Mortgages in Ireland continue to evolve, with 100% mortgages in Ireland now a thing of the past. We saw the 100% mortgage products die off here in 2008 because of falling asset prices, the credit crunch and liquidity problems banks are having. Assuming a mortgage will always be less than the value of a property is a misconception and for that reason many people are finding themselves in negative equity.
However, that isn’t the end of the world, if you are in negative equity the loss is ‘real’ but not ‘realised’ unless you sell up at a loss. This is perhaps not a cure but it gives some perspective to dealing with the situation. Our firm have been brokers in Dublin for quite some time, and combined we have over 100 years of experience in helping our clients get the cheapest mortgage rates and to make financial plans, however, in the current environment more than ever we are finding that broker advice is vital because there is literally so much at stake for peoples finances. Property is taking a hit, so are stocks, banks are having their own crises’ and in a situation like that it is simply not good enough to ‘do nothing and hope for the best’.
We have been holding ‘Overall Advice’ meetings with many clients to look at mortgages, property, savings, retirement and ways to protect yourself from a recession and we are satisfied that people who availed of these meetings will weather the storm much better than those who have not. If you had a 100% mortgage then you should call us and just have a talk about your situation and the things you can do to remedy negative equity, some people think that with rates rising that consolidating loans is a good idea, but because of changes in the Loan to Value that lenders will offer that may not be a possibility and certainly people who’s mortgage is greater than their property price are stuck with the deal they have.
Having a mortgage advisor is not just the reserve of the ‘rich’ in fact, we are happy to be a personal advisor to anybody because ‘anybody’ can use financial advice, and we make our living from being professional financial advisors, so if you feel that money may be tight in the near future the best way to protect yourself is to make a plan and we can help you to do that. Usually an hour long chat will give you all the tools you need to take sensible steps forward, our firm also has been the only brokerage nominated for a Golden Spider award and a Broker of the Year award in the same year -we didn’t ultimately win either of them though! – so we can’t claim to be the ‘best mortgage broker in Ireland’ but we keep getting nominated. I see it the same as how Al Pacino was acting for over 30 years before he eventually won an Oscar.
We have started a weekly ‘debt blog’ and we have articles on a daily basis about the mortgage market, mortgage lenders, and mortgage interest rates so be sure to check in on a regular basis if you’d like to stay up to date with what is happening in the Irish mortgage markets. You can also get an RSS feed from our site using Thunderbird or any of the other well known readers out there. And of course if you like what you read you can Digg/Delicous/Redit/Furl/Stumble our site, and if you feel particularly good just call us 01 679 0990.
People talk to us about all aspects of finance, for instance if they are redeeming a mortgage and how to figure out if there will be a redemption penalty, to buying their first home, figuring out your tax relief at source and complex areas of investment. We are happy to talk to anybody at any time so pick up the phone and see for yourself why we keep getting put up for all the industry awards!