with us uh for our B monthly catchup is
Christina Brady from Black Tower
financial management since we last spoke
the news that Spain now wants to
completely eliminate the golden Visa
scheme which gives residency to wealthy
foreigners not just the housing 500,000
Spanish home but all the other options
as well Christina socialist government
has decided it wanted to scrap all
golden Visas so before you could either
buy a property or you had investment
opportunities you could put 1 million in
shares in a Spanish company you could
place 2 million in government bonds or 1
million in a Spanish bank and what that
meant was you then had your golden visa
and the good thing about the golden Visa
is it meant you could work in Spain and
if you didn't want to work you could
live in Spain but you didn't have to
become tax resident so what they've done
is they've got rid of the only Visa that
you could possibly have to live in Spain
where you didn't become a tax resident
if you take out a non-lucrative Visa a
nomad Visa any of the others you are
become a tax resident in Spain so what
they've done is they've said right we're
going to get rid of this and before they
tried to pass it through Parliament it
didn't get ped but they think they found
a loophole oh God how can they find
these loopholes but anyway they think
they found a loophole which means they
can pass this through um but they
haven't said what they are going to do
to existing golden Visa holders that was
going to be my next question because
there are apparently about 15,000 of
those um most of them were Uh Russian
Chinese Iranian but there were Americans
UK If you obviously lived outside the EU
you need you to apply for a Visa and
they haven't said in any way shape or
form what they are going to do and
people are still processing
golden someone going through quite
quickly as well at the moment yes
they're going through very quickly and
that but but no one knows what's going
to happen they can't just say right your
golden visa when it runs out in 5 years
is that's it you've got to get out the
country because they fulfilled all the
criteria at the time when they applied
to live here they might say you can stay
but as long when your golden Visa Runs
Out you become a tax resident after five
years ta can be legislation that could
go through on that count I would imagine
um in the current sort of you know the
way that the the Spanish Parliament is
because it's everybody having to do a
deal with everybody else to get anything
through um it's like France it's a
complete yes the um what was I going to
ask about this um there was something
else to do with the uh oh yes I know
what it was since they said they were
going to scrap the uh the golden Visa
nothing's happened for ages so how soon
will something happen pass through as
law but it it wasn't it they rejected it
so they tried to pass it through the
house but it was rejected so this time
that's why they're saying that they
found a loophole because they were
worried this was going to be rejected
again uh so we will have to see if they
have actually you know found a loophole
and it does withstand scrutiny and as
you said if other people back it because
they haven't got a majority they are
relying on smaller parties to back them
and I think I think it's wrong I think
scrapping the golden Visa is wrong I
think if they should keep it but they
should say you become a tax resident in
Spain it doesn't give you the freedom
not to be a tax resident I think maybe
the property yes but I think if you're
investing in a Spanish company or you're
investing in government bonds that is
good for Spain so why scrap something
that is fundamentally good for the
economy of your country is it all part
of those politics that we've been
talking about and you know some people
want something could well be all right
well we'll keep an eye on it and you
know as developments develop we'll talk
about it um now about B toet because
there have been some concerning
headlines about B toet in Britain this
week the market shrunk uh the telegraph
even said the buy toet Market is dead y
they are calling the death of The Bu
toet market and it's that is despite
retail yields being at their highest on
record across most of the country uh
investors are abandoned in the sector
you know it's it's they're literally
running for the hills and this is due to
higher mortgage rates is a small small
fraction the uncertainty about what
labor is going to do with landlord
rights you know know it's got a it's got
a Reform Bill in place and it's giving
tenants too much power um so land
Lords don't like this it's similar to
Spain you know if you have a long-term
renter God forbid you want them to move
out it's near no impossible well it
depends on depends on the situation but
you know if if it's within a family it's
it's much easier than perhaps larger
companies trying to move people out but
however they're still doing it they
still still happening there's so much
red tape now and there's a a lack of tax
relief which obviously George Osborne
got back and so what we've seen is um
you know the market for people buying um
property okay to buy rental property it
took up 177% of the market that is
shrunk to 8% of the market so that is a
huge decrease in people buying
properties by toet and most of the
bigger firms you've seen some of the
bigger companies they are offloading
their proper is a phenomenal rate and I
think that's that's bad but in a way
it's good because if you think how much
it costs to rent a property in the UK
most people if they had to get a
mortgage on that property it would
actually be less even with the higher
rates than paying the rent and that's
what annoys me there was someone on
Facebook or Tik Tok saying the bank
thinks I can pay 2,500 a month on rent
yet it won't let me get a mortgage where
I'd only have to pay
1,900 and you got the crazy crazy
situation where UK mortgage rates have
now pushed about 320,000 adults into
poverty because they've been soaring but
actually there are fixed rate mortgages
below 4% back on sale there are still
but the trouble is if you've already got
a mortgage you can't just pull out of it
to take one of these usually you are
fixed for a year or three or five years
so when rates initially rent up if you
came to the end of your threeyear
one-year term the bank then came to you
and said right the new rate is 6% 7% or
whatever at the time they weren't the
better deals and if you try and get out
of it you have to pay a penalty which
then negates going into a lower rate
mortgage the banks have got it all sewn
up so that is only really good if you're
coming up to the time when you need to
renew your mortgage deal or if you're
buying you know a first-time buyer or
you're you know you need a mortgage for
a new property um if you've got an
existing mortgage it's very very
difficult the banks have it sewn up and
I feel very very sorry for people and as
far as interest rates go I was going to
say next week the good money says that
um there will be the first cut in four
years in Britain no no I don't I'm not
sure unless Labour just want to do 0.25
but I would say if they do that will be
the only rate rise we see before 20125
well it's a 15year high still isn't it
5.25% at the moment 14 times it's gone
up and the EU is not going to reduce
rates anymore with the figures that are
coming out and the US the US May reduce
rates but if they reduce them now it's
going to be seen as them leaning towards
the Democrats with the election coming
up so soon if they were going to reduce
rates they needed to have done it sort
of May June time but they may still do
it but it's only going to be a small cut
the economic data coming out of
everywhere is not
solid it's it could change at any time
as we've seen um so it's very very
difficult I think people and also people
just haven't got mortgages they've got
debt you know people have credit cards
the rates on that is astronomical
they're in if they don't pay off every
month they've got HP in you UK most new
cars are sold on
HP um and if that bubble bursts oh my
God God help us so there are things out
there to be very very worried about but
I think the bu toet I think a lot of
people and this is normal individuals
have used that as your their pension um
they've invested in other properties and
let them out and seen that as a way of
financing their retirement with
everything that's coming up it looks
like that bubble is going to burst and
people are going to be pulling out this
Market in a big big way in recent times
we've talked about revolute Christina
it's now finally got that UK banking
license been waiting for three years so
are we all okay with the fact that we we
trust it and it's safe enough for us to
start using I know a lot people do told
people to use it anyway it applied three
years ago it didn't get the license
because it hadn't filed its accounts
properly which again is very worried but
I'm not sure if any Bank actually files
its accounts properly and I don't I know
the EU doesn't so it has got his UK
banking license it's still restricting I
think the amount you can put into 50,000
at the moment um until it gets more
stable because obviously it's got lots
of uh red tape to go through and lots of
paperwork and then once it does you will
have the same guarantees on your
revolute account if it's in the UK that
you do for a normal bank account okay
thanks very much for that and uh what
are we going to do with our money in
these times then we know that you can't
get on to the Department of work and
pensions because it's about 753 years to
wait for a reply that's collectively of
course people trying to get through to
the Department of work and pensions and
people are worried about uh you know the
retirement crisis a number of people
haven't been saving enough uh for their
uh retirement can I quickly say
something about UK State pensions if
you're 80 and you you've just become 80
you should have received a letter saying
that you need to prove you're still
alive now I've sent an email to all my
clients telling them the links and the
British Ambassador was worried because
so many Brits living in Spain haven't
received the information from the UK or
haven't replied to it and if they don't
get proof of Life they will stop paying
your state pension this is if you're 80
or over okay if you're just coming up to
80 you're here next year it's when you
reach your 80th birthday so I just I
sent an email to my C C I've had quite a
few of them come back and said oh thank
you for this we've been in touch there's
a year backlog or something right but
but anyway just to warn people if you
have received something and you didn't
reply to it please read it again and if
you need proof of Life all you need to
do is get someone to certify your
passport and sign a form to say that
they are witness that you're still alive
so that's somebody who's who it can't be
anybody can it it's got to be no it
can't it has to be someone an accountant
uh someone a lawyer financial advisor
can do it um notaries can do it so it
does give you a list of who's acceptable
to sign that passport just to warn
people uh if your pension does stop and
you are over 80 or you are just become
80 maybe you didn't reply to this form
and give proof of life so I wouldn't
Panic just get in touch with them as I
said wait for five days on the phone
before they come back to you or they
answer um but that's something to be
aware of okay if anybody needs some
financial help or some wealth management
uh then how do they get in touch
Christina right they can email uh info@
blow fm.com put for the attention of
Christina Brady and it will come through
to me um remember we don't just cover
Spain we cover all most of the countries
in Europe the UK US uh we've got an
office in Australia and one in Dubai so
if you're anywhere and you need advice
please get in touch