Spain's biggest home mortgage lenders

My recent posts on Spanish mortgages, inspired by my desire to note what I learn about property investing in Spain, has led me to thinking that I really need to write about the top banks in Spain for prospective mortgagors.

Regardless of where in Spain you are, the major retail banks are all represented, but in some areas local banks might have a bigger presence, for example in Andalucia where Unicaja dominates in number of branches.

Spain's two biggest banks, Santander and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) tend to be represented in every town, as are the other major banks Caja Madrid and La Caixa, although not in most small villages.

In the smaller villages you'll often find a local bank and La Caixa represented, and if there is a large expat population then a dedicated branch with English and German speakers of one of the larger banks might also be present.

Santander also owns Abbey National in the UK, so their mortgage offerings have recently become very competitive and much better attuned to the needs of expats from the UK and Northern Europe, forcing the other major mortgage lenders to play catch up.

This has led to a very competitive market for mortgages, and may see further consolidation of Spanish banks in the future. whilst spanish banks are generally unaffected by the current global financial crisis, they are sitting tight and not looking too keenly at expansion, but once foreign markets regain their strength Spanish banks are well placed to make acquisitions.

Within Spain this could see mergers or take overs amongst the biggest banks, Santander and BBVA in particular being in a strong financial position.

In terms of where to get a mortgage, mergers and acquisitions rarely affect existing loan contracts, but can lead to branch closures, especially in the smaller towns. Ronda for example is a town of just 40,000 people yet has around a dozen branches of Unicaja, and in the event of a take over could see many of these closed.

The largest mortgage lenders in Spain are;
Bancaixa, Banco Pastor, Banco Popular, BankInter, BBK, BBVA, Caixa Catalunya, Caixa Galicia, Caixanova, Caja Duero, Caja España, Caja Madrid, CAM, IberCaja, Kutxa, La Caixa, Sabadell, Santander, and Unicaja.