In recent article in the Daily Mail sheds some light on the amount of retired individuals from the UK looking at moving back to the UK in this more difficult climate that we are finding ourselves in. Based on the same population it appears that even with bad exchange rates and a quiet Spanish property market, more Britons are still happy to stay in their adopted country.
Dear fellow petitioners,
You may remember that 17 months ago I submitted a petition to the Governor of the Bank of Spain with regard to the non-compliance of the various Spanish banks who were not honouring the guarantees given by them to protect deposits paid by purchasers of off-plan properties. You very kindly supported this petition and were signatories to it. The petition was briefly brushed aside by the Bank of Spain’s legal representative who in so many words suggested we deal with the matter through the courts. This in spite of the public pronouncements made by the Governor himself when explaining his powers to deal with recalcitrant banks.
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I have just been reading a positive article in the telegraph.co.uk that claims that the amount of enquiries for Spain are up quite drastically from last year. A good sign! I should just point out though that ‘interest’ does not equate to sales and has the figures are given in percentages, they do not give a clear indication of how many individuals are actually looking at buying in Spain. From my point of view the demand for Costa del Sol property from the British market has picked up slightly, but remains weak due to exchange rates and other financial considerations.
When real estate markets slows as is now the case, the amount of properties on the market increases and the number of buyers decrease. This makes it harder to sell properties, yet properties still sell. So, the question is, why do some properties get offers and others sit on the market? In quite a few cases this has less to do with the property (as many are priced to sell) and more to do with how the property is marketed. So below I am going to cover some of the good and the bad and work on the assumption that your Costa del Sol property is priced correctly.
I have just read an article on spanishpropertyinsight talking about how Town halls have come up a with a controversial but apparently legal way to raise money; by forcing banks to develop land acquired in debt-for-property swaps and charging them for the privilege.
Every property seller wants their home to sell fast a possible, and achieve the maximum price in the current market. This is will be self-evident to anyone reading this. But this does not simply happen. Most vendors need to do some careful and use the critical eye of their estate agent to improve the image of their property. With a little preparation you will see a large increase in the interest in your property, even in a depressed market. Of course if you price yourself way out of the market, there is little you can do but drop the price. Anyway here are a few easy suggestions that will help it increase its appeal.
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Asking prices are still between 10% and 20% too high, reveals a new survey of house-hunters carried out in March by the Foundation of Savings Banks (FUNCAS).
84% of Spaniards think that vendors are still asking too much, and more than half think prices will fall around 10.5% this year.
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In the last few months, several promoters have seen increases in the level of Costa del Sol property sales, compared to 2009, although financing is still hard to come by.
If this is the case the next report by the Ministry of housing should reflect these positive trends as this was not apparent due the first trimester.
The G-14 (group of largest developers in Spain), claim that there will be a shortage of properties in Spain in the next 2 to 3 years in certain areas if the level of granted licences continues to drop. Pedro Perez (General Secretary of the group) claims that due to the lack of building permits having been handed out, prices on newly built properties in urban centres have already been adjusted via supply and demand.
At least according to an article on OPP. Leading up to May, Rightmove (leading British property portal) claims that of the 10 searches that have increased the most 50% were for Spanish property locations. Key interest was in Minorca up 9.06%, Marbella up 6.68%, Galicia up 5.96%, Northern Spain up 5.22%, and the Balearic Islands up +3.65%.
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It appears that finally banks are starting to lend again to those looking at buying Costa del Sol properties. Although more demanding of proof of income, etc… slowly but surely the financial taps are being opened, with up to 100% offered in certain cases.
Although not the typical article on Costa del Sol property, this article was sent to me this morning. As the title implies it is about Timeshare, specifically for Spain, but it should have direct ramifications for many of the Timeshare companies that have mis-sold properties down here.
There is light at the end of the tunnel for some of the 16,500 properties within the Marbella municipality that were built but never got their first occupancy licences. Although bought in good faith, often with mortgages, owners have waited years to see if their homes would ever become regularised. Luckily for some, a few property developers are already working with the town hall to reach solutions for the many thousands of homes that were built without the relevant paperwork. The first to receive their licences are almost 300 owners with the La Reserva de Marbella in Las Chapas, east of Marbella. Some of the blocks in the development were without licences, leading to problems in recent years with utility providers, mortgages lenders and other institutions.
Just found an article by Mark Stucklin reporting that it appears that the Spanish property market might have bottomed out. Although Andalucia still is down, as I reported recently, it is good to see that there has been a pick up in resale properties and the drop in due to lowering new build sales. Anyway, please find the article below.
