Lets Talk Turkey
Global Mortgages Direct Ltd is Ireland’s first Overseas Specialist Mortgage Broker. Mark Gannon is a Director of GMD, which was started in 2006, and Kilkenny based.
Purchasing your dream home overseas and or investment properties with an overseas mortgage can work!. They work well, and they help you, the investor, get into the property market of many great countries. It is exciting! It can test your skills at times, but overall, if your not in, you wont win!
Lets talk Turkey….perhaps this is a play on words, but let’s be frank, Turkey is a new market when it comes to mortgages. To put it into perspective, throughout the whole history of Turkey’s existence, mortgages were never available. Only last year did mortgages become available, and then it took a constitutional change to allow mortgages to be offered. So I am going to talk to you today as a perspective client, just as if we are on the phone, or around a table, lets get down to the nitty gritty!
So you have come this far, found the right property, whether for investment purposes or for personal, now you want to make the best of the opportunity and use a mortgage facility in obtaining the property. There are interesting facts you need to be aware of as you set yourself upon this path.
Mortgages, as you know, are still so very new in this country, and just because you have manoeuvred your way through the maze in your own country in purchasing property, will not put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to the intricacies of interpretation of Turkish law.
Point to ponder: Would you venture into a new field of business, investment etc and try to “wing it” when it comes to working through the legal structures you may be required to put in place? No, of course not, and so neither should you take upon yourself the interpretation of the legal proceedings when purchasing in an emerging country when making your purchase.
We have come across people, who have attempted to circumvent paying legal costs, to have the job done correctly, and gone about doing so themselves with some catastrophic problems arising. Thinking that your Mortgage Broker (who is not your legal advisor) will handle the settlement procedures for you, is just plain silly and dangerous. If you are not up to paying the couple of thousand €/£ for expert advice in the country of your purchase, perhaps you really should consider if you are up to the task of becoming an international property investor!
Simple points when you purchase property, in Turkey! (This by the way could apply to many other countries as well). When you sign the purchase contract, whatever names are put to the contract, are the same names that must be cleared through the legal process of that country and also for the mortgage contract.
In Turkey, you are required, currently, to obtain Military Clearance/Permission, for you to be able to inhabit the property that you are purchasing. It is a relatively simple process. This clearance, requested by the developer/agent, on your behalf, must be applied in the names that are on the sales contract. These same names, if obtaining a mortgage for the property, must also be the same names applying for the mortgage contract. There is no getting around this fact!
When you have legal counsel assist you with your purchase and settlement, they look at all the procedures, the purchase contract, the mortgage contract, the application for clearance/permission, the procedure to settle the purchase in the tapu/title office. They make sure that the title is translated into your language, so that you understand what you are signing.
It doesn’t stop there either! You need a Habitation Certificate; this must be applied for at the Municipality office of where you are purchasing, and a tax ID for Turkey. You will need to pay for translation costs (of accounts if applying through a Turkish resident bank, etc). There are so many fees required, that you need to be aware of. The banks all charge arrangement fees which can vary up to 1.5%.
Mortgage Brokers, source the mortgage products available in the country of your choice. They can offer either a broad spectrum of quotations, or define the offers available to exactly what you are looking for. But, be aware, the broker searches for the right offers for your request, makes them/it available to you (sometimes these offers are not available to general public, but through negotiated means for the brokers only), and remember, the broker you choose needs to have a “proven track history” of working in the market in the country of your choice.
Global Mortgages Direct Ltd aims to make sure that clients seek professional advice and service on any purchase, whether it’s Turkey, Bulgaria, Morocco etc, wherever….. Don’t be caught in a minefield that may “catch you with pants down”!
As a Broker, Global Mortgages Direct Ltd advise clients of all the documentation you will require for obtaining a mortgage in your chosen country. It is, important that you obtain all the documentation together and send with the application, as there is nothing worse for both bank, and broker to be messing around obtaining documents that should have been sent with the application at the beginning.
When this process is done correctly, Global Mortgages Direct Ltd can obtain settlements within 3 weeks! Yes, that really can happen, and it does, that’s what happens when clients work with the broker and the bank.
To Summarise: Get an International solicitor that specialises in your country of purchase, do not “scrimp” in this area, otherwise it will, come back to “bite you”!
One final note, make sure that the solicitor is totally fluent in English, better still, that they have office’s that are based in your country of residence, with a subsidiary office in the country where you’re purchasing.
Where do you find an International solicitor? Check out www.aipp.ie and or www.aipp.org.uk . They are the Association of International Property Professionals, drop them an email, and ask them for a solicitor that specialises in your country of purchase. enquires@aipp.org.uk .
Contact us on: Global Mortgages Direct Limited, ad@globalmortgagesdirect.com
Your International Mortgage Specialist