Spain Real Estate News
1. Holiday rental villa in Calpe (Alicante)
6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, Area Lot 1,000m2, Built area 500m2, Swimming-pool, Pets allowed, 2,250 €/week
2. Holiday rental villa in Benissa (Alicante)
3 bedrooms, Area Lot 800m2, Built area 110m2, Swimming-pool, Pets allowed, 900 €/week
These days, with the crisis still raging, seven out of every 10 home purchases in Spain are paid in full. Credit has dried up, and most of those properties still being bought up are paid for with savings or donations from family members.
There is another explanation for all the upfront payments: the rise in foreign buyers, who now represent 17 percent of the total, according to figures from the Public Works Ministry. These international clients are paying with funds of their own or with bank loans secured in their own countries.
Before the real estate bubble burst, upfront purchases represented 37.3 percent of total sales, according to the Higher Council of Notaries. That rate has doubled, and in June it represented nearly 68.6 percent of all sales. A study by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) shows that in the first quarter of 2013, just over 60 percent of transactions did not require a home loan.
...continue reading "Thanks to a fall in prices, many savers are opting to buy houses outright"
A Spanish developer has come up with a novel way of increasing property sales by building a new project with Chinese style buildings aimed specifically at Asian buyers.
Grupo MAIN has unveiled its development of 22 homes in Fuenlabrada, an industrial suburb 17 miles south of Madrid, that is built in a Chinese style courtyard with pavilion, ponds and an entrance gate topped with a roof reminiscent of a Far Eastern temple.
‘The Chinese have a saying; crisis is synonymous with opportunity. We’re building for the Chinese because they are a very wealthy community in Spain and the rest of the world,’ explained Jose Parra, chief executive of the Spanish developer.
His company believes that expat Chinese will want to buy the homes designed using feng shui, a system designed to maximise positive energy flow. It has been known for Chinese buyers to reject a property on the advice of feng shui practitioners.
...continue reading "Feng Shui Used To Attract Asian Buyers to Spain"
The Cabinet on Friday approved a reform of the Coast Law extending an amnesty for the owners of beachfront properties that would otherwise have to be demolished.
Owners of properties that were in breach of the current legislation, many of them foreigners, were given a 30-year concession of use that was due to expire in 2018.
The overhaul of the current law, which has been in place since 1988, also creates a special regime for 11 areas, which will be taken out of the public domain. It also established four-year concessions for beach bars and restaurants.
The surface easement limits, or protection areas, for rivers could be reduced from 100 meters to 20 meters.
The text of the draft reform said the current legislation “has tolerated outcomes that are not acceptable in environmental terms,” adding that “time has consolidated certain situations,” and that the law has “prompted mistrust and uncertainty.”
“The aim of the reform is to avoid the risk of homeowners losing their property rights in the short term, and particularly bearing in mind the difficulties this could create for foreigners,” the text also says.
...continue reading "Green light to Coast Law reform to save seaside homes"
Spanish Crisis Triggers Real Estate Price Collapse
A move by Spanish banks to offload the build-up of foreclosed properties on their books is triggering a massive decline in real estate prices.
Spain's real estate market saw a flurry of building activity prompted by rising real estate prices and property speculation up until 2007, when transactions came to a near standstill.
As a result, Spain now has an estimated two million units worth of excess residential property.
Spanish banks had been slow to offload the properties, which came into their possession when struggling developers proved unable to repay loans.
However, the banks now need an estimated $77.4 billion to stay afloat. And so the financial institutions are now attempting to liquidate as much of their inventory as possible.
The move is good news for overseas buyers who can now secure Spanish real estate for a fraction of its peak prices.
While much of the country's cut-price real estate is located around the tourist areas of the Costas (Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca, Costa de la Luz, Costa Dorada, Costa Brava, Canary and Balearic Islands...), there are some major discounts available in more attractive areas.
A series of newly completed condos in a historic area of Granada, for instance – hailed as Spain's most beautiful city – have just been offered by one Spanish bank with a price tag starting from less than $100,000 per unit.
The 800-square-foot units are within walking distance of the city's Old Town and come with 95% financing available for both domestic and overseas buyers.
Fuente: internationalliving.com (sfgate.com)
