No matter which party wins the general election on Sunday, the new Government is going to have to deal with a number of matters in the province of Malaga which have been pending for many years, even though this time of economic crisis may not be the ideal moment. The conversion of the Benítez military camp into a park, the remodelling of the Baños del Carmen, the northern access to the airport, the coastal railway, the Antequera rail test ‘ring’ and the construction of sewage plants are some of the main projects which are still outstanding.

The Baños del Carmen are a good example of an ‘eternally pending’ project in Malaga. It has already been delayed by more than a decade and it was only last year that the Ministry of the Environment finally approved the plans to recuperate this lovely spot on the coast of the provincial capital. The total cost will be 13 million euros and 400,000 euros have been included in this year’s budget so that the project can be put to tender.

Outside Malaga city, essential projects include the construction of the pioneer rail test ring which is planned for the Vega de Antequera. This will be 57.9 kilometres in length, will cost over 400 million euros and trains will be able to reach up to 450 kilometres per hour. The new Government, together with other public administrations, will also have to set to work on the creation of a coastal railway line between Malaga and Estepona. The Ministry of Public Works and the Junta de Andalucía signed the protocol this week but its high cost – five billion euros – will make it very difficult to put into effect at the moment.

Access to Arroyo
The Government will also have to consider a number of measures which would greatly improve the daily life of people in Malaga province. One of the most important is the modification of the Arroyo de la Miel exit from the A-7, which is notorious for traffic congestion, along with the construction of the northern access to the airport from the new second ring road, the plans for which were also drawn up about four years ago, and an extension to the suburban railway to reach the Andalucía Technology Park. This would also mean that the local railway would be extended to Campanillas, which is where major residential expansion will take place in forthcoming years.

The Government will also have to take action on sewage plants if it is to comply with the EU demand for a ‘zero waste’ limit to be attained by 2015; this would also improve the quality of the beaches and help tourism. Nerja still does not have a sewage plant and is the only large municipality on the Malaga coast to lack such a facility, and Estepona’s sewage plant needs to be enlarged. With regard to water supply, the project to build a 61.7 million desalination plant at Mijas is waiting to go ahead when the local council hands over the land.

Marbella
In Marbella, numerous projects are pending including the coastal railway which will be a great advantage to this, the only town in Spain with a population of over 100,000 which has no railway station. In the shorter term, the main concern is the road tunnel at San Pedro. This project is very advanced and is expected to be ready for the Ministry of Public Works to carry out the safety checks and arrange its inauguration by the end of this year. The Government will also have to decide whether or not to reactivate the project to eliminate the direct accesses onto the A-7, something which Marbella council has been demanding for years. The 54 million euro was among those dropped last year to save money.

On economic matters, the new Government will also be faced with a request from Marbella council to help with the 300 million euro debt with Social Security and the tax authority, which arose from non-payment during the GIL era. The local authority is having to pay one million euros a month, just in interest, and this is severely affecting the municipal coffers.

Finally, Marbella’s list includes two environmental projects. One is to stabilise the beaches: the survey to determine what measures should be adopted to stop the loss of sand is being carried out in Marbella but has been suspended for technical reasons in San Pedro. These reports are expected to cost 400,000 euros. The other major project is the recuperation of the sand dunes at Artola, Bahía de Marbella and Real Zaragoza.

New police stations and seafront promenades
As well as major infrastructure works, the central government will also have to deal with matters which may be smaller and less important but are still necessary, including the construction of new Guardia Civil and National Police stations.

In Mijas, a plot of land has been set aside for a Guardia Civil barracks but definitive plans have never been provided by the Government. In Alhaurín de la Torre, a 5,000 square metre piece of land was reserved for the same reason five years ago. In Antequera, construction of the new Guardia Civil barracks began three years ago but has been suspended due to lack of funds. Benalmádena and Vélez-Málaga are also still waiting for their new police stations, having provided suitable sites nearly four years ago.

Beaches
Many local councils also hope that the Government will take action to improve seafront promenades and beaches.

Fuengirola, for example, has been waiting since 2004 for the final stretch of the promenade at Carvajal to be finished and has even taken legal action to try to resolve the matter. Rincón de la Victoria has never received the plans for improvements to the promenade at Torre de Benagalbón and in Vélez the promenade at Chilches and the recovery of the beaches at Mezquitilla and Lagos are still pending, as is the regeneration of the Ferrara beach in Torrox which was badly damaged by the storms.

Inland, the high speed AVE railway line which will connect Antequera with Algeciras is something which has been discussed for many years but this too is still pending.

Source: Sur in English

Many of the current property searchers are cash buyers, or only require a small mortgage and are primarily looking at holiday homes mainly with the idea of using them during the holiday months, if they have children, or in low season if they have no children living with them.

As an interesting change many appear to have previously lived or rented long term within Fuengirola and know clearly what they are searching for.

Of course many are still looking for what they see as bargains, so are understandably looking for the best offer possible. But of these property hunters have healthy budgets and unlike last year, vendors are more open to listening to offers.

According to TINSA, a respected property valuation company, prices along the Mediterranean coast (Costa Blanca, Costa Tropical, Costa del Sol, etc…) are from July 2007 to July 2009, down 16.5%. But to clarify, this does not reflect current prices, simply the value that TINSA has given to the average square metre built. Current asking prices by owners are generally down but the figure varies greatly due to location, qualities, etc…

As a rule of thumb many estate agencies are quoting that prices are down anything from 20 to 50% down on asking prices. But again these are meaningless figures as in the past many agencies would quote a high sales price for a property simply to get the listing, or simply let the owner set the asking price. In both cases this simply helped flood the market with overpriced properties.

As it stands now, although prices in Fuengirola have held up reasonably well compared to many other areas, the average price per square metre in Fuengirola now stands at 2,250 euros per built square metre. But please note this is an average figure with higher quality, garage, pool, etc… raising the price.

The reason why Fuengirola has felt the property crisis to a lesser degree than certain other areas is due to the following. First it bypassed a lot of the property invest craze as there were fewer newly built properties and due to the fact that it is a well connected town with both road and rail lines leading out of the town. Although not a large town, with 8 kilometres worth of beaches, being quite flat as opposed to being on a slope as many areas/towns are and half-way between Marbella and Malaga, Fuengirola makes an excellent base for many tourist looking at a home. It is also very popular amongst the Spanish, who although speculated as much as the next person, were more in tune with average prices, etc… than many foreign buyers. The also chose to buy in towns as opposed to urbanisations in less accessible areas.

Regards
Andrew Belles

And although Costa Blanca has been in the limelight due to the case of the Priors, a British couple who had their house bulldozed, Andalucía has its fair share of illegal properties. Thankfully with less drama though. According to a recent article, there appears to be around 40,000 illegal homes in the province of Malaga, a high figure, but less than what most thought. And of these 40,000 around 20,000 are located in the municipality of Marbella.

So what will the Spanish government do? In a normal situation where Mr and Ms X were building a property or buying a property and tried to cut a few corners, they would get a slap on the wrist, followed by a hefty fine. In the worst case scenario the government would come in a pull down the offending structure.

But what you can do to one offender you cannot do to 40,000! Especially when a vast majority bought in good faith, either not knowing that there were any legal issues or it was hidden due to corruption as seen in Marbella. There is then the separate issue of whether the property was build on land, where the builders/developers simply did not apply for the licences to cut costs, or whether it was build on protected lands.

Thankfully, the Malaga provincial Government, “La Diputación”, together with Marbella and Mijas Town Halls, have confirmed that there are now plans to legalise the 40,000 properties built illegally.

The Mayor of Marbella, Ángeles Muñoz, has stated there will be no demolitions, and with the hopeful approval of the PGOU (urban plan), 18,000 properties in the municipality will be brought into the legal fold. A great piece of news for all those who own the properties. It should be noted however that there still seems to be around 1,000 properties whose fate has not yet been decided.

For those in Mijas, the Mayor, Antonio Sánchez, has confirmed that no more fines will be issued while the new PGOU Urban Plan is being revised.

Furthermore the President of the “Diputación”, Salvador Pendón, has stated that the illegally built property could also be saved in the Axarquía region. He stated that in a majority of cases the province the properties should be legalised as they are not built on land that is protected in any way. However, if the properties were built on protected lands, demolitions are still a definite possibility.

Regards
Andrew Belles

It appears that Gestión de Obras y Reformas SL, one of the developer’s suppliers and creditors, started bankruptcy proceedings against Aifos within the last few days in a court in Malaga. Considering the timing, I would guess that the bankruptcy proceedings have started due to the recent failure of the Spanish developer Tremon.

To date, the company is reported to have 850 million Euros of debt, of which Banco Popular is its largest creditor, reportedly owed 200 million Euros, followed closely by Banco Pastor at 150 million Euros.

This could not have happened to a nicer developer. Based in Marbella, Aifos is notorious for illegal building projects, many of which still have not been resolved, and has been repeatedly accused of unethical conduct by many of its clients.
The owner of Aifos, Jesus Ruiz Casado and his MD were arrested in 2006 over the suspicions of bribing municipal authorities.

Many of its clients have also been kept in financial limbo. Buyers are still waiting on properties up to 7 years after they made stage payment and have little to show for it. These are the people that need help now, and with luck it is hoped that there will be a way for them to recover the monies they put down so long ago. If you have bought/buying an Aifos property, contact your lawyer and get them to keep track of proceedings as there will only be a limited period to make the claim.

Regards
Andrew Bellés

So why am I writing this article? Well, during the Spanish property boom, when prices seemed to only be going in one direction, bank guarantees were hardly an issue for many buyers as it seemed preferable to hold onto the property than try to reclaim their monies through the guarantee. Who wanted their original investment back with only 6% interest when you could re-sell and make more????

And the developer would have been more than happy to take the property back is the nearer the development got to completion the more they could ask for as there were an army of amateur investors ready to snap anything up in the mistaken belief that everyone can be a winner.

But now that the Spanish property boom has turned to bust, leading to expectations of falling prices, most buyers would rather get their money back, and the list of developers going to the wall gets longer by the week.

But now within the downturn in off-plan purchases and with many finding it difficult to ‘flip’ their investments, many are looking at ways to get their monies back.

According to ‘El Pais’ an increasing number of off-plan property buyers are complaining that banks are refusing to honour their guarantees. Furthermore some buyers are finding out now that they were never provided with a guarantee in the first place! By the way this contravenes consumer protection laws.

In recent months consumer organisations, such as FACUA, and individual buyers have complained to the Bank of Spain, which claims it has never received this type of complaint before. Had to happen sooner or later.

According to the Bank of Spain “The financial institution has to ask the developer if there has been any breach of contract, for example a late delivery. If so, the payout should be automatic,”

Of course theory and practice are 2 different things, which many are finding out. Some have taken the banks to court, and where they have lost the bank might be appealing. Or if the developers have gone bust, banks are using the company’s status under administration as an excuse to delay paying out. Of course this is nonsense, the rules are clear, if the conditions of the guarantee are met, regardless of the developer’s situation, the money should be paid out.

Regards
Andrew Bellés

Now if the Junta is so anxious to convert them, why has this not happened? Well you see, as soon as a property gets VPO status it has to be sold at a considerably reduced price. And surprise, surprise the developers are causing a fuss.

According to the Association of Builders and Developers of Malaga many of the properties being built in Malaga are “houses with a very big open-plan sitting room and kitchen, suitable for a holiday home but not conforming to the rigid standards for subsidised housing”.

It appears that under the currently regulations (despite having been relaxed) many of these properties would be left out of the scheme due to the size of the bedroom and kitchens.

The other issue is pricing. At the highest price a VPO can be sold for 178.000€. This would be sold to people with incomes up to 3.000€. Guess which price bracket the developers would want their VPOs to be sold in?

The confusing issue about this is if it were simply a matter of reducing prices, it would be assumed that the developers would simply drop the price to get rid of excessive stock. But the problem at the moment for many is a lack of credit, which according to the developers is real problem and the reason why they are not converting the properties into VPOS.

But the housing department has existing agreements between themselves and savings banks to guarantee the loans for the purchase of VPOs. If this is the case, it comes down to greed. It appears that the developers are hoping to ride the credit crisis and be able to sell existing prices and make their expected profits. Unfortunately for them, many will probably not be able to survive the crisis without converting these properties. This is foolish. If these projects were completed now, it would allow the developers to re-invest the monies in further projects. In fact as part of Spain’s stimulus package is the creation of more subsidised housing. But only time will tell what they will do. For our part, a construction project we are involved in was converted to VPO status while applying for planning permission, due to the declining ‘off-plan’ market and the existing demand for cheaper properties.

Regards
Andrew Bellés

Most of these stations are located outside of the city of Malaga and can be found in Vélez-Málaga, Antequera, Mijas and Fuengirola. At under a euro a litre it’s the cheapest price its been in years!

At the beginning of this week 95 unleaded petrol was at 0.969 euros, the lowest price in three years. In June 2005 the average was 0.949 euros, while in July of that year the price had already gone up to 0.993 euros.

Diesel, the most used fuel among drivers in the province of Malaga (including myself), is being sold at 0.989 euros at certain stations.

Regards
Andrew Belles

Malaga
IBI: There a discounts for families with more than 3 children, the under 30s, the unemployed, pensioners, families with children under 12 months and victims off domestic violence.
Housing: Any potential increase in the Valor Catastral has been put on hold
Municipal taxes: Have increased in keeping with inflation. That equates to a 4.6% increase.

Torremolinos
Municipal taxes: Discounts for groups with greater difficulties. Unemployed, low income, etc…
Charges: Increased in line with inflation

Fuengirola
Municipal taxes: payments can be made in instalments
Discounts: 30% discount on all local taxes except road tax for residents on the population census (empadronamiento). Pensioners receive a 15% on IBI and pay no Basura tax.

Benalmádena
IBI: payment deadline extended.
Reductions: Business opening licences, capital gains tax (plus valia), building tax. Discounts up to 95% for projects for municipal use.

Marbella
Discounts: IBI, plusvalia, IAE (economic activity tax) and ICIO (construction tax).

Estepona
IBI: Will be dropped to 0.85% of the property’s catastral value. Subsidies in place for owners whose property catastral value has already risen.
Refuse collection: The charge will be reduced using a payment system based on a scale of property values. Taxpayers whose property has a catastral value of less than 10.000 euros and an income of no more than 18.000 euros.
Business opening licences: Fees reduced by 33%. For change in owners fees reduced by 50%

Nerja, Rincon and Torrox
Municipal: increases in keeping with inflation

Mijas
Municipal taxes: discounts available. Might be a freezing of charges, currently under consideration

If you town hall is not mentioned, it does not mean there are no discounts in place. Simply that they are not on this list.

Hope this information has helped

Regards
Andrew Belles

Location:
Mijas Costa, Costa del Sol, Andalucía, Spain
Property Type:
Garden Apartment
Listing Type:
Resale Property
Orientation:
East
Tenure:
Freehold
Status:
Available
Bedrooms:
2
Bathrooms:
2
Floor No:
Ground floor
Reception Rooms:
1
Year Built:
2007
Community Fees:
69 EUR / month
Build Size:
70 m² (753 ft²)
PlotSize:
43 m² (463 ft²)
Terrace Size:
15 m² (161 ft²)
Price:
199.000 Euros

If this property is on interest please email info@arribaestates.com or go to our Arriba page for further contact details

Regards
Andrew Bellés
Arriba Estates

The village itself is a very popular tourist destination and is located only a few km from Fuengirola.  where people like to enjoy the sights and history, and of course take a donkey taxi around the village.

But there is more to the village than just the donkeys. There is the old Moorish fort (partially destroyed during the reconquista), spectacular sea views, and interesting jewellery shops. For the history lovers, Mijas Pueblo dates back to 600AD when it was named ‘Tamisa’ (now the name of a hotel) under the Romans.

What else? Well the legend revolving around ‘La Virgen de la Pena’ is quite interesting. According to the legend in 1586, 2 children, while tending their sheep, so an apparition of the Virgin Mary of told them of a shrine that had been hidden for the last 500 years in a crevice in the defensive walls of the village. The children told the local priest and after searching found the shrine. A new shrine was then dedicated to ‘La Virgen’ and today can be enjoyed in the setting of the ‘Paseo El Compas’ with its stunning views down to the sea.

For those not interested in visiting the village, there is also the area of Mijas Costa (on the coast) which is the main residential and commercial area and is located next to Fuengirola. And of course La Cala. Although Mijas has a range of golf courses, the most famous is La Cala golf, a 60 holes golf resort, which from what I’ve been told is the largest golf resort in Spain.

Although development in Mijas has been substantial over the last 2 decades, it has been at a more low key pace that other areas and has suffered far fewer cases of illegal builds that has plagued areas such as Marbella or Estepona for example.

Mijas information link
Mijas information

Regards
Andrew Belles

It appears that under the Mijas PGOU plan (the urban plan) quite a few projects have been approved that should see the coastal area develop in a way that will enhance the quality of life for people living and working in the area.

It appears that La Cala is going to benefit from having a marina built at some point in the future. And it appears that currently on the Costa del Sol demand far outstrips supply.
This in combination with the train line which will continue on from Fuengirola through Las Lagunas and La Cala on its way to Marbella should help owners of properties in the area see the value pf said property increase.

For those not familiar with the area, the municipality of Mijas is divided into several areas. You have the white-washed Mijas Pueblo (village) located in the mountains, Mijas Costa, which is adjacent to Fuengirola, the small village of La Cala de Mijas and Las Lagunas, a commercial/residential area to the north of Fuengirola.

There are also a range of golf course in the area, 7 I believe, which seem to bring down a lot of winter golfers every year. If demand is anything to go by, they seem to be quite good. La Cala golf even has a David Leadbetter Academy.

Regards
Andrew Bellés