Centre Pompidou Málaga by architects Javier Pérez de la Fuente and Juan Antonio Marín Malavé.
Tag: Costa del Sol
For Sale: Luxury Villa in Benahavís, Costa del Sol, Málaga
7 Apartments to rent under €890/month in Costa del Sol, Málaga province
British fund to invest 25 million euros in five luxury villas in Marbella
The London-based British fund Pacific Investments has announced plans to invest 25 million euros in the construction of a complex of luxury villas in the Sierra Blanca area of Marbella.
The exclusive project is aimed at a privileged few, buyers with very high purchasing power; there will only be five properties in total, and the price is expected to be around seven million euros each.
The complex, which was launched by the director de Pacific Investments, Mark Johnson, and the head of Penna Properties Partners in Marbella, Christopher Penna, has been designed by the Torras y Sierra architecture studio, which also designed the Finca Cortesín hotel.
The construction of the villas will begin as soon as the council has issued the works licence – this should be done within the next few weeks, they say – and the site chosen for the exclusive development is the area known as Cascadas de Canoján, in the upper part of Sierra Blanca.
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Superb Apartment for Sale in Benahavís, Costa del Sol, Málaga
Holiday resorts’ anger at UK lawyers who encourage tourists to sue hotels
Hoteliers’ associations in Benidorm and Gran Canaria have complained about “clear abuse” by British law firms who approach holidaymakers promising “to get them their money back for their 
holidays” on a “no win, no fee” basis.
According to reports over the summer, mobile ‘help centres’ have appeared in areas popular with UK tourists that encourage them to make compensation claims for complaints such as sickness or poor quality.
European package holiday legislation makes tour operators responsible for compensating passengers if anything goes wrong on holiday, however these amounts are normally taken off the money paid to hoteliers as part of their contract.
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The ongoing love affair between Kuwait and Marbella
Ever since the late King Fahd decided to build a complex of five palaces and a number of mansions on the exclusive Golden Mile during the 1980s, Marbella’s image has been associated with the 
excesses of the Saudis.
Fahd’s building spree followed a successful visit to the ritzy Incosol Hotel In 1979 when he was still Crown Prince, prompting him to choose this corner of Andalusia over the South of France for his summer residence.
But while his presence and that of his extraordinarily extravagant entourage might have made the biggest splash, his Kuwaiti neighbors had already blazed the trail, investing their petrodollars in property and starting a love affair with Marbella that has lasted 40 years.
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Brexit has not affected property sales so far, say Costa del Sol real estate experts
Is a weak pound and the uncertainty accompanying the Brexit vote having or likely to have an impact on the British demand for property in Spain?
While demand for property has been growing since 2013, a reversal is anticipated given that the market for UK buyers is driven by the strength of sterling.
It is also expected that the buying pond for British owners wishing to sell and return to the UK may also evaporate somewhat in the short term.
However this is not a view shared by those on the ground. Gary Oliver, sales director of Remax property agents, thinks not.
“We do expect some buyers may hold off to see what the coming weeks and months will bring but with little long term impact,” he says.
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The effect of Brexit on the Costa del Sol
The United Kingdom's exit from the European Union is a terrible piece of news for the Costa del Sol, where the British are its biggest and most important customers, and also some of the highest spenders. From now on there are just unknowns and a lot of nervousness.
Last week, the president of the CEA (Andalusian Employers' Association), Javier González de Lara, warned that Britain leaving the European Union would have serious consequences for the Spanish economy, with tourism, although not just tourism, being the main loser.
Since the referendum there's been a 10% fall in the value of the British Pound. This means that Britons' holidays in Spain have become more expensive overnight as, although the Euro has also fallen, it hasn't done so as much as the Pound. This will mean less tourists will visit and less buying power for those that still come. The current average daily spend by the British is 105 euros, higher than the Germans (101 euros) and the French (80 euros).
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The ‘plusvalía’ has become a gold mine for town halls in Málaga province
It seems rather ironic that a tax which is linked with the property market should have shot up during the years when the construction industry has been at a virtual standstill, 
but that is the case with the ‘plusvalía’, which is a municipal capital gains tax charged on the increase in value of the land when a property changes hands. This tax has become a veritable gold mine for town halls in the province of Málaga.
The ‘Impuesto sobre el Incremento del Valor de los Terrenos de Naturaleza Urbana (IVTNU)’, to give it its proper name, is levied on the increased value of a property when it is sold, compared with its value when it was bought. When a property is sold to somebody else, the tax is paid by the vendor. If it is inherited or given as a gift, the person acquiring it pays the tax.
The increase in revenue from this source began in 2013 and has continued: figures from the Provincial Revenue Board and the five local authorities who are not part of the organisation (Málaga, Fuengirola, Mijas, Benalmádena and Alhaurín el Grande) show that in 2015 the total amount raised was around 135.7 million euros, compared with 99.8 in 2014 and 80.3 million the previous year.
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