Mortgage broker in Spain: what they do, what they cost, when you need one

In Spain, a mortgage broker has a precise legal name: intermediario de crédito inmobiliario, a real estate credit intermediary. The broker takes your file to several banks, negotiates with them and follows the loan through to signing at the notary. Law 5/2019 on real estate credit sets the framework: compulsory registration, insurance, and transparency about how the broker is paid.

What a broker does, step by step

Without a broker, you approach the banks one by one, often in Spanish, and each one asks for its own documents in its own format. A broker turns this around: it builds a single file, presents it to the banks that lend to your profile and brings their answers back to you.

• It checks feasibility before anything else: income, deposit, possible loan-to-value, total cost of the purchase.
• It builds the file in the form Spanish banks expect, which matters for a non-resident whose documents come from another country.
• It compares the banks' offers on rate, term, fees and insurance.
• It coordinates what follows: the valuation of the property (tasación), the loan offer, the 10-day period required by Spanish Law 5/2019 before signing, and the appointment at the notary.

How the work is split at Alveo Finance

Each file has three people working on it, each at a different stage:

The broker works with more than 10 partner banks and more than 100 direct bank contacts. They know which bank lends to a British non-resident, which one accepts self-employed income earned abroad, and which one lends to a company.

How brokers are regulated in Spain

Law 5/2019 places three obligations on real estate credit intermediaries:

• registration in a public register kept by the Banco de España or by the authority of the autonomous community concerned;
• professional liability insurance or a bank guarantee;
• information about their pay before you commit to anything: what you will pay them, or how it will be calculated if the exact amount is not yet known, and whether they also receive a commission from the bank.

Alveo Finance is entered in the Banco de España register of real estate credit intermediaries under number E756, as a non-tied intermediary: no bank imposes exclusivity on us. You can check this number on the Banco de España's public register, and check any other broker's registration the same way before you sign with them.

What a broker costs

Fees vary from one broker to another. Ours are public:

• a €500 processing fee, charged once your file has been pre-validated;
• a fee of 1.15% of the amount borrowed, with a minimum of €3,490, due when you accept the loan offer.

On a €200,000 loan, 1.15% comes to €2,300, so the €3,490 minimum applies. On a €400,000 loan, the fee is €4,600. We also receive a fee from the lending bank; its amount is shown in the FEIN. The simulator is free.

These fees come on top of the other costs of the purchase. Our article on the costs of buying property in Spain puts a figure on each of them, and the simulator adds them to the total cost of your purchase.

When a broker saves you time or money

You are a non-resident

Not every Spanish bank lends to non-residents, and those that do apply different rules depending on the country you live in. Sending your file to the wrong bank can cost you weeks, at a stage where the purchase timetable is already running.

Your income does not fit the usual mould

Self-employed, company director, retired, paid in pounds, dollars or Swiss francs, living on rental income: each bank reads these profiles in its own way. The broker picks the banks that accept yours.

You have signed a deposit contract

The deposit contract (contrato de arras) sets a date for signing at the notary. If the financing is not ready in time, you risk losing your deposit. A file built once and presented to several banks in parallel avoids starting again from scratch with each one after a refusal.

You want to compare offers

Each bank sets its own conditions on rate, term, fees and insurance. Because the same file goes to several banks, you can set their offers side by side, using the FEIN each bank issues, and choose with the full picture in front of you.

When you can do without one

If you are resident in Spain, on a permanent employment contract, with a bank that knows you and already makes you a good offer, a broker will bring you less. In that case, compare the offer with a simulation: if the gap in rate, fees and insurance is small, stay with your bank.

Official sources

• Law 5/2019 of 15 March on real estate credit agreements (BOE): articles 27 and 28 (registration of intermediaries), 35.1.e (information on remuneration), 36.1 (professional liability insurance or bank guarantee).
• Banco de España register of entities, entry for Alveo Finance Management S.L. (no. E756).