With the interest rate on a Yen mortgage at 2.2%, you might be forgiven for thinking a re-mortgage is in your future; but before you take the plunge and secure that low interest rate STOP and look at this from an international perspective. I don’t have to tell you that theirs nothing for nothing, so why hasn’t every Florida mortgage holder decided to take a loan in Yen, Euros or some other low rate currency?

With interest rates in Pounds and Dollars at a high point, the allure of remortgaging your Florida home at 2.2% can be very tempting, so much so that I am now getting calls each week asking for details of our new Multi-currency mortgage option, and why not. If you have an income and or assets in one of the worlds low interest rate currencies you should consider a mortgage in that currency as a cost reducing move. But, there lies the problem; if you don’t have any ties to one of the worlds low rate currencies you should know that borrowing in that currency has just put you in the rank and file of an international currency dealer. Is that what you are? Is that what you want to be? Will you be up at strange times of the day and night watching your computer screen as currency dealers from around the world use arbitrage to make a pound, a Shekel or a Euro or two? Probably not.

For years, my personal position has been to advise clients to borrow in the currency of the asset they are using as security. If you are paying Dollars for a property, take a mortgage in Dollars. Now some of you may say yes, but what about the Sterling mortgage options. And rightly so, you should consider your Sterling options as that is most likely the currency you earn income in and pay your bills in. What you don’t want to do is to take a mortgage in a currency you know nothing about and have no ties to simply because it has a low rate.

You can now obtain a mortgage on your Florida property in USD, GBP, EURO, YEN, CAD, AUD, NZD, CHF, HKD, and SGD. With over two hundred different programs to choose from it becomes imperative to obtain independent mortgage advice before you put pen to paper and commit yourself to something you may well regret later.