House price statistics released by the government last week revealed that the average price of property in Spain is now down to 2005 levels. Their figures are based on price per square meter, which currently stands at approximately 1,700 euros.
It appears that foreign investment in Spanish property is once again on the rise. This new wave of investment in probably due to the recent reductions that have been seen in the property market since the end of 2010. Investment in property in Spain surged by 32.8% in the first half of 2011 over the same period in 2010, to 2,445 million euros, according to the Bank of Spain.
As I have previously written, the Junta de Andalucía has been working on a decree which would enable many of the current illegal properties in Andalucía to finally be legalised.
The decree on the illegal properties was meant to have been ready within six months of its announcement back in March but is still not ready and the provincial delegate for Public Works and Housing has stated that will not be ready until November, more than likely December.
After the recent article on the decrease of new properties on the market in 2010, I thought it would be worthwhile to review the statistics for the province of Malaga and the Costa del Sol.
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.
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.
After several years of British (and to lesser degree Germans, Swedish, Irish, etc..) buyers having to deal with multiple issues including illegal builds, retro-active permits, coastal laws, etc… with little or no help from their home country MEPs, they are now receiving support from a variety of sources. Being cynical we could talk about looming elections or the fact that a lot of the hard has already been done. Either way everyone appears to be jumping on the band wagon and is condemning Spain for a range of property related issues, which should help speed up and resolve these issues. The latest is from Roger Helmer.
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After finding the article the Spanish property bust, I thought it would be of interest to look at how the province of Malaga has done by comparison. Although there are no specific figures for the Costa del Sol, we can work on the assumption that has most of the population and infrastructure are along the Malaga coast, Malaga province equates with Costa del Sol in reference to property transactions.
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After recently posting an article on the level of property transfers in October I thought I would do a bit a research to get a clearer idea of how Andalucía and hopefully the Costa del Sol has faired as general national information is only useful up to an extent.
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‘This development, being built by one of the largest and most distinguished development companies on the Costa del Sol, is just a three-minute walk from Marbella town centre. The apartments in Banana Beach consist of one, two, three and four bedrooms, fitted to the very highest standards possible.”
Sounds great doesn’t it? You’d never guess from this glowing description that the Banana Beach development was built illegally and has been condemned to demolition. Despite this, the properties are being advertised on websites targeting UK buyers.
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I recently read an an article in the Sur in English, which talked quite positively about British looking to buy in Spain. They recently attended a property exhibition called “A Place in the Sun” held at the NEC in Birmingham. Although smaller than previous exhibitions in the UK, “A Place in the Sun”, backed by the TV programme of the same name, held a successful show with a large turnout of people looking at overseas properties.
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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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Looking at bit away from the Costa del Sol, I thought it would be worth looking at the area of Antequera. Why? Well not for fantastic residential options, or any such thing, but instead to have a look at the commercial/business future that Antequera has to look forward to.
Located at the heart of Andalucia, Antequera is ideally located for many industries that cater to the residents and businesses in Sevilla, Granada, Cordoba and Malaga.
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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.
With the slowing property market and in an attempt to promote more expensive properties several developers and agents have started marketing properties in a different light. The new buzz word is fractional ownership of properties on the Costa del Sol. This is being treated as the newest way of owning a property in Spain, but really is just a a way of encompassing existing methods of buying a property under one term.
