Free Kitchens, Cars, Boats, Furniture

A "free" item, big or small, is not free. In fact it will cost you twice as much than if you just bought the item yourself.

Why? Because the builders factor it into the price of the property. If the property cost €100,000 and they were offering a new car at €10,000, then they offer the property to you for €110,000.

Since you buy the property and car on your mortgage, you end paying €20,000 for the car and €200,000 for the property. A standard mortgage costs you double the original loan amount.

Developer-Backed Loans

An interest-free loan from the builder is no substitute for dropping the price to an affordable level. When the term is up, in five to seven years, the loan has to be paid back in full.

This means that you have a few options:

• Save a similar amount of money than you would have been paying for a mortgage on the full price of the property.
• Hope that somehow you acquire approximately €70,000 in the next five to seven years.
• Plan on selling in five to seven years, and hope that the market has been rising in the meantime.
• Avoid this offer like the plague. Don't let a property developer help you into instant negative equity with your own money for the sake of giving them the money that the banks are now prudent enough to not give you.

If you don't pay the builder back the interest-free loan by a certain date, you end having to pay massive amounts in interest payments. These loans are fraught with hidden dangers.