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Tag: housing market

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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 Leave a comment on Spain: Magnet for Global Bargain Hunters

As one of the most moribund housing markets in Europe, Spain has become a magnet for global bargain hunters. Real estate prices are down as much as 50 percent from their peak during a housing bubble, and investors from Asia to the United States and Britain are flocking to Spain to try to catch the uptick.

169 300x174 - Spain: Magnet for Global Bargain HuntersBritish Airways flights to Madrid are packed with London-based real estate executives. The hedge fund Baupost is buying shopping centers, Goldman Sachs and Blackstone are buying apartments in Madrid, and Paulson & Company and George Soros’s fund are anchor investors in a publicly listed Spanish real estate investment vehicle. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts just bought a stake in a Spanish amusement park complex. Big-name private equity firms and banks are teaming up with and competing against one another on huge loan portfolios with names like Project Hercules and Project Octopus.
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Published on Leave a comment on Still Waiting for a Fully Recovery of the Property Market

Despite reports of foreign buyers snapping up bargain properties in Spain, the country’s real estate market will not recovery fully until banks relax their lending rules, it is claimed.

house in benahavís 300x199 - Still Waiting for a Fully Recovery of the Property MarketCurrently the maximum loan to value for non-residents in Spain is around 60% but a buyer also needs to pay up 15% of the purchase price in taxes and fees so some considerable upfront outlay is still needed to buy a dream home in Spain.

The latest official figures confirm that mortgage numbers in Spain have dropped for the 46th consecutive month up to February 2014. Experts believe that the country is in no danger of a full recovery, let alone a property boom, as average house prices have fallen by 30% since 2008 and mortgage lending dropped from a peak of €173 billion in 2007 to just €26 billion in 2013.
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Published on Leave a comment on More Foreign Buyers in Spain but Less Brits

More foreign buyers are buying property in Spain but the traditional purchasers from the UK are in decline, according to new data from property lawyers.

home in spain 300x199 - More Foreign Buyers in Spain but Less BritsAccording to a new report published by Spain’s Notaries the number of foreign buyers increased by 9.8% in 2013 but the proportion of British buyers continued to fall.

Foreign purchasers accounted for 21.4% of all Spanish residential sales or 55,187 transactions in 2013 and it also highlights the areas that are popular with overseas buyers.

A breakdown by nationality showed the number of homes purchased by British buyers accounted for 14.7% of foreign purchases compared to 34.3% prior to the financial crisis in 2007.

Instead, French, Russian, German and Belgian buyers increased in number in 2013, rising by 10.9%, 8.2%, 7.8% and 6.9% respectively.
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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 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 1 Comment on Bad news for home sales in Spain, despite the fall in prices

Just a day after Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said that the housing market was beginning to touch bottom in a recovery that is gathering pace, the National Statistics Institute (INE) on Tuesday announced that home sales plunged in November of last year to their second-lowest level since the crisis began around the start of 2008.

46353 1245080 foto 1 300x200 - Bad news for home sales in Spain, despite the fall in pricesThe INE said housing transactions in the month shrank by 15.7 percent to 21,847, a figure only above that of April 2012, which coincided with that year’s Easter holidays and therefore had fewer working days.

Despite an accumulated fall in prices since the highs set in 2007 of around 40 percent after a decade-long boom that suddenly burst, house sales have fallen for the last seven straight months. In the first 11 months of last year, home sales dropped 2.1 percent.

Demand is being restrained by a jobless rate of just under 26 percent and by falling wages as Spain strives to restore its competitiveness and export its way out of the crisis. Banks have also tightened lending conditions.
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Published on Leave a comment on Housing Investment. It’s turn for India and Brazil

The BRIC's spectacular performance makes India and Brazil a perfect chance

BRICs - Housing Investment. It's turn for India and BrazilGlobal housing markets around the world are proof of the new economic forces such as India and Brazil.

India and Brazil’s housing markets have continued their spectacular outperformance, with Delhi house prices up 22.68 percent during the year to Q3 2011, according to National Housing Bank (NHB) figures. There were strong house price increases in almost all India’s major cities, reflecting the country’s current high rate of consumer price inflation, despite a drop in demand resulting from the repo rate hike in October (currently at 8.50 percent), the 13th since March 2010, making home loans costlier.

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