Costa del Sol Property Blog

The housing market downturn continued during 2009. There was some evidence that the decline might be bottoming out towards the end of the year, though the housing market and the wider economy still face substantial problems. So, it is by no means certain that the end of the housing market downturn has actually been reached.

The adverse market conditions have been feeding into official price indices. There is uncertainty and debate about the extent of the price falls that have occurred, especially in new build. As a result, it is worth spending a little more time than usual in the other country chapters to go through the different indices.
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Arrivals of foreign tourists in Spain have reversed an 18 month decline with a 1.1 percent increase in January over the same period in 2009 for a total of 2.5 million visitors.
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More than half of Spain’s landlords are dodging taxes as the rental market expands, depriving the financially strapped government of more revenue each year.
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I recently had a discussion with a buyer who after reading from a variety of sources, which I am happy to say included my blog, thought that property prices along the Costa del Sol would be vastly lower than the reality due to the 1 million unsold newly built properties. Unfortunately all this talk of huge number of unsold properties has hidden certain important realities that few seem to be talking about.
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UKIP MEP Marta Andreasen today held Spanish President Jose Luis Zapatero to account over the scandal of British citizens who found their Spanish holiday homes demolished because of alleged breaches of planning law.
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According to Pedro Pérez, the general secretary of the G-14 (association of Spanish developers) the sale of newly built property has started a mild recovery, and this position will be consolidated in the coming months. Backing this up, the latest INE (Spain statistics institute) statistics showed an increase of 7.6% in inter-monthly sales, with over 20,000 sales in September.
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Sometimes the comment facilities provided by blogs work wonders. We’ll first deal with a few objections raised about the methodology, data or conclusions of the previous post. Then we’ll get to the crux of the matter – how these cost-of-carry figures change, or fail to, as seen by banks in the event of bank repossession in Spain and the United States.
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We publish this piece knowing full well how incredibly stupid one looks when his off-centre analysis proves erroneous, and how unscathed totally faulty predictions come out of the fracas as long as they are accompanied by many others of their ilk. We don’t care.
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I have just found these ten tips on how to help sell your property, written by Nick Snelling, the author of “How to sell your Spanish property in a Crisis”. I have included links below.

1. Treat the selling of your Spanish property with the same seriousness and commitment that you would a job of work
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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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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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At the beginning of August I saw an article in Money Week discussing the Spanish property market. Now for those of you that might not be familiar with the site, it looks primarily at investments; property, stocks, etc… Anyway, this respectable site wrote about the Spanish property market, which if you follow my blog, as an estate agent on the Costa del Sol could only be of interest to me.
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Recently the Prime Minister of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, announced that by 2011 mortgage relief for those earning more than 24,000€ will be stopped. After originally reading the article Zapatero and Common sense I have had time to do a bit of research on the topic and Spain does not seem to be alone in this ‘gesture’, with countries like Ireland having implemented similar measures recently.

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Properties along Spains Mediterreanan coast (Costa Brava, Costa Dorada, Costa del Azahar, Costa Blanca, Costa Cálida, Costa de Almeria, Costa de Granada, Costa del Sol and Costa de la Luz) are down 11.5% in March 2009 year-on-year. But before anyone complains to me about ‘doom & gloom’, I am actually quite pleased about this information!

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