Is this possible? I'm looking at buying a house in the Netherlands and taking advantage of the cheap EUR. Please advise. I'd rather pay in Malaysian ringgit so that I can benefit should the EUR rise later.

Regards

Hi, thanks so much for your reply.

I'm still completely new at investing, and the reason I wanted to buy the property is so I can live in it. I've been reading a bit about forex hedging, but how do I actually effect a forex hedge in purchasing this property? Can you help clarify this?

Thank you so much.

Yes, I'm staying there, but now in Malaysia until August. I'm tired of renting when the housing is so cheap there, but I am not really willing to take the 5% mortgage rate in EUR (which would likely strengthen against the MYR in my thoughts). I actually earn in GBP (which increases even more all currency risk.. I started worrying about this 2 months ago when I see my income affected by the GBP rate fall).

It's too late to protect my GBP rate for income anymore since the rate is so low (no choice but to wait and see if it increase), but I figured that a way to minimize this is by locking the EUR rate.


I thought there would be a lot currency risk, but I figured it would be due to EUR strengthening again and not the opposite. (I've never really invested in forex so I don't know). That is why if possible I'd like to lock in the current EUR price, at least I will know how much I am paying every month in MYR.


Adila

This post has been edited by mikeadyla: Apr 5 2010, 01:24 PM

Hehe, unfortunately I am just starting out and having almost little to no asset, so there's absolutely nothing I can refinance here in Malaysia.

Thanks guys. I will contact them, but it doesn't look too good right now. I think it was Lloyds who I contacted who said they have no branch in Netherlands and cannot enforce transactions there. :/

But I took a look and ABN Amro is in the Netherlands, but the current Malaysian ABN Amro is in fact RBS, so I will try to find a way to figure out if this can be done through them. Unlikely, but I will give a shot.

I also contacted several banks for getting a forward exchange contract to lock in the euro but it seems such service is also available to commercial enterprises (and not for personal purposes).

This is kind of running out of topic, but does anyone know the best place to get a favourable rate online/offline? I'm forced to convert some of my foreign currency to MYR, but now the rate is really crap, and the rate given by local banks are even worse.

This post has been edited by mikeadyla: Apr 6 2010, 12:42 AM

I don't reside in the UK, I just get paid as such.


Basically I'm a) residing in Holland so paying expenses in EUR, b) earning in GBP, and c) permanent place in Malaysia + having savings in MYR and remitting money to Malaysia for my family. (Thus exposed to a lot of currency risks)

But I will try that as well. Thanks!

This post has been edited by mikeadyla: Apr 6 2010, 02:32 AM