THE issue of illegally built homes is one that affects many thousands of expatriates living in Spain, and in particular areas like the Costa del Sol and Almeria.
The General Plan for Urban Development (PGOU) for Marbella, in Malaga Province, was recently approved and its aims are to restore judicial safety to the town, as well as attempting to solve problems from the past relating to the more than 16,500 illegally built homes.
Why Move to Spain?
With the ever increasing costs of living in the United Kingdom and the many negatives that people are facing in their every day lives, it is not surprising that thousands upon thousands of people are emigrating to a country that offers them a better quality of life.
Spain is the top destination for British people looking to emigrate and one of the most popular areas they very often choose is the Costa del Sol.
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As it is already well known, since 23rd of July the AIFOS Bankruptcy has initiated a new chapter in this creepy story. The situation was foreseeable as the reputation of this company was well known. Aifos commercialized developments at very competitive prices and had very good marketing strategies. They did not have building licenses, sometimes they were not even owners of the land, and in the majority of the occasions they did not grant the bank guarantees ordered by law nor did they deposit the monies received in a special bank account as established by law. How could they keep this behavior for years should be a matter of a deep and serious study. The financial crisis and the sudden end of the property market boom provoked this predictable end.
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For the many of you that have been to the Costa del Sol recently or are planning to come soon, the constant work being done at the Malaga airport has probably not gone unnoticed. The work as been ongoing now for a few years and looks like completion is coming soon, Easter 2010 according to the powers that be. Not bad timing considering a lot of people talking of many western European economies should be out of recession by then.
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As a slight change of pace from talking about properties for sale on the Costa del Sol I thought I would talk a bit about the property rental market here in Fuengirola. As can be imagined, as an estate agency based on the Paseo Maritimo (beach promenade) of Fuengirola, we get a fair share of passing trade asking for rentals in the area. I must admit, originally we were not keen on starting a rental department, but due to the amount of people that have approached us, both tenants and landlords, we finally decided that although our main aim was still to help people sell their property, rentals over the last 2 years has proven an additional boon.
Up to 2008 all property owners in Spain were liable for two separate taxes every year, income tax and wealth tax. The good news is that the Wealth tax has been suppressed this year and therefore from 2009 on, both residents and non residents just have to pay income tax. In effect, any non-resident individual with a property in his/her name is subject to an Income Tax of 24% of 2 percent (or 1.1% if the cadastral value has been revised after 1994) of the valor catastral, the official rated value of their property.
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I have just created a new site, the Costa del Sol business Directory. As the name implies this is going a business directory for businesses on the Costa del Sol. I have only just started this blog, so it is not exactly jam packed with businesses yet, but if any of you do have a business you wish to advertise or wish to recommend, please email costadelsolbusiness@gmail.com.
As you dear reader might have noticed, I’ve started mentioning one or 2 companies that I feel could be of interest to you. Whether via direct experience or by recommendation I intend to mention companies that have a proven track record. The latest addition to this list is a car rental company based on the Costa del Sol, Helle Hollis.
According to the economic analysts of Andalucía the current economic recession will continue to affect Andalucía until the 4th quarter of this year with the GDP of Andalucía shrinking by 1.3% in 2009. This is in contrast to 2008 when GDP increase by 1.1% in Andalucía.
Good morning, I’m sure many of you have realised that suddenly you are getting electricity bill every month instead of bi-monthly from Endesa Sevillana.
What you probably don’t know is that the latest bill is probably not from the reading of the meter but is an estimate. So you are probably over paying! The government has said that this is not acceptable! If the electricity company is going to send out the bills every month, the metre will need to be read every month!
So if you have already paid, contact Sevillana and complain (reclamacion), and once they read the metre any additional payment you made will be refunded.
Sevilla-Endesa (costa del sol contact)
Tel.:
952 800 792
952 794 845
Regards
Andrew Bellés
It appears that’s 2 properties/developments are to be demolished, the cost to be paid by the developer
These are 2 of the 8 properties that the Mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, has promised to demolish in exchange for the Junta de Andalucía granting temporary trading licences to businesses located in other illegally built buildings. Although it appears that the Junta are going to want to see further demolitions in the future.
One of the properties to be demolished in Rio Real is owned by Avila Rojas, currently facing charges under the Malaya case and the other is located in San Pedro and was built by the builder Prosavi
News source: www.typicallyspanish.com
According to the Spanish newspaper ‘El Pais’ the Spanish developer Aifos has been forced into administration proceedings by creditors.
Well in a positive sign of future development projects the Junta the Andalucia has approached the European Investment Bank (EIB) to seek funding for the Costa del Sol train network that will connect Fuengirola to Estepona.
In an interesting more Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is giving Spain’s town halls are to be given a key role in fighting Spain’s economic crisis.
An article appeared in the Sur in English today with the apt title “Not even ten out of every 100 employment contracts signed in Andalucía this year are permanent”. I don’t think I need to go into too much detail about what the article is about. It seems that according to the statistics of the Employment and Immigration Ministry, Extremadura, Andalucía, the Basque Country and Castilla-La Mancha offer the least job stability out of all of Spain.
