Best Mortgage Lender in Poland?

I am paid in Swiss Francs and at the moment it makes sense for me to take a mortgage in CFH.

Are there any lenders who will lend in CFH right now?

Don't take my word as gospel, but the general opinion is - no, at least not for CHF loans which are to be repaid in PLN. This might change when the law is introduced to allow payments in any currency, though.

Your best bet might be to try and go through a mortgage broker who can attempt to set up a specialist arrangement where you repay in CHF rather than PLN.

Obviously a CHF mortgage would be the best option now, I thought I read they were more popular than ever?


Swiss banks for a start.

Irrelevant if you are earning in PLN and can't use savings to get ahead of the curve at times when the rates are good - you're stuck with the rate obtaining at the time the monthly payment's due.

If you've got savings, though, open a CHF account and put some into the currency when the rate is favourable (so, not today: bad time to attempt a retrofix). Even if you have to convert back into PLN to do the payment, what you lose on the spread is nothing compared to the FX risk of CHF appreciating 70%.

True, but he earns in CHF ;)

Apparently it will change though - there's a proposal that mortgage lenders will have to accept payment in any currency, not just PLN.

From a few internet searches, it looks like the following banks will still loan in CHF in Poland right now:

Bank BPH, Nordea, Multibank, mBank, Polbank, Alior Bank (cheapest margin is Bank BPH).

I found the table with information and margins etc on the following Polish-language link:

strefabiznesu.nowiny24.pl/artykul/ranking-najlepszych-kredytow-hipotecznych-%E2%80%93-lipiec-2011-62457.html

Scroll down for the CHF table and information, it's nearer the end of the article

As long as the Polish government will not regulate and pass bills to protect naive consumers from bank sharks, Poland will still be a land of Savage Capitalism .

That's for sure.

with the former communists leading the way.

Which former communists are leading the way, tell us?


Bank sharks?

Cases of real "sharking" are quite rare in Poland. There's always cases where idiots have failed to read the contract before signing, but that's their own stupid fault.

Naive consumers are not necessarely stupid ,were you never abused by some phony promises or ripped off?

Look at the Madoff victims, thousands of them among whom some very very clever people!

Phony promises? First rule of doing business is never to do anything "on a promise".

Ripped off? Nope - it's called doing your homework.

Amen to this! Before we signed our credit agreement, we had to get the contract corrected 3 times before we signed. The bank apparently made a mistake. Yer right!!!

A few points.

1. Look at the repayment schedule. They will give you a simulation for 30 years but in the contract it can say anything. Ours was 46 years!

2. Taking insurance is mandatory, but you don't have to take the one with the bank. They wanted to add 28,000 PLN to our mortgage for the insurance.

3. If you take a mortgage not in PLN check that there is no clause saying that currency will defult to PLN in 2 years! Ours was in € and there was a clause saying it would automatically default to PLN after 2 years.

This was all with a top name high street bank. Just assume that everyone is out to rip you off. And you won't go wrong!!! :)

Are you serious?

For one Leszek Cazarnecki. He is a main shareholder of five companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange: Getin Holding, Getin Noble Bank, LC Corp, MW Trade and Open Finance. He has enormous economic, business and political influence, and according to the Warsaw Voice quoting the website of the Rzeczpospolita "is said to have worked as agent for communist security services in the 80s, while at high school and university in Wroclaw"

And that's the tip of the iceberg. The whole strata of Polish politics, business, media and banking is cut through with people like him.

As communism fell, with all its businesses and power and privilege, who do you think was in a position to and had the knowledge and contacts to take advantage of those assets not properly controlled and bolted down amidst the confusion? The same happened in the other former Soviet Union countries to some extent or another. Take a closer look at the origins of some of those countries' MEPs sitting in Brussels.

"is said" - a common smear in today's Poland.

"is said" about something untrue would be defamation in Polish law. "is alleged to ...." would be used by the newspaper if it could be untrue.

Billionaires with reputations to protect and enormous egos have teams of lawyers waiting to take action, and money is no object as regards legal costs. In general, it is likely there could be a lot more that the newspapers would like to publish but are too scared to because of the the threat of litigation. They take a great deal of care about publishing something negative about a billionaire with enormous influence. If it were some salaried government official or a foreigner then the risk is very low.

Why didn't you post this, too?

Because normally, billionaires sue people for making untrue statements that defame them, not make counter statements. If a newspaper said something that unsavoury about me that was false and defamatory, I would sue and I am certainly not a billionaire.

And my point was not only about Czarnecki, it was about the influence of the communist era in Poland today.

"And that's the tip of the iceberg. The whole strata of Polish politics, business, media and banking is cut through with people like him.

As communism fell, with all its businesses and power and privilege, who do you think was in a position to and had the knowledge and contacts to take advantage of those assets not properly controlled and bolted down amidst the confusion? The same happened in the other former Soviet Union countries to some extent or another. Take a closer look at the origins of some of those countries' MEPs sitting in Brussels."

Overall you are right but you picked up a wrong guy.

Except that you'd be at the mercy of a Polish legal system where the independence of the judiciary is - well - questionable.


Of course, but what else could be done? There were two real options at the time - either remove them totally from business/etc, or bring in foreign expertise. Unlike Czechoslovakia and Hungary, Poland didn't have the cash to appoint foreign experts - so they went with the pragmatic option of allowing people with experience to actually run things.

We already saw what happened in many State owned enterprises when they allowed the workers to take control - the ruin of the shipyards, the destruction of state-owned factories - all under Solidarność control.

delphiandomine

It seems we agree, although perhaps not about how positive or negative this is and how immoral this is. But it seems we have gone far off-thread anyway.

Merged: Good Mortgage Broker

Hello,

Could anyone recommend any good mortgage brokers in Poland?

I am buying a house in Lublin if that helps.

Thanks

Go to any bank and see what they say. Then go to another bank, then go to another bank. After you've been to about 6 banks, consider your options.

Oppenheim Kredyt always used to be good at sorting mortgages for foreigners - maybe they still are. A friend who used them twice had previously been refused by banks, including the bank theh eventually sorted him a mortgage with.

Do they have a website? My quick search on Google isn't coming up with anything