November 15 sees the launch of ‘Pearl Overseas’ - an English language internet service which allows British people to find and buy property in Spain from leading Spanish property developers
Barclays, one of the world’s largest banks, today announces its intention to enter into an agreement with Premier Mortgage Service, the UK’s largest mortgage facilitators, and Facilisimo.com, the main property search website in Spain. These leading brands make up three of the most trusted and reputable specialists in international property and financial markets. Together they will launch Pearl Overseas, a company which will market Spanish homes to British people.
Pearl Overseas is the first English language internet service marketing pre-vetted Spanish property developments to the UK market. It will launch in November initially with around 150 developments from the top 70 property developers in Spain, which means over 1000 individual properties will be listed. However, from today, IFAs who are interested in joining the scheme can register on ‘pearloverseas.com’ to gain access to a service that will enable them to help their clients enter the overseas property market.
The new service will provide easy access to the Spanish property market while acting to safeguard the interests of prospective buyers and assist British people who are looking to buy property from trusted and respected sources. Pearl Overseas, which is backed by Barclays, the sixth largest bank in Spain with around 500 branches, will only market properties which have been independently certified by legal teams, giving buyers the reassurance that they are securing good title on their property from reputable providers.
Barclays guarantees that all the properties advertised on Pearl Overseas have undergone due diligence and developers are reputable and of good standing, and all properties listed carry all the necessary permits and licences. As a further re-assurance all monies deposited by the buyer will be guaranteed by a bond provided by Barclays or another bank.[1]
The structure of the partnership between Barclays, Premier Mortgage Service and Facilisimo.com means that both IFAs and their clients can consider purchasing property in Spain with peace of mind, from trusted sources, with no hidden fees and commissions.
IFAs will receive a 2.5 per cent commission on the value of the property sale when the client has paid a deposit and signed a contract on the property. Pearl Overseas provides IFAs with genuine investment opportunities on which they can advice their clients, thus adding another service and potential revenue source to the participating IFAs. Comparatively, this means the buyer pay less commission than the norm as Spanish property intermediaries/agents typically charge a commission of between 10 and 18 per cent. Furthermore, prices listed on the Pearl Overseas website are guaranteed to be the same for UK and Spanish buyers – which historically has not always applied for British people buying property in Spain.
In addition to gaining commission on sales, IFAs can obtain further revenue by referring any subsequent mortgage business to Barclays, through a simple process offered through Pearl Overseas. Although IFAs are free to recommend any mortgage product available in the market, Barclays is confident its range of competitive specialist products will prove more than adequate to capture a substantial share of the mortgage referrals generated by this service.
Commenting on the partnership, Hugues Pfyffer, director for international clients for Barclays Spain said: “Barclays has clearly stated that it wishes to grow the income it generates from outside the UK. Spain has always been an attractive market and it is also where we have our largest presence in continental Europe. Today’s announcement will further strengthen our position in the market as a leading provider of mortgages to international clients and will be a valuable platform on which to increase our share of the mortgage market in Spain.”
John Malone, Managing Director of Premier Mortgage Service said: “For the last 18 months we have been researching the overseas market and in particular Spain, for suitable partners for this additional new venture for PMS members. We are delighted to announce our business relationship with both Barclays and Facilisimo.com, which we know will provide the thousands of intermediaries clients the confidence and reassurance of purchasing property initially in Spain.”
Ernesto Plaza, Managing Director of Facilisimo.com said: “Spain’s popularity among the British makes the UK a natural focal point when we look to build on our popularity as Spain’s leading listings website and expand into new markets. The strength of the players involved in Pearl Overseas makes it UK’s most reliable channel into the Spanish market and a highly viable option for IFAs wishing to help clients explore the Spanish property market with confidence.”
Spain continues to remain a popular destination for British people who are looking to purchase property overseas with around 70,000 British people buying properties in each of the last three years. According to the latest Spanish census, 270,000 British nationals registered with Spanish councils in 2006, an increase of 28.6% compared to 2005. Research undertaken by Barclays last year also revealed that number of British people looking to buy property overseas is set to double from 2.2 million today to over 4.4. million.
Barclays is one of the world’s leading banks and Barclays has the largest presence of any UK bank in the European non resident mortgage market, serving mortgage customers through its operations in Spain, France, Portugal and Italy. Barclays is also one of the UK’s leading mortgage providers with a mortgage book of GBP 59.3 billion and the leading mortgage provider in South Africa following its acquisition of a majority state in Absa. In May this year Barclays further strengthened its international mortgage credentials when it commenced offering mortgages in Dubai.
See also:
http://www.pearloverseas.com/
http://www.barclays.co.uk/europe
[1] About Barclays Guarantee
Buyers of off-plan properties deposit any payments required to finance the purchase (in a fashion as agreed with the developer) with the developer’s bank, which may or may not be Barclays. In return the buyer has the right to be issued with a bond from the bank in question. The monies will remain securely with the bank until the development and property in question is ready to be exchanged. This means prospective buyers are at no risk of losing their investment should the development fail to be completed.
Notes to Editors:
About Premier Mortgage Service
Premier Mortgage Service was established in 1996 to provide access to exclusive mortgage arrangements for all subscribing mortgage intermediaries. We are the UK’s largest mortgage club for Mortgage Intermediaries, and have completed a massive £107 billion of mortgage business since January 1997 having received over £134 billion in applications. It is now available to all those firms regulated by the FSA to conduct mortgage business.
In 2004, Bankhall established Premier Mortgage Service (PMS) following its acquisition of the Prudential’s Mortgage Club and Norwich Union Mortgage Club, both having a substantial share of the mortgage intermediary market. The combined membership of Bankhall and PMS exceeds 16,000 members.
Bankhall, established in 1993, has grown to be a leading support services company for financial intermediaries. We specialise in quality compliance services, a comprehensive range of e-business support and IT development, and sales and marketing support to enable effective business growth for intermediaries. We offer solutions for investment, mortgage and general insurance intermediaries. Bankhall supports an estimated 10,000 Registered Individuals throughout the UK. For more information, visit http://www.bankhall.co.uk/
About Facilisimo.com
Facilisimo.com was founded in 1999, as expocasa.com, when Internet and Real Estate was nothing but very promising markets in Spain. Its founders, Alberto Fernández, now CEO of Expocasa Interactive, S.L., and Ernesto J. Plaza, Managing Director, saw the business opportunity and decided to set up a Property portal which matched homebuyers and sellers in a straight-forward way.
Starting as a true entrepreneurial venture, without outside funding from banks or venture capital, expocasa.com homed in on the most profitable market segment: advertising new developments. Today the site has over 250,000 registered users and a network of partners both domestically and internationally.
Since 2003 Expocasa.com has since consistently been one of the top three property portals in Spain. It won ISO9001:2000 certification the same year and has continued to expand through the introduction of facilisimo.com to include listings for anything for the home, including DIY and Gardening.
About IESE Research and Barclays Spain collaboration
Barclays Spain works closely with IESE Business School at the University of Navarra, Madrid to produce insights into the Spanish property market and issues concerning British expatriates. Together they produce the semiannual Barclays-IESE Barometer with information and research figures pertaining to Spain, its regions and the state of the British expatriate community.
IESE International Research Centre is a research organisation whose remit is to promote and drive basic research into new trends and organisational systems in human organisations. Specifically, it aims to reveal new paradigms of organisational culture, identify key factors that change organisations, learn about how companies manage their human resources and respond effectively to an increasingly competitive environment.
About Barclays
Barclays PLC is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking, credit cards, investment banking, wealth management and investment management services. We are one of the largest financial services companies in the world by market capitalisation. Operating in over 60 countries and employing over 118,000 people, we move, lend, invest and protect money for over 25 million customers and clients worldwide. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays PLC has six major businesses.
UK Banking delivers banking products and services to over 14 million retail customers and 641,000 businesses in the UK.
Barclays global retail and commercial banking operation, has over 2 million international clients, in geographies which currently include France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, India, Africa and the Middle East. Absa has an additional 8.0 million retail customers in South Africa.
Barclaycard is one of the leading credit card businesses in Europe, and has 11.2 million UK customers and 5.3 million international cards in issue.
Barclays Capital, the investment banking division, provides corporate, institutional and government clients with solutions to their financing and risk management needs.
Barclays Global Investors is one of the world’s largest asset managers and a leading provider of investment management products and services. The total assets under management at June 30, 2006 were $1.6 trillion.
Barclays Wealth serves affluent, high net worth and intermediary clients worldwide, providing private banking, asset management, stockbroking, offshore banking, wealth structuring and financial planning services. At June 30, 2006, total client assets were £84.7 billion.
