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Category: Real Estate

Published on Leave a comment on House prices in Spain rise for the first time since the beginning of the crisis

The Spanish real estate market experienced its first good news after a slump lasting over six years in the second quarter of 2014.

spanish apartments 300x300 - House prices in Spain rise for the first time since the beginning of the crisisBetween April and June house prices rose for the first time since early 2008, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

The Housing Price Index grew an average 0.8 percent compared with the same period in 2013, the numbers show.

Broken down by type of housing, the price of new homes rose 1.9 percent while that for existing homes grew 0.2 percent.

The drop in house prices had been slowing for several quarters, suggesting a gradual market recovery. The sharpest decline was registered in the third quarter of 2012, when prices dropped 15.2 percent compared with the same period in 2011.
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Published on 2 Comments on American company to invest 200 million in real estate projects on Marbella

Real Capital Solutions (RCS) is one of the leading American private capital investment companies specialising in property and the re-capitalisation of investment portfolios of developments that are ‘in difficulty’.

Marbella3 300x200 - American company to invest 200 million in real estate projects on MarbellaBased in Colorado, this extremely successful business is now moving in on Marbella as it begins its expansion into Europe.

The plans for the company, now on Malaga soil, are to invest an estimated 200 million euros into property development in the area within the next four years. The firm has already paid out 15 million euros in the purchase of two housing developments that were in the hands of Spanish banks. The new division of the company, RCS Spain, has acquired Cosmo Beach (between San Pedro and Estepona) and Valley Heights (on the outskirts of Benahavís). This area is better known to investors as the ‘Golden Triangle” (Marbella - Estepona - Benahavís).

Taylor Cox, Partner at RCS, reveals how 14.95 million euros will be invested into both projects (consisting of around 100 properties), which includes the maintenance costs and the down payments.
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Published on Leave a comment on Zara founder Amancio Ortega earned €93.3 million last year in real estate profits

The vast fortune in the hands of Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex – the parent company of clothing chain Zara – keeps growing.

Picasso Tower 200x300 - Zara founder Amancio Ortega earned €93.3 million last year in real estate profits
Picasso Tower

But the profits are not just coming in from his retail fashion outlets, which also include brands such as Bershka, Massimo Dutti and Oysho.

Ortega’s real estate activities are becoming more profitable every year. Pontegadea Inmobiliaria, the company that he uses to invest in office and retail space, posted net profits of €93.3 million last year, a 32% increase from the previous year, according to the company’s filings with the Spanish Business Register.

The Galician tycoon’s property company specializes in scooping up buildings on the best streets of the world’s major cities. Most of these buildings already have occupants, and Ortega becomes their new landlord. The building housing the Apple Store in Barcelona and the Picasso Tower in Madrid are among the properties in his portfolio.

In 2013, Pontegadea collected €98.5 million in rent, €4.3 million more than in 2012. Of this amount, €75.7 million came from Spanish investments and €22.7 million from foreign tenants.
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Published on 2 Comments on Spain: First Retirement Destination Among Britons

Scores of British expats who were drawn to Spain in the Nineties and early 2000s struggled to cope during the financial crisis and returned to Britain. Nearly 90,000 Britons packed their bags and abandoned the country last year alone.

House in Ibiza 300x199 - Spain: First Retirement Destination Among BritonsSpain’s popularity as a retirement destination also suffered, with a poll last summer revealing the top destinations were the United States, Australia and Canada.

The results of a new study, however, suggest that Spain has regained its appeal among Britons planning to retire overseas.

Of more than 2,000 Britons polled by MGM Advantage, a retirement income specialist, 13pc said they planned to retire in Spain.

France took second place with 9pc of votes, followed by the United States and Australia.

After a six year property slump in Spain, during which prices are thought to have fallen between 40pc and 50pc nationally, recent data suggests the housing market is now recovering.
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Published on Leave a comment on Total luxury: La Zagaleta, in Benahavís, Málaga

On the golden mile that extends along the coastline between Estepona and Marbella there is still room for a 24 carat urban diamond. A place in which the terms ‘luxury’ and ‘exclusive’ do not go far enough, because of the great fortunes that are needed to reside there. In the 900 hectares of La Zagaleta residential development, in the municipality of Benahavís, not just any fortune is acceptable.

Villa in Benahavis2 300x211 - Total luxury: La Zagaleta, in Benahavís, MálagaThe 230 property owners have the right to veto prospective neighbours who might put at risk the anonymity of this happy Arcadia, which sits in the foothills of the Serranía de Ronda and has views of Gibraltar.

Even the simplest home costs ten million euros here and the most expensive costs three times as much. When somebody presents their credentials as a purchaser, the other owners do not ask how many times he or she has featured on the front pages of newspapers - they ask for a guarantee that they are worth ten times the price of the house they are going to buy.

With a philosophy like that, this residential development has become a place of refuge for the truly powerful who hold the reins of a substantial part of the world economy and who appreciate the worth of real privacy. People such as Oswald J. Grübel, for instance, who has exchanged handling the fortunes of UBS and Credit Suisse, Switzerland’s biggest financial institutions, for a much quieter golden retirement as CEO at La Zagaleta.
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Published on 1 Comment on Right to Adequate Housing in Spain

From Human Rights Watch. The Spanish government has failed to take adequate measures to avoid and alleviate the impact of the housing and debt crisis amid economic down-turn Flat for sale in Santander 300x225 - Right to Adequate Housing in Spainin Spain. Since the economic crisis began in 2007, banks have foreclosed on over 500,000 properties under a procedure that leaves individuals and families saddled with significant debt and no realistic pathway towards discharging their debt. Immigrants, women heads of household, women victims of economic abuse, and children are among the vulnerable groups affected by the crisis.

Spain’s social crisis around evictions and debt arise in a context of decades of government policies aggressively promoting home ownership and borrowing and inadequate efforts to ensure an appropriate and affordable stock of rental housing and sufficient investment in public housing. Irresponsible lending, unfair terms in mortgage contracts (such as exorbitant default interest rates), unscrupulous behavior by intermediaries such as real estate agencies, and the lack of oversight during the boom economic years contributed to the current situation.
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Published on Leave a comment on Rise in Property Sales in Spain

Property sales in Spain increased by 12.6% in May compared with the previous month, with the Balearics seeing the biggest increases, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Office.

house in Marbella 300x225 - Rise in Property Sales in SpainThe data also shows that new home sales were down 8% from a year earlier and second hand homes up by 16% which could be good news for those who have been unable to sell.

The biggest annual increases in May were in the Balearics with a rise of 33.1, Cantabria was up 30.4%, Andalucia was up 10.7% and Catalonia was up 3.1%.

The biggest decreases were reported in Castilla-La Mancha with a fall of 15.2%, Galicia with a fall of 6% and Comunidad de Madrid was down 5.5%.

Meanwhile, the latest figures from the General Council of Notaires shows a sharp rise in the number of Chinese buyers in Spain, suggesting that they are responding to the golden visa rules which grant citizenship to non European Union nationals who invest a minimum of €500,000 in real estate.
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Published on Leave a comment on Spanish Team Wins UN Prize for Plans to Create Solutions for Mass Housing

A project designed by two Spanish architects has won a UN competition to create sustainable solutions for mass urban housing. Recooperation, presented by María García and Gonzalo Navarrete of architectural firm Improvistos is a project to revitalize the run-down Orba neighbourhood in Alfafar, in the southern outskirts of Valencia (Spain), which was built in the 1960s to house the families of workers employed in a nearby timber plant that has since closed, prompting an exodus from the area.

valencia 300x180 - Spanish Team Wins UN Prize for Plans to Create Solutions for Mass HousingOrba’s housing stock is made up of just two types of low-quality, identical 70- and 90-square-meter apartments in blocks laid out on a grid system, originally designed to house around 6,000 people.

Improvisto’s project is based on the principle of cohousing, an approach that is popular in Scandinavia, where communities consist of private homes with shared facilities, and where residents play an active role in how the community is designed and managed.
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Published on 1 Comment on Falling of property price in Spain have slowed substantially

Home prices in Spain fell 4% in May compared with a 10.4% drop recorded in May 2013, indicating that the market could be nearing the bottom.
The data from the leading valuations company Tinsa index also shows that this was the lowest annual drop in May since 2008.

house in balearic islands 300x192 - Falling of property price in Spain have slowed substantiallyThe biggest price declines were on the Mediterranean coast, down 7.9%, but even that was the slowest drop since 2010. Madrid saw the smallest fall at 3.3% and other large cities also saw smaller than usual price declines.

Recently released figures from the National Institute of Statistics showed a 1.6% annual decline in prices recorded in the first quarter of the year compared to a 7.8% annual decline in the fourth quarter of 2014. On a quarterly basis prices fell 0.3% compared to a 1.3% drop in the fourth quarter.
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Published on 1 Comment on Two Skyscrapers and a Park to Replace Atlético de Madrid Stadium

The final countdown has begun for the Vicente Calderón soccer stadium. In 2022, the home of Atlético de Madrid, the city’s other major soccer club, will be replaced by two skyscrapers and an enormous riverside park.

vicente calderón 300x198 - Two Skyscrapers and a Park to Replace Atlético de Madrid StadiumAccording to the project plans the current site of the Calderón will be filled by two 36-storey towers and eight smaller buildings, which will have a mixed residential and commercial use.

But before that part of the project is complete, in 2016, the club will move to La Peineta stadium in the San Blas district.

Getting the development approved required a change to regional legislation that had prevented any building in the area from being more than three storeys high, with the option of adding an attic. This prohibition, which dated from 2007, was upheld by the Madrid Superior Court of Justice in 2012, when it struck down an earlier zoning plan designed by the city for this same area.
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