This is a long story, but I'll strip it down to the basics. We've been here on a D7/D8 visa since June, and my wife somewhat accidentally found a fantastic house on Idealista while we were looking for a new apartment. It's about 1/4 of the price of the same house in the UK, and we were very excited when the bank approved us for the loan (it was very complicated, but we're putting about 1/3 down). We signed the Promissory contract (which commits to buying the house within 60 days) on 26 October. We thought 60 days was a crazy amount of time since similar deals in the UK and the US happen in 2 weeks once the loan is approved. Every time I (or my solicitor) inquired whether things were proceeding apace, we were assured they were (a little snarkily, at that).

The current owner had two mortgages against the house, and the bank that held one was acquired. The estate agent assures us that he requested this mortgage discharge paperwork (without which our bank won't close the loan) in mid-October. There is no evidence of this, only an email from the acquiring bank from last week that they will get back to us in due course. Since the contract ends tomorrow and the estate agent claims that this is the bank's fault, not the seller's, he wants to extend the contract. Because we want the house more than the money, we are theoretically willing to wait, but I think that extending it past mid-January (he wants it extended to early February) will not give him any incentive to get this fucking deal done.

While we got a great deal on the house, there have been many hidden costs due to the delay. Around €20k, by my count. And because we can't do anything that would skew our credit, we can't buy a car, or apply for other credit, etc., etc.,

Here are my questions: Can anything be done to force the acquiring bank's hand? While I don't trust the estate agent to tell me the truth about the timing, I don't doubt that the bank has indeed lost the mortgage paperwork. Should I stick to my guns about the mid-January extension (as opposed to early February) to force the agent to actually do his job to put pressure on the bank? Or is this a vain effort that will only engender resentment? I'm unsure how to handle this since there seems to be some cultural misunderstanding. Our lives have been in suspended animation for over three months now, and extending it another 1.5 months seems insane, but we do want the house. If anyone has had experience acquiring property/housing in Portugal, I'd love to hear what you suggest.