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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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