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British expats, as well as German and Russian buyers, are helping Spain's property market out of the doldrums, with a lot of interest in luxury developments in Majorca.

3574676 1201682 foto25039528 300x199 - Balearics Property Market Grow Thanks to Foreign BuyersSpain's property market is showing more green shoots of recovery, with the country's House Price Index reporting the smallest decline in prices since the end of 2010, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

House prices still fell overall - but Majorca bucks the trend, reporting property price rises of 4.8 per cent in the third quarter of last year, compared with the same period of 2012, according to the Spanish development ministry.

Three other regions reported prices rises in the House Price Index - Navarra, with growth of 2.8 per cent, Extremadura, up 2.2 per cent and Madrid, up 0.3 per cent. However, these figures fall far short of Majorca's growth, which estate agents say is boosted by foreign buyers, particularly those with a substantial sum to spend.
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Just a day after Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said that the housing market was beginning to touch bottom in a recovery that is gathering pace, the National Statistics Institute (INE) on Tuesday announced that home sales plunged in November of last year to their second-lowest level since the crisis began around the start of 2008.

46353 1245080 foto 1 300x200 - Bad news for home sales in Spain, despite the fall in pricesThe INE said housing transactions in the month shrank by 15.7 percent to 21,847, a figure only above that of April 2012, which coincided with that year’s Easter holidays and therefore had fewer working days.

Despite an accumulated fall in prices since the highs set in 2007 of around 40 percent after a decade-long boom that suddenly burst, house sales have fallen for the last seven straight months. In the first 11 months of last year, home sales dropped 2.1 percent.

Demand is being restrained by a jobless rate of just under 26 percent and by falling wages as Spain strives to restore its competitiveness and export its way out of the crisis. Banks have also tightened lending conditions.
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Las Vegas Sands Corp. is no longer pursuing plans to invest more than $30 billion to develop a series of integrated resorts in Madrid, Spain.

Madrid1 300x200 - Las Vegas Sands Drops Madrid Resort Plans"While the government and many others have worked diligently on this effort, we do not see a path in which the criteria needed to move forward with this large-scale development can be reached," Las Vegas Sands chairman and chief executive Sheldon G. Adelson, said in a company statement. "As a result we will no longer be pursuing this opportunity."

The Spanish government rejected a series of conditions LVS had placed in order to continue with the Europa Vegas project because they were incompatible with European Union law, Spain's deputy prime minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, told The Wall Street Journal.

Conditions included government investment guarantees and for a compensation deal to cover any losses related to changes to Spanish laws in the future, WSJ reports.
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The town planning debate which has raged recently over plans for a 30 storey residential block took a new turn when Mayor Ángeles Muñoz announced that they will only go ahead if there is a general consensus - which at the moment is not looking likely.

Puerto Banús Marbella 300x225 - There Will Be No Skyscrapers in Marbella Without ConsensusThe final decision will not be taken by the council, but by a board, the ‘Consejo Social de la Ciudad’ with members drawn from local and social organisations, professional bodies and other groups. This board, which is an entity which can be set up in large towns, does not yet exist in Marbella but will be constituted in January.

The mayor emphasized that legally, it is the Town Hall’s prerogative to take the decision, but it will abide by the recommendation of the board.

The modification to the Urban Plan to allow tower blocks to be built in five areas of the municipality of Marbella, at up to 150 metres above sea level received initial approval at the last council meeting.
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House prices in Spain rose on a quarterly basis for the first time since the middle of 2010 in the third quarter of this year, but experts were quick to point out that this does not mean that the housing market has started to emerge from trough it plunged into around the start of 2008.

house in Alhaurín 224x300 - Spanish Property Market: House Prices Rise on Quarterly BasisAccording to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), house prices climbed 0.7 percent in the period July-September from the previous three months.

Prices on average have fallen over 40 percent from their highs around the end of 2007 after more than doubling over the course of a decade-long boom that turned to bust.

The INE said that home sales in October declined 10 percent from the same month a year earlier to 22,770, the lowest figure since March and one of the lowest since the real estate bubble burst.

Although the economy emerged from an extended recession in the third quarter of this year, a jobless rate of 26 percent remains a major impediment to a recovery in the housing market, which still has an estimated glut of some 600,000 housing units. Banks have also tightened up on lending, citing a lack of “solvent demand.”

Would-be home buyers are finding it hard to secure the necessary funding at current prices and seven out of 10 transactions taking place are in cash.
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