk rather than a smaller one.

Is Portugal or Spain better for an overseas buy-to-let?
Purchase costs run lower in Portugal, but the IMT band for a non-main home narrows the gap, and the licensing regime matters more than either. Model both after tax and after licensing, not on headline yield.

Do I have to declare an overseas property to HMRC?
Not the property itself. You declare the rental income every year on the foreign pages of your Self Assessment, and the gain when you sell — both on the arising basis, even if the money never comes to the UK. There is no UK return that exists simply to register that you own a property abroad.

How would HMRC know I own a property abroad?
Through the automatic exchange of financial account information between tax authorities in over a hundred jurisdictions. A foreign account receiving rent is the kind of thing that gets reported, which is why the disclosure is cheaper than the correction.

Which UK banks offer mortgages on overseas property?
For a property in Spain or Portugal, none that take security over it. The international arms that advertise overseas mortgages generally refer you to a local bank, or lend only where the group has retail banking in that country.

The bottom line

An overseas buy-to-let is a viable purchase and a poor imitation of a UK one. The rent does not size the loan, so your borrowing capacity comes from your income — and the deposit plus purchase costs mean the cash requirement is closer to 45% of the price than to 25%.

Do three things before you model a yield: confirm your capacity against your existing monthly commitments, confirm the letting licence is obtainable and transferable for that specific property, and model the return after both tax authorities.

Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks in Spain, Portugal or the UAE will approve your profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes. For the wider picture, see can you get a mortgage on a property abroad.

CaixaBank Mortgages for Non-Residents: What It Publishes, and What It Does Not

CaixaBank is the bank most foreign buyers in Spain end up talking to, and — unusually for a Spanish lender — it publishes its non-resident criteria. The maximum loan, the term, the age limit, the rate structure and the documents are all stated, most of them in a 33-page English-language guide rather than on the product page.

That makes it the easiest of the Spanish banks to check yourself against before you apply. This page pulls the criteria together, and adds what our own completed purchases show about working with them.

The quick answers

• Does CaixaBank lend to non-residents? Yes, and it has a dedicated international-customer programme.
• What loan-to-value? 70%, and CaixaBank calculates it on the purchase price rather than the valuation — which is not how the other Spanish banks do it.
• The filter nobody mentions: the currency you are paid in, not your nationality.
• Is it fast? In Upscore’s completed Spanish purchases the median with CaixaBank is 154 days — and it is materially faster with American applicants than with British ones.
• Are products bundled? Yes, and the discount for taking them is real. It is also where the advertised rate comes from.
• Is the branch a factor? More than people expect. Several accounts describe the outcome depending on the individual branch.

What does CaixaBank publish about non-resident mortgages?

More than any other Spanish bank, which is the reason to start here. Its HolaBank mortgage page carries a representative example, and behind it sits an English-language guide that states the criteria most Spanish lenders leave to the branch.

Checked in August 2026: 70% of the purchase price, a 20-year term for income in euros and the main currency group (15 for the second), an age limit where the oldest applicant’s age plus the term cannot exceed 80, a 0% arrangement fee, and up to three applicants who may hold different nationalities. The representative example on its own page is a fixed rate at TIN 2.35% with the bundled products, 3.35% without.

The full comparison against Sabadell and Bankinter is in the table below. What CaixaBank does not publish is the debt-to-income ceiling — the one criterion still applied at the file level.

What loan-to-value does CaixaBank offer a non-resident?

70%, and the base is where CaixaBank differs from its competitors. Its simulator says “the amount cannot exceed 70% of the price of the home” and its guide states “percentages based on the purchase price.” None of its published sources says “the lower of price and valuation”.

That works in your favour, and the table below shows how much: on CaixaBank’s published basis a valuation under the agreed price does not cut the loan, while on Bankinter’s it does.

Then add roughly 10 to 13% in purchase taxes and fees, none of which can be added to the loan. Regional transfer-tax rates are published by the Spanish tax agency, the notary tariff by the notaries’ association, and our cost calculator works the total out by region.

The currency rule that decides your application

This is the criterion that catches American and British buyers, and it has nothing to do with nationality.

CaixaBank does not exclude a single nationality — the nationality field on its application form has 255 entries, and its guide allows up to three applicants holding different passports. What it does exclude is a currency:

“No mortgages are currently offered to customers who generate their income/assets in other currencies.”

The good news for Upscore’s two main audiences: US dollars and pounds sterling are both on the accepted list, in the 20-year term group, and CaixaBank offers a fixed rate in your own currency as an alternative to a euro-convertible variable.

If you are paid in a currency outside the list, this is not a negotiation — it is a decline, and it is better to know before you start the paperwork than after.

Does CaixaBank require bundled products?

Not legally — and the discount for taking them is real, which is a different statement.

Under Ley 5/2019, the Spanish law that implemented the EU mortgage credit directive, a lender cannot make the mortgage conditional on buying other products, but it can price a lower rate when you do. Life insurance, home insurance and in some cases an alarm contract are the usual combination.

One buyer posted the three quotes he received in the same month, for the same profile:

“As promised: Here are the quotes habemo got us: -Sabadell: Variable mortgage: First year fixed 3,6% and after that Euribor+ 1,6% Home + life insurances 20 years -Bankinter: Hybrid mortgage 3 years fixed 3,6% and after that Euribor + 1,6% Home + Life insurance 25 years -Caixa: Fixed mortgage, 4% Home + life insurances + alarm 20 years […] Caixabank seems the best one by far. Especially for fixed mortgages.”
— r/GoingToSpain, How do I get a good mortgage rate as a non-resident? (August 2023)

Two things in that comparison, and the second matters more than the first. CaixaBank was the one offering a genuine fixed rate for the full term, where the other two offered a fixed period followed by Euribor plus a margin. And CaixaBank’s package required the most add-ons — home and life insurance plus an alarm.

Those 2023 rates are not a current quote and should not be read as one. What travels is the structure: the headline rate assumes the bundle, and the products have their own cost. Compare the total, not the percentage.

The three Spanish banks side by side

Bank criteria checked August 2026 against each bank’s own pages, guides and rate sheets. Completion times are Upscore’s own files; the nationality pattern comes from samples below fifty cases, so read it as direction rather than measurement.

Two rows deserve a second look. The base matters as much as the percentage — on a €250,000 purchase valued at €235,000, CaixaBank’s published 70% of price is €175,000 while Bankinter’s 60% of the lower figure is €141,000. That is a €34,000 difference in the cash you bring, not a ten-point difference. And the currency you are paid in decides more than your nationality does.

How long does CaixaBank take?

In Upscore’s completed Spanish purchases the median with CaixaBank is 154 days. For comparison, Sabadell’s median is 144 days, and UCI’s is substantially longer.

CaixaBank is materially faster with American applicants than with British ones, and Sabadell is the reverse — small samples, so direction rather than measurement, but if you hold a US passport it is a reason to put CaixaBank first.

Across all our completed purchases the median is 4.7 months (n=64), and the delay is rarely the credit decision: it is documents, sworn translations and the NIE.

Does the branch make a difference?

More than it should, and this comes up repeatedly in first-hand accounts:

“I would recommend to go to their offices in person and shop around different banks in the area, if possible. Banks are way more responsive if you visit them and get a contact person in person. Once I did a round of visits, Caixa bank seemed to be the most responsive, yet I feel it really depends on the person you get.“
— r/ExpatFIRE, Non resident mortgage in Spain?

“It really depends on the person you get” is the honest summary, and it follows from the structural fact that Spain has no credit score: the Bank of Spain’s CIRBE records loans held in Spain and ASNEF records defaults, and both come back empty for a first-time foreign buyer. With no score to arbitrate, each bank — and to a degree each branch — assembles its own view from your documents.

What will CaixaBank ask you for?

The standard Spanish non-resident file — passport and NIE, payslips or accounts, six months of statements from every account, every existing debt payment wherever it sits, tax returns, sworn translations, a Spanish bank account, and a credit report from your country of residence. The full list is in mortgages in Spain for non-residents.

On that last item CaixaBank is unusually explicit. Its guide defines the item as “CIRBE or CREDIT REPORT” and states that the foreign equivalent “must be provided in order to purchase the property.”

Two published facts sit behind it: article 12.1 of Ley 5/2019 obliges every Spanish lender to assess an applicant’s credit history, and the Bank of Spain’s CIRBE records only credit held in Spain, so it returns nothing for a first-time foreign buyer. Reading the second as the reason for the first is ours, not a bank’s. Both are true: there is no Spanish score, and the report is mandatory.

The hard filter is the ratio. Across Upscore’s Spanish applications, among applicants whose housing costs already took more than 35% of their income, none completed a purchase (n=333).

Frequently asked questions

Does CaixaBank offer mortgages to non-residents?
Yes, through HolaBank, with English-language service — and it publishes more of its criteria than any other Spanish bank.

What is CaixaBank’s maximum LTV for a non-resident?
70%, calculated on the purchase price rather than the valuation. That base is more generous than Bankinter’s published 60% of the lower of price and valuation.

Can I get a CaixaBank mortgage if I am paid in dollars or pounds?
Yes. Both currencies are on its accepted list, in the 20-year term group, with a fixed rate available in your own currency. Income in a currency outside the list is excluded outright.

Do I need to buy insurance from CaixaBank?
Not as a condition of the loan — Ley 5/2019 prohibits tying. Taking home and life insurance with the bank typically reduces the rate, and the products have their own cost. Compare the total.

Is CaixaBank better than Sabadell for a non-resident?
It depends on your passport more than on the bank. Our completed purchases suggest CaixaBank moves faster with American applicants and Sabadell with British ones, on small samples.

Can I apply to CaixaBank from abroad?
Yes, though several first-hand accounts report much better responsiveness after an in-person branch visit. For completion you either attend the notary or grant power of attorney to a Spanish lawyer.

How long does CaixaBank take to approve a mortgage?
In our completed purchases the median from first enquiry to completion is 154 days. The credit decision is rarely the bottleneck; documents and translations are.

The bottom line

CaixaBank is the sensible first call for a foreign buyer in Spain, for three reasons that are all checkable: 70% on the purchase price rather than the valuation, published criteria you can test yourself against, and — on our own data — the fastest route for an American applicant. If you want the same picture against your own profile, see mortgages for US citizens in Spain.

Check the currency rule first, because it is binary. Then get the NIE and the translations moving early, and still put your file in front of more than one bank — the seven questions to ask a Spanish broker apply just as well to a branch manager. The same paperwork genuinely produces different answers.

Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which Spanish banks will approve your profile before you commit to one. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes. See also mortgages in Spain for non-residents and Spanish mortgage rates for non-residents.

Does Europe Have Credit Scores? What Replaces Them, Country by Country

Most of Europe does not use a credit score. There is no number, no bureau ranking you against everyone else, and nothing to build up before you apply. What exists instead is a register — and in most countries it records only what went wrong.

That is the whole difference, and it changes what you do before applying for a mortgage in Europe. Germany and Ireland are the exceptions.

The quick answers

• Is there a credit score in Europe? In most countries, no. France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands have registers rather than scores. Germany and Ireland have something closer to the US and UK model.
• Does your credit score follow you to Europe? Your score does not. Your file can — because the bank asks you to bring it.
• Is the US the only country with credit scores? No, but it is the most score-driven. The UK, Germany and Ireland all produce a number; most of continental Europe does not.
• Does a clean record help? In a negative-only register, having no record is the good outcome. There is nothing to build.
• So what decides the mortgage? Income, existing debt payments and the deposit. Verified from documents, not inferred from a score.

Most of Europe has no credit score: lenders read income, debt ratio and negative files instead. See what that means for what you can actually borrow.

Check your borrowing range →

Does your credit score follow you to Europe?

No — and this is where most American and British buyers get the wrong idea. Your FICO score, your Experian rating and your TransUnion file are invisible to a Spanish, French, Italian or Portuguese bank. None of them can query a foreign bureau; there is no mechanism and no data-sharing agreement that would allow it. An 820 does not help you and a 580 does not automatically hurt you.

But there is a second half that most guides leave out. The bank will ask you to provide a credit report from where you live, as a document, alongside your payslips and tax returns. It is a standard item on the non-resident file in Spain and Portugal, and lenders read it for undeclared debt and past defaults — not for the number on the front page.

So the accurate version is narrower than “credit history does not cross borders”: the score carries no weight, an unpaid account on page four still does, and what genuinely does not cross is the positive side. Fifteen years of perfect payments buys you nothing, because there is no field for it — the practical detail of how that plays out is in credit scores in Spain.

Which European countries have credit scores?

The split is close to binary. One side has a bureau file plus a number; the other has a register and a human reading your documents.

Sources: the institutions named. SCHUFA’s own site describes a daily-updated score; the others publish their registry rules. Thresholds change — check the official source before relying on a figure.

Why northern and southern Europe work differently

In a negative-only register, an empty file is a pass. That is the single most useful thing to understand, and it inverts the American instinct.

France is the clearest case: the Banque de France records incidents, so a first-time applicant with no French history looks identical to a French citizen who has never missed a payment. Spain runs two registers in parallel — CIRBE lists what you owe, ASNEF lists what you did not pay — and a foreign buyer comes back empty on both. Empty is the good result.

Germany is the outlier: SCHUFA is a private bureau built on the same premise as Experian, so arriving with no SCHUFA record is closer to the American problem of being credit invisible. The Netherlands sits between the two — BKR records positive credit as well as defaults, but never condenses it into a number.

The consequence is that in most of Europe you cannot prepare by building credit. There is no score to raise. What you can prepare is what is actually assessed: the ratio between what you earn and what you already owe each month, and the cash you have available. If the purchase is financed rather than paid in cash, which lenders actually lend on property abroad is the next question.

Is the US the only country with credit scores?

No. The UK, Germany, Ireland, Canada and Australia all produce consumer scores. What makes the US unusual is how much rides on the number — rental applications, insurance pricing, some employment checks — and how normal it is to monitor it.

In Spain or Italy the equivalent conversation is your debt-to-income ratio: what is left after your committed payments. Two banks in the same country can reach different conclusions on the same applicant, because neither is reading a shared score — each assembles its own view from your documents. That is why a decline from one Spanish bank says much less than a decline from a US lender would.

What to do if you are buying in Europe

The preparation list is different from the one you know, and shorter.

1. Stop optimising the score. It will not be read. Time spent raising it is time not spent on the two things that are.
2. Get your monthly commitments down. Every loan payment you carry, wherever in the world, counts against what you can borrow. This is the lever that exists.
3. Add up the cash, not the percentage. Purchase taxes and fees run to roughly 10-13% in Spain and 8-10% in Portugal, and they cannot be added to the mortgage.
4. Order your credit report anyway. You will likely be asked for it, and you want to know what is on it before the bank does — particularly any account you forgot was still open.
5. Read the rules of the country you are buying in, not “Europe”. The systems differ more than the map suggests: Spain, France, Italy and Portugal each have their own.

“In Europe most (all?) dont use “credit history”, it works the other way around. Rather than having to build up good standing first, the banks keep a register of people in poor standing. If you default on your mortgage, they will put you on a list for 5 years […] But there are no credit scores here, which is good when you’re a new arrival.”
— r/GoingToSpain, Mortgages in Spain

Frequently asked questions

Does Europe have a credit score system?
Not as a continent. Germany and Ireland produce consumer scores; France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands use registers that record credit liabilities or defaults without generating a number.

Can I check my European credit score?
In countries that do not produce one, there is nothing to check. You can request your file: CIRBE in Spain, FICP in France, the CRC in Portugal, BKR in the Netherlands. In Germany you can request your SCHUFA record and score.

Will my US or UK credit score help me get a European mortgage?
No. The score is not visible to European lenders and carries no weight. The report may still be requested as a document, and it is read for debt and defaults.

How long do defaults stay on a European register?
It varies by country and is typically measured in years rather than months — five years is a common figure in France and Spain. Check the register’s own published rules, since these change.

Do I need to build credit in Europe before applying for a mortgage?
In most countries you cannot, because there is nothing to build. Lenders assess income, existing debt and deposit from documents.

The bottom line

Europe mostly does not score you. It registers what went wrong, and asks a person to read the rest.

For a buyer arriving from the US or UK: the fifteen years of good history you built do not transfer, and they do not need to. What transfers is your income, your existing debt and your deposit — and unlike a score, all three are things you can present clearly on the day you apply.

If you are financing a property in Spain, Portugal or the UAE, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks will approve your specific profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes.

International Mortgage Lenders: Who Actually Lends, and On What

Search for an international mortgage and you get two different products presented as one. Every lender that ranks for the term lends on UK property to Britons living abroad — not on foreign property to people living in Britain. Opposite directions, and applying to the wrong one wastes weeks.

This page sorts them out. If you want the four ways to finance an overseas purchase rather than the list of lenders, start with can you get a mortgage on a property abroad.

The quick answers

• Two products share one name. An “expat mortgage” is usually a UK loan for a Briton living overseas. An “overseas mortgage” is finance for a property in another country.
• No UK lender in these search results finances property in Spain or Portugal. Checked against their own pages in August 2026 — every one of them lends on UK property.
• HSBC Expat does not lend abroad either. It refers you — and only where HSBC already offers personal banking, which excludes Spain.
• The exception is the UAE, where HSBC’s local arm does lend to non-residents at up to 60%.
• The route that completes is a bank in the destination country — every British buyer who finished a purchase in Spain through Upscore used a Spanish bank.

Which lenders actually lend on a property in another country?

The honest answer is none of them, for Spain or Portugal. We checked each lender’s own pages in August 2026, and every one of them secures its lending on UK property. What matters is where the property is, not where the borrower is.

Checked August 2026 against each lender’s own pages. These change; the lenders are the authority.

Every row says UK property. If you live in Britain and want to buy in Spain, none of these is an option — not because they would decline you, but because their product is not for that. That is not a gap in the list; it is the finding.

“Just did the same exact thing but in the US just 10 years with pretty much a nonexistent credit presence in the UK. We were approved for the BTL, and that was the only expat mortgage we could get. Look at John Charcoal for a mortgage broker – we had great luck with them.”
— r/Mortgageadviceuk, Mortgage from overseas, banks & credit cards

That is the confusion in one comment. The poster is an American-based expat buying in the UK, the buy-to-let was the only product available, and the thread is titled “mortgage from overseas”. Search for an international mortgage and this is the answer you find — even when your property is in Spain. For what the UK side does and does not cover, see our guide to UK banks and overseas mortgages; the UK buyer’s guide to a Spanish mortgage covers the Spanish side.

What HSBC Expat actually offers

HSBC Expat is the one name that comes up for overseas property, so be precise about what it does. It does not lend on a property abroad. It introduces you to an HSBC team in that country — with a condition:

“We’ll refer you to a mortgage specialist in the country / region you’re purchasing a property in, as long as we already offer HSBC personal banking there.“

For direct support it names three markets: the UK, the US and Australia.

Spain is not among them, and HSBC says why in its own words. From HSBC’s Spanish site: “Unfortunately, HSBC in Spain does not offer personal banking services and cannot provide assistance to personal banking customers from any other overseas HSBC entities.” HSBC in Spain and Portugal is corporate and institutional only, so the referral cannot reach the two largest European markets for British buyers.

You also have to be a customer first: “You’ll need to open an Expat Bank Account to benefit from our international mortgage services.”

One correction, because the figure circulates widely. HSBC’s guide says “Outside your home country, you can expect minimum deposits from 15% to 50%” — that is HSBC describing the overseas market in an editorial guide, not its own criteria. Quoting it as “HSBC requires 15-50%” is a misreading, and we made it ourselves before checking.

The exception: the UAE

If the UAE is where you are buying, our page on the mortgage in Dubai for non-residents covers the local lenders alongside HSBC.

Where HSBC does have a local retail arm, it lends — and the UAE is the clearest case for a British buyer. HSBC UAE publishes an actual product for non-residents:

“Buy a property in the UAE as a non resident. Invest in the UAE with our competitive rate home loans, even if you don’t live there now.”

“Low down payment. Borrow up to 60% of your property’s value, so your savings could go further.”

The conditions are published too: you must be an HSBC Private Bank or Premier customer or eligible to become one, the valuation costs a standard AED 2,625 including VAT, and “in most cases, it should take up to 14 working days to arrange your home loan.”

That is what a real international mortgage looks like: a named product, a published loan-to-value, a stated timeline. Compare it with the silence on Spain.

The pattern is simple once you see it. These banks lend where they have a retail arm that can value and repossess the property. Where they do not, the product does not exist — no matter how the search results are worded.

What is the difference between an expat mortgage and an overseas mortgage?

An expat mortgage is a UK loan for someone who has left the UK. An overseas mortgage is a loan for a property that is not in the UK. The borrower moves in one, the property in the other, and the underwriting is nothing alike. The UK government’s guidance on buying property abroad is the starting point.

What do international lenders require?

Wealth, not income — and none of them publishes a minimum income. What they publish is a balance. HSBC Expat wants £75,000 in investments or savings, or Premier status plus £10,000. Barclays International Banking wants £100,000 across your accounts with them, and charges £40 a month if the average falls below it for four consecutive months. Santander International starts at a £500,000 minimum loan. The “£75,000 minimum income” that circulates in broker guides is on none of their pages.

The relationship comes first too: HSBC requires the Expat Bank Account before the mortgage service, and HSBC UAE opens an account for the repayments. These are products sold to existing customers.

For a local bank the file is different — payslips, tax returns, statements and often a credit report from where you live. See how credit scores work in Spain for what that report is read for, and the cost calculator for the cash on top. Confirm what any firm is authorised to do on the FCA register before sharing financial information.

Do international lenders offer better rates than a local bank?

For Spain and Portugal the question is moot, because they do not lend there. Where an international lender does exist — HSBC in the UAE — it prices a specialist product for a small book, while a local bank prices in its home market against a property it can value and enforce against. On rate alone the local bank is normally cheaper. The Bank of Spain’s lending statistics are a better guide to what a euro mortgage should cost than any single quote.

Barclays states the currency risk itself: “where the mortgage is denominated in a currency other than your home currency, changes in the exchange rate may increase the equivalent value of the debt.”

Which route actually completes?

Across the 2,045 British buyers in the Upscore pipeline, every completed purchase in Spain was financed by a Spanish bank — Sabadell in eight cases, CaixaBank in four, UCI in one. None went through a British international lender.

Thirteen completions indicates direction rather than a precise share, with a caveat: Upscore works with local banks, so our dataset is shaped by that. Of the files reaching us none close with a UK lender — which is not the same as UK lenders never closing.

One more pattern. British buyers who have identified a specific property complete at 3.68%, against 0.29% for those still weighing options (n=163 and n=346) — nearly thirteen times.

Frequently asked questions

Do any UK banks offer international mortgages?
Not for property in Spain or Portugal. Every lender that ranks for the term — Barclays International Banking, Santander International, Skipton, Suffolk, Family Building Society, NatWest International — secures its lending on UK property. HSBC Expat refers rather than lends, and only where HSBC has personal banking. See Spanish mortgages for UK citizens for what you would actually be approved for.

Which markets can HSBC actually help with?
It names the UK, US and Australia for direct support. HSBC UAE lends to non-residents on UAE property at up to 60% of value, for Premier and Private Bank customers.

How much deposit do international lenders need?
For the UAE, HSBC publishes up to 60% of value, so 40% down. For Spain and Portugal the question does not arise with these lenders, because they do not lend there — a local bank generally lends 60 to 70%, with purchase taxes on top that cannot be borrowed.

Is an international mortgage regulated in the UK?
Not always in the same way as a UK residential mortgage. Check the firm and its specific permission on the FCA register before you commit.

Can I get an international mortgage on a property in Spain?
Sometimes, if you meet an international lender’s criteria and Spain is on its list. More often the finance comes from a Spanish bank, which is what our own completed purchases show.

Why do so many results talk about UK buy-to-let?
Because “expat mortgage” describes the borrower, not the property, and the largest market for it is Britons living abroad buying to let in the UK. The opposite case — living in the UK and buying to let abroad — is a different product with different lenders, covered in overseas buy-to-let, and why the rent does not count. Those lenders rank for the term and do not lend on foreign property at all.

Is a broker worth it for an overseas purchase?
For a lender in the destination country, usually yes, because the shortlist and the document requirements are not published anywhere.

The bottom line

“International mortgage” covers two products pointing in opposite directions, and the search results do not separate them. Check whether a lender means a UK property or a foreign one before anything else — and for Spain and Portugal, the answer from every lender in these results is UK.

Every British buyer who completed a purchase in Spain through Upscore used a Spanish bank.

Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks will approve your profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes.

Can You Get a Mortgage on a Property Abroad? The Four Routes, and Which One Completes

Almost no UK high-street bank will lend against a property in another country. The finance that actually completes comes from a bank in the country where the property is — and of the 2,045 British buyers who have come through Upscore, every completed purchase in Spain was financed by a Spanish bank, not a British one.

That is not the answer the banks’ own pages give you, because their pages describe the product they do offer rather than the odds of you qualifying for it. This guide covers the four ways a UK buyer can finance a property abroad, what each one actually requires, and which one gets to completion. If you want the specific list of British lenders and what they cover, that is in our guide to which UK banks offer overseas mortgages.

The quick answers

• Can you get a mortgage on a property abroad? Yes, but usually not from your UK bank. The mortgage comes from a lender in the country where the property is.
• Will HSBC, Barclays or NatWest lend on it? Not on a property in Spain or Portugal. Checked in August 2026: every UK lender that ranks for these terms secures on UK property, and HSBC refers rather than lends. HSBC’s UAE arm is the exception.
• How much deposit will you need? Substantially more than a UK purchase, and the purchase taxes and fees on top cannot be added to the loan.
• Can you remortgage your UK home instead? Yes, and it is one of the four routes. It is also the one that changes what you are risking.
• Does HMRC need to know? Yes, once the property produces income or you sell it. Owning it is not itself a taxable event.

Can you get a mortgage for a house in a different country?

Yes. What changes is who lends it to you. A mortgage on a property abroad is a normal secured loan — the difference is that the lender has to be able to take the property as security, and a UK bank generally cannot enforce against a house in Andalusia.

That single fact explains the rest of the process: why your UK bank says no, why the paperwork is heavier, and why the deposit is larger. The UK government’s guidance for buying property abroad makes the same point in its first section — the legal process is not the one you know.

The four ways UK buyers finance property abroad

Each one closes deals, but they are not equivalent. The order is roughly how often they work.

1. A mortgage from a bank in the country where the property is

The main route. A Spanish, Portuguese or French bank lends against the property, in euros, under its own local rules.

What they need: proof of income wherever it comes from, your existing debt payments wherever they are, a tax number in that country, and documents translated by a certified translator. In Spain the bank also checks the Bank of Spain’s CIRBE registry for debt you hold locally — for a first-time foreign buyer it comes back empty, and empty is a good result.

What stops people here is almost never credit history. It is cash: the deposit plus 10-13% in purchase taxes and fees, which cannot be borrowed.

“I bought an apartment about 4 years ago and had to do some shopping to find the best deal. The options were rather limited because non-residents won’t have a paycheck they can get a hold on or any other assets they can go after if something goes wrong.”
— r/ExpatFIRE, Non resident mortgage in Spain?

That comment names the mechanism precisely. It is not that the bank distrusts you — it is that a non-resident offers less for a lender to hold on to, and the deposit is what closes that gap.

2. A mortgage from an international lender based in your own country

This is the route most people assume exists, and for Spain and Portugal it largely does not. Checked in August 2026: Barclays International Banking is headed “UK mortgages for international citizens”; Santander International states “property location: England and Wales”; Skipton International is UK buy-to-let. All UK security. HSBC Expat refers rather than lends, and only where HSBC runs personal banking — which excludes Spain.

Where it does work is where the bank has a local retail arm: HSBC UAE lends to non-residents at up to 60% of value. Which lenders actually lend on property abroad covers each one.

Worth knowing: a mortgage on non-UK property is not regulated the way a UK residential mortgage is. Check what a firm is authorised to do on the FCA register.

3. Releasing equity from your UK home

Remortgaging or taking a further advance on your UK property, then buying abroad in cash. It works, it is fast, and it has one consequence people underweight: you have converted a mortgage on a house in another country into a mortgage on the house you live in. Not a worse option — a different risk, and it should be a deliberate choice.

4. Cash from savings or an existing asset sale

No lender, no criteria, no timeline. It belongs on the list because a lot of buyers who think they need a mortgage are a partial-cash buyer who needs a smaller one — and a smaller loan-to-value request is the single thing that most improves a non-resident application.

Which route actually completes?

Route one, and the data is not close.

Across the 2,045 British buyers who have entered the Upscore pipeline, every completed purchase in Spain was financed by a Spanish bank — Sabadell in eight cases, CaixaBank in four, UCI in one. None went through a British lender. With thirteen completions this indicates the direction rather than a precise share, and it comes with a caveat worth stating: Upscore works with local banks, so our dataset is shaped by that. What it shows is that of the files that reach us, none close with a UK lender — not that UK lenders never close.

There is a second pattern in the same data that matters more for what you do next. British buyers who have already identified a specific property complete a purchase at 3.68%, against 0.29% for those still weighing options before they start looking (n=163 and n=346). That is a difference of nearly thirteen times. Knowing your borrowing range early is useful. Narrowing to an actual property is the step that changes the outcome.

Can you get a UK mortgage for a Spanish property?

Almost never from a high-street UK bank, and the reason is legal rather than commercial. A UK lender would need to be able to repossess a property under Spanish law, and the standard UK mortgage product is not built for that.

The international arms named above are the exception, and Spain is usually on their eligible list. If you qualify with one of them, the advantage is a lender who speaks your language and reads your payslips without translation. The disadvantage is that the criteria are narrow and the pricing reflects a specialist product.

For the Spanish side — what the banks look at and what a clean record is worth — see how credit scores work in Spain and the UK buyer’s guide to a Spanish mortgage.

Can you remortgage to buy a property abroad?

Yes, and it is one of the more common routes for buyers who own their UK home outright or nearly so. Your UK lender is lending against your UK property and generally does not care what you do with the money, though you will be asked. The mechanics are the ones you know.

Two things to weigh. First, the risk transfer above — the debt sits on your home. Second, currency: you will be servicing a sterling mortgage against a euro asset, so exchange-rate movement changes the real cost of what you bought without changing the payment.

How does HMRC know if I own a property abroad?

Mostly because you tell them, and increasingly because the country where the property is tells them.

Simply owning a property abroad is not a taxable event and there is nothing to report. If you let it, that changes: see what a buy-to-let looks like when the property is abroad. What triggers the obligation is income or a sale: rental income is taxable in the UK even when tax has already been paid locally, and a sale can create a capital gains liability.

On top of your own disclosure, most European countries exchange financial account information with HMRC automatically — undeclared rental income is not a private matter, and the penalties are worse than the tax. Our guide to calculating UK capital gains tax on overseas property covers the sale side.

What you need to have ready

The document list is longer than a UK application, and the translation requirement is what catches people out.

That credit-report line surprises people, because the usual advice is that European lenders have no credit scores. Both are true: no score, and the bank may still ask for your Experian or Equifax report — read for undeclared debt and defaults.

Add up the cash first. In Upscore’s Spanish applications the median deposit is 22.7% of the purchase price (n=6,243), while the median loan-to-value requested is 75%. A non-resident file generally supports 60 to 70%, so the gap between the deposit people have and the one the loan needs is around ten points of the price. Closing that gap, not the paperwork, is what most applications are working on. Our cost calculator breaks it down by region. If you want the same picture against your own profile, see what a UK buyer can borrow in Spain.

Frequently asked questions

Do any UK banks offer overseas mortgages?
Not for Spain or Portugal. Every lender that ranks for the term secures on UK property, and HSBC Expat refers rather than lends. HSBC’s UAE arm does lend on UAE property, at up to 60% of value, to Premier and Private Bank customers. Our guide to which UK banks offer overseas mortgages covers each one.

How much deposit do you need for a property abroad?
More than for a UK purchase, and the 10-13% in purchase taxes and fees cannot be added to the loan. Budget the cash rather than a percentage.

Can I use my UK income to get a mortgage abroad?
Yes. Foreign income is normal for a non-resident application. It means more documentation and sworn translations, and it is often why the lender asks for your home-country credit report.

How long does it take?
Across Upscore’s completed purchases the median is 4.7 months from first enquiry to completion, with a range from under one month to over a year. The spread is wider than the median suggests.

Do I need to speak the language?
No, but you will need a certified translator for the documents and, in most cases, a local lawyer. Neither is optional in practice.

The bottom line

You can get a mortgage on a property abroad. What you probably cannot do is get it from the bank you already use.

Every British buyer who completed a purchase in Spain through Upscore did it with a Spanish bank. And the thing that moves the outcome most is not the route: British buyers who have identified a specific property complete at nearly thirteen times the rate of those still weighing options (3.68% versus 0.29%, n=163 and n=346). Work out your borrowing range early — then go and find the property.

Once you have one in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks in Spain, Portugal or the UAE will approve your specific profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes.

Getting a Mortgage in Portugal: A Guide for Foreign Buyers

Portugal is one of the more accessible European markets for a foreign buyer to finance. Banks lend to non-residents as a matter of routine, the paperwork is manageable, and the deposit requirement is lower than in several neighbouring markets.

The two things that decide it are the same as everywhere: how much cash you have and how much debt you already carry. Portugal has no credit score, so there is no history to prove and nothing to build.

The quick answers

• Can a foreigner get a mortgage in Portugal? Yes, including non-residents. It is a standard product at the main banks.
• How much will they lend? For non-residents the market generally runs at 60 to 70% of the lower of price or valuation, with a few lenders stretching to 75% for strong profiles. Residents can access more.
• What do I need in cash? The deposit plus roughly 8 to 10% in purchase taxes and fees, which cannot be added to the loan.
• Do I need a Portuguese tax number? Yes — an NIF, before anything else.
• Does my credit score count? No. Portugal uses a central credit register, not a score.
• Is the Golden Visa still available through property? No. The property route was withdrawn; buying does not give you residency.

Can a foreigner get a mortgage in Portugal?

Yes, and non-resident lending is normal business rather than an exception. Portuguese banks have financed foreign buyers along the Algarve, in Lisbon and in Porto for decades.

What changes with residency is the terms, not the availability: a resident with Portuguese income borrows more, over a longer term, at a smaller margin. Nationality itself is rarely the variable. What the bank asks is where you are tax resident, where your income comes from, and what you already owe. American buyers have their own set of questions, covered in best banks in Portugal for US non-residents; the Spanish comparison is in mortgages in Spain for non-residents.

How much will a Portuguese bank lend?

Here the published number and the practical number are not the same, and the gap is worth understanding.

What the banks publish is a ceiling of around 80% for a secondary home — CGD states it in its own conditions: for habitação própria secundária, the lower of 80% of valuation and 80% of price. That matches the Bank of Portugal’s macroprudential limit, which caps non-permanent housing at 80%.

What a non-resident is generally offered is 60 to 70%, with a few lenders stretching to 75%.

So the restriction on a foreign buyer is commercial, not regulatory. Nothing in the rules stops a Portuguese bank lending you 80% — each bank chooses to lend less to a borrower it cannot easily assess or pursue. That matters because it tells you what is negotiable: a stronger file or a lender currently at the top of the range can move it. A regulatory cap could not be moved at all.

The base matters as much as the percentage: the bank lends against the lower of price and valuation, so a valuation below what you agreed becomes cash out of your pocket rather than a smaller purchase.

On top of the deposit:

IMT moves most, because the bands treat a main home differently from a second home: the same property is taxed on a different scale depending on why you bought it.

What does the bank assess?

Three things, and none of them is a credit score.

1. Debt-to-income. Your total monthly commitments — anywhere in the world — against your income. Portuguese banks are conservative here, and it is the filter that closes most files. In Upscore’s applications across markets, among applicants whose existing housing costs already took more than 35% of their income, none went on to complete a purchase (n=333).

2. Income stability. Employment contract and payslips, or two to three years of accounts if you are self-employed. Foreign income is normal; it means translations.

3. The property and its purpose. Main home, second home or letting — it affects the tax band, the maximum loan, and sometimes whether the bank is interested at all.

Portugal’s credit register, the Central Credit Register run by Banco de Portugal, records the credit liabilities that lenders report each month. For a first-time foreign buyer it comes back empty, and empty is the good outcome — there is no positive history to accumulate. As in Spain, a credit report from your country of residence may still be requested as a document, read for undeclared debt rather than for a score. Does Europe have credit scores covers how Portugal sits next to its neighbours.

The discount you probably cannot get

This is the part no bank spells out, and it comes from reading their own published conditions rather than from anything they say about non-residents.

Portuguese banks reduce the spread in exchange for a package of products, and the packages require your income to be paid into an account at that bank. CGD’s Pack Vinculação — worth 0.25 percentage points — lists card use, a Caixa account, and domiciliação de rendimentos: your income paid into the CGD account tied to the loan.

A non-resident paid in sterling or dollars by a foreign employer generally cannot satisfy that. Which means the non-resident starts from both a lower loan-to-value and the base spread, while a resident with the same property gets the higher loan and the discounted rate.

Add the insurance package — another 0.25 points at CGD — and the gap between the advertised rate and the one a non-resident is quoted is not a premium for risk. It is the sum of discounts the applicant cannot claim. The advertised rate assumes a customer you are not.

What do you need before you apply?

Start with the NIF. It is the Portuguese tax number, required for the purchase and for opening a bank account, and everything else waits on it.

A local lawyer is not legally required but is standard practice: the caderneta predial and the checks at the land registry are where one earns their fee. The Bar Association keeps the register.

How long does it take?

Plan in months. Across Upscore’s completed purchases the median is 4.7 months from first enquiry to completion, with a spread from under one month to over a year, and the variation between banks is larger than between markets.

The delay is almost never the credit decision. It is documents, translations and the tax number — all of which you can start before choosing a property.

“We used a mortgage broker and the process was pretty straightforward. We sent heaps of paperwork and ended up with six banks who wanted to work with us. We needed to put 20% down. A lot of people we know had to put 30% down but we got lucky. We also had to get life insurance in addition and it must be Portuguese life insurance.“
— r/PortugalExpats, Have any expats in PT gotten a mortgage there for a home purchase?

Two things in that comment are worth separating. The poster is an expat living in Portugal, which is why 20% down was available to them — a non-resident applying from abroad should plan on the 30 to 40% their acquaintances were quoted. On the insurance, the comment needs one correction. Life and buildings insurance assigned to the loan is mandatory — CGD lists both under seguros obrigatórios. But the insurer is your choice: the same page states that a consumer may take the required policies with an insurer of their preference provided the cover meets the bank’s minimum, in which case they lose the spread discount attached to the bank’s package. So it is not “must be Portuguese insurance” — it is “must be insurance, and using the bank’s is cheaper on the rate”. CGD prices that choice at 0.25 percentage points.

The six-banks detail is the other useful part, and it points at the same thing as the section below.

Which banks lend to non-residents in Portugal?

The main retail banks all have non-resident products, and — as in Spain — two banks can reach different conclusions on the same file, because neither reads a shared score. Each assembles its own view from your documents, which is why applying to a single bank is a weaker strategy in Portugal than it would be in the US or UK. See mortgage in Portugal for non-residents for what you would actually be approved for.

An honest limit: our completed Portuguese purchases are recorded at market level rather than by lender, so we cannot rank Portuguese banks from our own data the way we can for Spain.

Our guide to the best banks in Portugal for US and non-resident buyers goes bank by bank on what each publishes.

Is buying property still a route to residency?

No. The Golden Visa property route has been withdrawn: buying a home in Portugal does not give you the right to live there, and any page still selling it as a visa is out of date.

That matters for the mortgage because it changes who the buyer is. The market is now second homes, retirement and investment — which is exactly the habitação própria secundária category where the 80% published ceiling applies.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a mortgage in Portugal as a non-resident?
Yes. Market practice is generally 60 to 70% of the lower of price or valuation, plus 8 to 10% in taxes and fees that cannot be borrowed.

Do I need to be in Portugal to complete?
For the deed, yes — or you grant a power of attorney to a Portuguese lawyer to sign for you, which is common for foreign buyers.

Is a Portuguese mortgage fixed or variable?
Both. Variable is quoted as Euribor plus a spread — Euribor is published daily by the European Money Markets Institute — and fixed is available for a set period. A non-resident servicing a euro loan from foreign income already carries currency risk, which is why fixed is often the calmer choice.

Can I use rental income to qualify?
Usually not. Most banks will not count projected rental income towards what you can borrow, which surprises buyers coming from a UK buy-to-let background. Why the rent does not count, and what that does to the numbers works through it.

What is IMT and how much is it?
The property transfer tax, banded by price and by whether the property will be your main home. The bands are published by the Portuguese tax authority and are the largest single cost after the deposit.

The bottom line

Portugal is a straightforward market to finance, and the obstacle is almost never the lending decision. It is the cash — the deposit plus 8 to 10% that cannot be borrowed — and the tax number nobody starts early enough.

Get the NIF moving, add up the full cash requirement first, and apply to more than one bank. The cost calculator puts Portugal’s purchase costs next to Spain’s.

Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks in Portugal will approve your profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes. If you are financing from Britain, see which UK banks offer overseas mortgages.

Mortgages in Spain for Non-Residents: Who Qualifies and What It Costs

You can get a Spanish mortgage without living in Spain. Every major Spanish bank has a non-resident product and the process is well established — it is just not the process you know.

The two things that decide the outcome are cash and existing debt, not credit history. Spain has no credit score, so there is nothing to build and nothing to repair. What the bank reads is your income, what you already owe each month, and how much of the price you are asking it to lend.

The quick answers

• Can a non-resident get a mortgage in Spain? Yes. Every major Spanish bank has a non-resident product, though the terms differ from the resident version.
• How much will they lend? Generally 60 to 70% of the lower of price or valuation, against 80% for residents.
• What do I need in cash? The deposit plus 10 to 13% in purchase taxes and fees, which cannot be added to the loan.
• Does my credit score matter? No — Spain does not use one. Your credit report may still be requested as a document.
• Do I need to live in Spain or speak Spanish? Neither. You need an NIE, a Spanish bank account and a certified translator.
• How long does it take? Across Upscore’s completed purchases the median is 4.7 months from first enquiry to completion.

Who counts as a non-resident?

Tax residence, not nationality or how much time you spend there. If you spend fewer than 183 days a year in Spain and your main economic interests are elsewhere, the bank treats you as a non-resident regardless of your passport.

This matters because the distinction drives the whole product: a different maximum loan, a different rate, a shorter maximum term, and a heavier document list. An American with a Spanish grandparent is a non-resident; a Briton who moved to Valencia last year may still be one for a couple of tax years, which catches people out.

Some banks ask for a certificado de no residencia, a certificate confirming the status, issued through the Spanish national police. Others pull it themselves later in the process.

How much can a non-resident borrow?

Non-resident lending in Spain generally runs at 60 to 70% of the property value, against 80% for residents. The figure is market practice rather than law, and the important detail is what it is calculated on.

The bank lends against the lower of the agreed price and its own valuation (tasación). If you agree €200,000 and the valuation comes back at €190,000, a 70% loan is €133,000 rather than €140,000 — and the €7,000 difference comes out of your pocket, not the loan. A valuation below the price does not reduce what you pay for the property; it increases the cash you need.

Add the purchase costs on top:

Notary and registry fees are set by tariff and published by the Spanish notaries’ association. The transfer-tax rate is set by each autonomous community and published by the Spanish tax agency — our cost calculator works it out by region.

In Upscore’s Spanish applications the median deposit is 22.7% of the purchase price (n=6,243) and the median loan-to-value requested is 75% (n=1,943). Non-resident lending generally runs at 60 to 70%, so most applicants are around ten points of the price short of what their own request needs. Closing that gap, not the paperwork, is what most applications are actually working on.

Does my credit score matter in Spain?

No, because there is no Spanish credit score. No FICO equivalent, no three-digit number, and nothing you can improve before applying.

What exists is two registers. CIRBE, run by the Bank of Spain, lists loans you hold in Spain from €1,000 upward. ASNEF, run privately, lists unpaid debts. For a first-time foreign buyer both come back empty — and empty is the good result.

There is one wrinkle worth knowing, because two things that sound contradictory are both true. Your home-country score is invisible to the bank and carries no weight. But a credit report from where you live is a standard item on the non-resident document list, and the bank reads it for undeclared debt and past defaults rather than for the number on the front page.

Our guide to how credit scores work in Spain covers what the bank looks at instead, and does Europe have credit scores puts Spain next to its neighbours.

What does the bank actually assess?

Three things, in order.

1. Debt-to-income. Your total monthly commitments, anywhere in the world, against your income. This is the hard filter. In Upscore’s Spanish applications, among applicants whose existing housing costs already took more than 35% of their income, none went on to complete a purchase (n=333).

Existing debt itself is not the problem people assume — applicants who already carry debt complete at a slightly higher rate than those who do not, because carrying a mortgage usually means owning an asset. It is the ratio that closes files.

2. Income stability. Employment contract and payslips, or two to three years of accounts if you work for yourself. In Upscore’s Spanish applications 18.9% of applicants are self-employed, with a further 2.7% combining self-employment and salaried work (n=3,761) — roughly one in five. Banks differ widely in how they treat trading history, which makes bank selection matter more for this profile.

3. The property. Type, location and whether it is intended for short-term letting. Most banks will not count expected rental income towards what you can borrow, which surprises British buyers used to buy-to-let arithmetic. How a buy-to-let works when the property is abroad sets out the difference.

“I bought an apartment about 4 years ago and had to do some shopping to find the best deal. The options were rather limited because non-residents won’t have a paycheck they can get a hold on or any other assets they can go after if something goes wrong.”
— r/ExpatFIRE, Non resident mortgage in Spain?

That comment names the mechanism exactly. It is not distrust — a non-resident simply offers a lender less to hold on to, and the deposit is what closes the gap.

Which Spanish banks lend to non-residents?

Most of the large banks have a product, and they reach different conclusions on the same file. Two Spanish banks can decide differently on identical paperwork, because neither is reading a shared score — each assembles its own view from your documents. That is why a decline from one bank tells you much less than it would in the US or UK. If you want the same picture against your own profile, see Spanish mortgage for a UK resident.

Across Upscore’s completed Spanish purchases the lender was Sabadell, CaixaBank or UCI, and the speed differs materially: the median runs at 144 days with Sabadell and 154 with CaixaBank, and substantially longer with UCI. Timing is part of the decision, not an afterthought — an approval has a validity period.

The Bank of Spain’s lending statistics are the neutral reference for where the market sits, and the Spanish mortgage law of 2019 sets what a bank can charge you for early repayment.

There is also a pattern worth knowing if you are choosing where to apply: CaixaBank is faster with American applicants and slower with British ones, and Sabadell is the reverse. Both cuts are small samples, so read them as direction rather than measurement.

The three main banks side by side

Bank criteria checked August 2026 against each bank’s own pages, guides and rate sheets. Completion times are Upscore’s own files; the nationality pattern comes from samples below fifty cases, so read it as direction rather than measurement.

Two rows deserve a second look. The base matters as much as the percentage — on a €250,000 purchase valued at €235,000, CaixaBank’s published 70% of price is €175,000 while Bankinter’s 60% of the lower figure is €141,000. That is a €34,000 difference in the cash you bring, not a ten-point difference. And the currency you are paid in decides more than your nationality does.

What documents will they ask for?

Longer than a UK or US application, and the translation requirement is the part that delays people.

Get the NIE started early. It is required for the purchase and not only the loan, and it is the single most common reason a timeline slips. If you are applying from Britain, the UK buyer’s guide to a Spanish mortgage covers the UK-side paperwork.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get a Spanish mortgage without a Spanish income?
Yes. Foreign income is normal on a non-resident file. It means more documentation and sworn translations, and it is often why the bank asks for your home-country credit report.

What is the maximum term for a non-resident?
Shorter than for a resident, and usually capped by age at the end of the term as well as by years. Confirm both limits with the specific bank.

Do I need to be in Spain to sign?
For the completion at the notary, yes — or you can grant a power of attorney to a Spanish lawyer to sign on your behalf, which is common.

Is it cheaper to buy in cash and mortgage later?
Refinancing a property you already own is possible but generally on worse terms than purchase financing, and it restarts the costs. If you can only fund part of the purchase, a smaller loan is usually better than no loan.

Does buying property give me residency?
No. Property ownership and immigration status are separate, and the Golden Visa route for property has been withdrawn. Owning a home in Spain does not give you the right to live there.

Which region is cheapest to buy in?
The purchase taxes vary by autonomous community and by enough to matter on the total cash needed. The lending terms do not vary by region.

The bottom line

A non-resident Spanish mortgage is a normal product with an unusual filter. There is no credit history to prove and no score to build — the two things that decide it are the cash you have and the debt you already carry.

Work out the full cash requirement first, including the 10 to 13% that cannot be borrowed. Then apply to more than one bank, because in a market with no shared score the same file genuinely produces different answers.

Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which Spanish banks will approve your profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes. For rates, see Spanish mortgage rates for non-residents.

Which Portuguese Banks Lend to Non-Residents, and What They Publish

Every major Portuguese bank lends to foreign buyers. What almost none of them publishes is the criteria for a non-resident — and the routes that look like they are for you usually are not.

Millennium BCP splits its world into “Portuguese living abroad” and “solutions for foreigners living in Portugal.” If you live in London or Chicago and want to buy in the Algarve, you are neither. This page pulls together what the three main banks actually state, from their own rate sheets rather than from broker guides.

The quick answers

• Can a non-resident get a mortgage in Portugal? Yes, at all three banks below. Santander is the only one that says so in English on a page aimed at you.
• What loan-to-value? The regulatory ceiling for a second home is 80%. The 60 to 70% you will read everywhere is market practice, and it is a commercial choice rather than a rule.
• What term? Up to 40 years under 35 years old, 35 years over — with an age cap at the end of the loan.
• The discount you cannot get: every spread reduction requires your salary paid into that bank.
• Life insurance: mandatory, but the insurer is your choice — and choosing your own costs you 0.25 points of spread at CGD.
• Golden Visa: the property route is gone. Buying does not give you residency.

What each bank publishes

Checked in August 2026 against each bank’s own pages and its preçário — the official rate sheet Portuguese banks are required to publish.

Santander is the outlier and it is worth saying plainly. It is the only one of the three with a mortgage page in English written for a foreign buyer, and it answers the question directly:

“Non-residents can apply for a mortgage in Portugal, subject to standard bank criteria.”

“Up to 80% of the lower value between the appraisal and the purchase price.”

Millennium and CGD lend to non-residents too. They simply do not have a page that says so.

Why the market offers 60-70% when the rules allow 80%

This is the most useful thing on this page, and it comes from putting two published figures next to each other.

The regulatory ceiling is 80%. The Bank of Portugal’s macroprudential limit caps lending on a non-permanent home at 80% of the lower of price and valuation, and CGD publishes exactly that for habitação própria secundária — the category most foreign buyers fall into.

What a non-resident is generally offered is 60 to 70% — market practice across Portuguese lenders rather than anything any of them publishes — with a few stretching to 75% for a strong profile.

So the restriction is commercial, not regulatory. Nothing in the rules stops a Portuguese bank lending you 80%; each bank chooses to lend less to a borrower it cannot assess or pursue as easily. That distinction tells you what is negotiable: a stronger file, a larger relationship, or a lender currently sitting at the top of its range. A regulatory cap could not be moved at all.

The base matters as much as the percentage. All three calculate on the lower of the purchase price and the bank’s valuation, so a valuation below what you agreed becomes cash out of your pocket rather than a smaller purchase. Variable rates are quoted as Euribor plus a spread, and Euribor is published daily by the European Money Markets Institute.

The discount a non-resident cannot claim

Portuguese banks reduce the spread in exchange for a package of products, and the packages require your income to be paid into an account at that bank.

CGD’s Pack Vinculação is worth 0.25 percentage points and lists card use, a Caixa account, and domiciliação de rendimentos — your income paid into the CGD account tied to the loan. Its Pack Ligação, another 0.25 points, requires the bank’s own life and home insurance.

A non-resident paid in sterling or dollars by a foreign employer generally cannot satisfy the first. Which means you start from both a lower loan-to-value and the undiscounted spread, while a resident buying the same property gets the higher loan and the better rate.

The advertised rate assumes a customer you are not. The same asymmetry shows up in Spanish mortgage rates for non-residents. That is not a premium for risk — it is the sum of discounts you are structurally unable to claim, and it is worth knowing before you compare any headline number.

Do you have to buy the bank’s life insurance?

No, and all three publish the opposite of what you will read in forums.

Life and buildings insurance assigned to the loan is mandatory — CGD lists both under seguros obrigatórios. But the insurer is your choice. CGD states it directly:

“O consumidor pode optar pela contratação dos seguros obrigatórios junto de segurador da sua preferência, desde que a apólice contemple as coberturas e os requisitos mínimos definidos pela Caixa; neste caso não usufruirá da redução no spread atribuída pela contratação do Pack Ligação.”

The consumer may take the mandatory insurance with an insurer of their preference, provided the policy meets the minimum cover the bank defines — in which case they lose the spread reduction from the Pack Ligação.

So the accurate version is not “it must be Portuguese insurance.” It is: insurance is required, using the bank’s is cheaper on the rate, and CGD prices that choice at 0.25 points. Buyers who report being told they had to use a Portuguese policy were most likely being quoted the discounted rate without the alternative spelled out.

What about the term and your age?

CGD publishes the clearest version: 40 years for borrowers aged 35 or under, 35 years for those over 35, with a limit of 75 years of age at the end of the loan.

One thing worth flagging because it produces a recurring misunderstanding. Millennium’s published age cap is 72 in its current rate sheet and 75 in its English FAQ — the bank contradicts itself. There is a widely repeated story of an American buyer told 72 rather than 75 who concluded it was because of his nationality. 72 is simply Millennium’s published figure. Ask which applies to your loan and get it in writing, rather than reading a nationality into it.

Do they ask for a credit report from your country?

All three do, and it is the one requirement where every one of them publishes something.

Two published facts sit behind it. Portugal’s Central Credit Register, run by the Banco de Portugal, records only credit reported by Portuguese lenders — so for a first-time foreign buyer it returns nothing. And every EU lender is obliged to assess an applicant’s creditworthiness under the mortgage credit directive. Reading the second as the reason for the first is our inference, not a bank’s statement, but the requirement itself is published.

There is no Portuguese credit score, and the report from where you live is still asked for. It is read for undeclared debt and past defaults rather than for the number on the front page — the same pattern as Spain, where CaixaBank states the foreign report “must be provided”. Does Europe have credit scores covers how Portugal sits next to its neighbours.

What Americans should know

The real obstacle is documentation volume, not FATCA — and the difference matters because one is manageable and the other sounds like a wall.

An American buyer who closed in Portugal put the mechanism plainly:

“There is a lot more documentation required for Americans – because they can’t just look us up in the Bank of Portugal and see all our deposits and balances.“
— r/PortugalExpats, Getting a mortgage in Portugal

That is the same point as the credit report above, said by someone who went through it: the local register has nothing on you, so the file has to be built from documents.

On FATCA specifically, the fear is louder than the evidence. A US citizen who obtained a loan from a European bank reported:

“I’m a US citizen married to an EU citizen with a combined income significantly smaller than yours, and we had no problem obtaining a loan from a European bank. FACTA was never once mentioned in relation to the loan. As all EU financial institutions work under the same legal framework, your anecdote seems anomalous at best.”
— r/expats, Can’t get a mortgage bc I’m from the US

FATCA can make some institutions slower to open an account, and the account has to exist before the loan is serviced. But it is not a recorded reason for a mortgage decline. Treat it as a reason to start the account early, not as a reason to expect a no.

What you need before you apply

A note on the fiscal representative, because commercial guides get this wrong. A representative is not required to obtain the NIF. The obligation arises once you own property, with a short window to comply — and it can be satisfied by signing up for electronic notifications with the tax authority instead of paying someone. The land registry handles the property side. The guides that sell the service rarely mention the free alternative.

Frequently asked questions

Which Portuguese bank is best for a non-resident?
On what they publish, Santander Totta — it is the only one with an English mortgage page written for foreign buyers and a stated 80% ceiling. That is a transparency ranking, not a pricing one: we have no first-party data on Portuguese lenders by bank. See the US buyer’s route to a Portuguese mortgage for what you would actually be approved for.

Can I get 80% as a non-resident?
The rules allow it for a second home. Market practice generally runs at 60 to 70%. The gap is the bank’s choice, which makes it worth asking rather than assuming.

Does Millennium BCP lend to non-residents?
Yes, though its public routes are aimed at Portuguese emigrants and at foreigners already living in Portugal. Ask for the non-resident product by name.

How long does it take?
Across Upscore’s completed purchases the median is 4.7 months from first enquiry to completion (n=64), with a wide spread. The delay is rarely the credit decision — it is documents, translations and the NIF.

Is buying property still a route to residency?
No. The Golden Visa property route has been withdrawn. Any page selling it as current is out of date.

Do I need to be in Portugal to complete?
For the deed, yes — or grant power of attorney to a Portuguese lawyer, which is standard for foreign buyers.

The bottom line

All three lend to you. Only Santander says so on a page you can read, and the number everyone quotes — 60 to 70%, market practice rather than a rule — sits well below the 80% the regulator allows.

So do three things: get the NIF moving before anything else, ask each bank what its maximum is and what it is calculated on, and check whether the rate you are quoted assumes discounts you cannot claim.

Once you have a specific property in mind, Upscore’s Finance Passport shows which banks will approve your profile. It is free and takes under fifteen minutes. See also getting a mortgage in Portugal for the process and the best banks in Portugal for US buyers.