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Category: Real Estate

Published on Leave a comment on Seville Authorities to Inspect Eligibility of Rehoused Squatters

The Andalusian government said it would petition Seville Mayor Miguel Ángel Vázquez, of the Popular Party (PP), to analyze the personal situation of the eight families who were handed keys to subsidized homes by IU officials, who are in charge of the regional public works and housing department.

flat for sale in Seville 300x168 - Seville Authorities to Inspect Eligibility of Rehoused SquattersThe Socialists, who hold a majority in the regional parliament, reacted in anger, and premier Susana Díaz temporarily took away IU’s power to award public housing. The party even suggested there might have been abuse of power on IU’s part, as it failed to respect official waiting lists for subsidized homes.

Because the 17 original recipient families had been squatting in a bank-owned property for two years before being evicted, and decided to camp out in front of City Hall in protest, the Socialists said they felt it sent a message that anyone in Andalusia can get a rent-controlled home if they “bang on the door.”

Now, Seville’s social services will have to confirm whether the eight families that were ultimately allowed to stay in their new homes meet requirements, such as being at high risk of social exclusion.
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Published on Leave a comment on Spain played down IMF fears of real estate bubble bursting

“In these almost boring times of generalized growth, the press is particularly eager to look for catastrophic events in the perennial quest for the newest ‘sick man’ of Europe. Having read the Directors’ preliminary statements, I realize that we probably overstressed our disdain for this press coverage, which one could call the ‘momentum catastrophicum literature’.”

rent to own in Valencia 300x225 - Spain played down IMF fears of real estate bubble burstingThese were the words of the executive director for Spain, Ramón Guzmán, at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund executive board held on May 16, 2007 to analyze the Spanish economy, the minutes of which have now been declassified.

Economic activity in Spain at the time was being buoyed by the boom in the housing market, while consumer spending had peaked. As such, the IMF was greatly concerned about the chance of the bubble bursting, and a subsequent crisis.

The initial statements from the rest of the executive directors drew attention to the notable differences between the vision of the analysts who had been examining the Spanish economy, and the vision of the authorities in the country regarding the risks of the economic situation. Guzmán wanted to clarify that these discrepancies had been “misinterpreted,” and that if in his opening statement he had said that the consequences of a slowdown in the real estate market were often “overestimated,” what he was trying to reflect was “the extensive coverage that property market developments receive in the domestic and international financial press.”
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Published on 1 Comment on More than 50,000 properties in Malaga province have still not been made legal

More than 50,000 properties in the countryside of Malaga province have still not been made legal, despite two years having passed since the Junta’s decree came into force.

estate in Malaga Province 300x225 - More than 50,000 properties in Malaga province have still not been made legalAssociations of owners of properties built on land which was not zoned for construction lost no time in expressing their criticism of the new regulations. They consider that these did not offer a practical and effective solution to the problems they were facing in trying to make their properties legal.

The situation has changed little, if at all, two years after the decree came into force. The councils, believe the regional authority should step forward; the owners of these properties are demanding a proper means of making their houses legal and they consider that what has been done so far is of no use whatsoever.

It is of no use, they say, because the best that 80 per cent of the owners of illegal properties can hope for is that their houses can be considered as Asimilado a Fuera de Ordenación (AFO), or outside of regulation; these are buildings which do not conform to the law and town planning regulations, cannot obtain an occupancy licence and against which no action can be taken because the period of time in which this could be done has expired.
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Published on Leave a comment on Home evictions averaged 184 a day in Spain last year

The number of court-ordered home evictions for non-payment of mortgages, rent or other legal reasons reached 67,189 last year, according to judicial statistics released on Friday.

46353 1285272 foto 1 300x201 - Home evictions averaged 184 a day in Spain last yearThe number of open cases – pending eviction requests – stood at 82,860, which is 9.8 percent fewer than the previous year, said the General Council of Judiciary (CGPJ) legal watchdog in its annual report.

Of the total number, 38 percent were due to non-payment of mortgages while 57 percent were for non-payment of rent. Another four percent were for other causes. The figures reflect an average of around 184 evictions per day in 2013.

A breakdown by regions shows that Catalonia had the most evictions last year (23.8 percent) followed by Valencia, Andalusia and Madrid.
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Published on Leave a comment on Housing prices register fall of 37 percent since 2007 highs

Housing prices dropped again in the last three months of 2013, representing an accumulated fall of 37 percent since the highs of 2007.

calpe 300x225 - Housing prices register fall of 37 percent since 2007 highsBut the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well as ratings agencies such as S&P warn that prices in the Spanish real estate market must fall even more before the sector will reach a full adjustment.

According to the Index of Housing Prices, updated by the National Statistics Institute (INE), average house prices dropped 7.8 percent between October and December 2013 compared with the same period in 2012. This decline is one-tenth of a percentage point lower than the previous quarter, and represents the smallest drop since the summer of 2011.
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Published on Leave a comment on Property sales increased more in Marbella last year than anywhere else in Spain

The property market in Marbella is recovering and the town is now showing signs of being a leader in this sector. This emblematic town on the Costa del Sol ended last year with a total of 3,115 property sales , a figure which is similar to that of 2007, before the bubble burst. In terms of total figures, Marbella is now in a similar position to Malaga city, where the recovery in the property market has failed to take off and the number of sales has fallen for three consecutive years.

development in Marbella 300x198 - Property sales increased more in Marbella last year than anywhere else in SpainThe results for property transactions last year, which have just been released by the Ministry of Development, reveal that Marbella is the Spanish town in which the number of sales has increased the most, by 23.6 per cent.

The Ministry’s statistics include all provincial capitals and towns with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Marbella has ranked higher than Parla (17.2%), Móstoles (12.7%), Guadalajara (12.5 %), Ceuta (10.3%) and Madrid (9.3 %).

In total, in the whole of Spain there were 300,349 property transactions last year, which is a drop of 17.4 per cent compared with 2012.
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Published on Leave a comment on Catalonia to Tax Banks for Keeping Properties Empty

The Catalan government has approved a draft bill on taxing financial institutions in the region for leaving housing they own empty for more than two years.

Homes in Catalonia 300x225 - Catalonia to Tax Banks for Keeping Properties EmptyThe bill will be sent to the regional assembly for approval before the summer and will take effect from the start of next year. The levy will range from 850 to 1,650 euros a year per house and will affect 15,000 housing units in 70 municipalities in the region.

One of the first measures that the ruling center-right nationalist CiU group - led by regional premier Artur Mas - took on attaining power was to strike down a law introduced by the previous Socialist-led coalition that forced banks to rent empty homes. In the wake of a spate of home evictions, pressure groups demanded that Mas restore that law.
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Published on Leave a comment on Empty Homes Spawn Black Housing Market

The hundreds of thousands of empty homes across Madrid has spawned a black market for cheap housing in which groups illegally break into, and then let, repossessed properties.

49708 1267907 foto 343281 300x225 - Empty Homes Spawn Black Housing MarketAlmost all the cases involving the properties, most of which now belong to Spanish banks, are identical, said Vicente Pérez, from a residents group, the Federación Regional de Asociaciones de Vecinos de Madrid.

While prices vary greatly, it generally costs from €1,000 (£830) to €2,000 to "buy" a repossessed property, El País reports. Those who cannot afford the fee can instead choose to rent for a few hundred euros a month. The price often includes electricity, gas and water, and sometimes even heating.

The homes are guaranteed until a judicial process issues an eviction order, said Pérez. That process that could take up to two years.
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Published on 2 Comments on House Prices Keep Falling in 2014

House prices in Spain will continue to fall during 2014 and bottom out in 2015 when the demand for housing is likely to improve, according to a new analysis of the nation’s residential real estate market.

1266003 30281 2 300x225 - House Prices Keep Falling in 2014The report from Fitch Ratings points out that according to figures from the Housing Department the Spanish house price index (HPI) reached a peak year on year decline of 10% in December 2012 and fell by an additional 2.3% by the third quarter of 2013 which means that overall, the HPI has fallen by almost 30% since the onset of the financial crisis.

Despite the deceleration of house price decline, Fitch predicts that prices will continue to fall during 2014 and bottom out in 2015. It says that the house price decline will be driven by an estimated property overhang of above one million units.

The report also points out that during 2013 banks become increasingly willing to offload retail residential assets at deep discounts. Fitch expects this trend to continue, which, combined with the initiation of the commercial activity by the asset management company SAREB in the middle of 2013, will continue to put significant pressure on house prices.
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Published on Leave a comment on House sales fall for third year in a row

The Spanish housing market remained locked in a trough in 2013, six years after a massive property bubble burst.

23671122 1251066 foto 872872 - House sales fall for third year in a rowAccording to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the number of homes sold last year, excluding public housing schemes, fell 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 276,600 after falling 11.3 percent in 2012 and 18.2 percent in 2011. During the height of the boom over 800,000 houses were exchanged in a year. In December alone sales fell 11.0 from a year earlier to a new monthly record low of 18,619.

The only respite the market has had since boom turned to bust was in 2010 when sales increased 4.8 percent, driven by the purchase of new homes before the introduction of a hike in value-added tax.
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