Recent articles suggest Scandinavian buyers are active in Spain taking advantage of low prices and the fact their own economies are holding up better than most.

The other good news for these buyers is that unlike their European counterparts they have access to Spanish Mortgages via a Scandinavian bank whose loan to values have stayed at 80%, have low bank arrangement fees, very competitive rates and offer interest only up to 10 years.

This bank allows purchases to be made in personal or an SL company and will lend to nationals from Sweden, Norway and Denmark wherever they are resident in the world or non nationals who are tax payers in any of the three Scandinavian countries.

These lending facilities are far better than any Spanish bank or UK linked bank can offer and very good news for Scandinavian clients.

For Spanish estate agents with access to the Scandinavian buying market; ability for their clients where finance is required to purchase and take advantage of the current pricing opportunities is much higher than for clients of other countries.

For sometime now I have been asked by clients what I know of the Japanese Yen mortgages being offered in Spain.

I have now been trying for some weeks to understand how this offer is being made and how real the offer is.

My initial concerns about its validity purely stem from the fact that major well known names like Lloyds international have withdrawn from offering Yen mortgages unless you are paid in Yen. Their key rationale for this has been it is unprofitable business for the bank. If Lloyds could not make it pay on 1.75% to 2% above base rate I cannot see how the loans apparently supplied by Dominion Credit and Finance in Singapore can make it pay at 1.5% above base and cover all legal costs for clients as well as offer free exchange management and advice.

However undeterred I have continued to investigate the possibilities.

The credit agreement that is required to be signed for this type of loan is very woolly. It seems to give the lender ability at any time to change terms and rates with little or no notice and there is no guarantee what you sign for will end up being the actual terms for lifetime of loan. The MD a Mr Henry Braithwaite has yet to respond to my email asking searching and probing questions about their loans as he is away in New York. Clearly on a long trip.

Dominion credit and finance website is very new, the company can be found in no directories for business in Singapore and they do not seem to exist at the address given or at least I can’t find them.

Mr Henry Braithwaite who has a very strong banking background according to his own information is unknown to a senior banker I know who worked and lived in Singapore for many years. He will not have known everyone to be fair but banking circles tend to be quite tight.

The product is being offered via “Low Rate Spanish Mortgage” website where along with getting your mortgage you can also enter a draw to win the MD’s villa in Mexico. Tickets are € 25 a pop. It is a spot the ball not a draw and none of the accepted competition rules that are a legal requirement are in evidence. Naughty Google are allowing therefore a completely non-legal competition to be advertised because the company are not in fact paying to market the competition but paying to market Spanish mortgages.

Recently offering to arrange UK mortgages has been added to Low Rate Spanish Mortgage website again promoting rate and UK mortgage advice is actually not allowed under FSA rules unless you are a regulated adviser. Do Google do no checks !

I still have no idea if there is a catch or how they expect to make money or if the deal is in fact real all I can say is approach any contact and offer with a great deal of scepticism and take legal advice on what you are possibly signing up for before the passing of any monies or any commitment is made.