real estate Archives - Page 13 of 15

Spain: a land of opportunities for overseas investors?

SpainHouses.netMay 13, 2013May 13, 2013Leave a comment

If we go to early 2.000, during the years before the housing bubble burst in 2007, in Spain were being built in the vicinity of the 700,000 homes year, with a large speculative component, driven by low interest rates and ever-rising property prices, what homeownership turned into a very interesting investment option.

As of August 2007, there was a slowdown in demand has meant that much of the housing stock built and not sold, has become a major burden on the balance sheet of banks and savings banks, main financing actors of the projects.

Currently a new scenario is opened for visionary overseas profitable hunters
From a investor point of view, there are three benefits this situation bring in.

• Large brand new finished housing stock with high quality construction level
• Deep prices repositioning
• Favorable financing conditions

First, according to the Ministry of Fomento in its report of January 2012 stated an excess of 676,038 new homes in our country available for sale, where Andalusia, Valencia and Catalonia represent over 50% of the total. ...continue reading "Spain: a land of opportunities for overseas investors?"

The government wants Russian tourists to enter Spain without a visa 6

SpainHouses.netApril 8, 2013April 8, 20136 Comments

Russian tourism is the type that has grown most on the Costa del Sol during the past year. It has become a strategic market and its importance could rise still further if one of the bureaucratic processes which burdens it could be eradicated. The government wants to cancel the requirement for tourists from Russia to have visas and it is working hard within the European Union to achieve this objective.

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Popular Party blocks key elements of draft eviction bill

SpainHouses.netApril 1, 2013April 1, 2013Leave a comment

The Popular Party (PP)'s refusal to back a popular initiative for the concept of dation in payment, whereby a homeowner unable to meet mortgage payments can cancel the debt with the bank by handing over the keys, was met with indignation by the Mortgage Victims Platform (PAH).

On Tuesday the government presented its amendments to the so-called Popular Legislative Initiative, which reached the lower chamber on a wave of public support that included 1.5 million signatures.

The rest of the parliamentary groups accepted the basic points of the proposal: universal and retroactive dation in payment; a halt to evictions; and the creation of a glut of social housing to support those who have lost their homes.

The PP, though, stated that "not now, nor during the parliamentary process" of amending the proposal will it entertain universal dation in payment. "It is an insult to the people affected," said PAH spokeswoman Ada Colau on Wednesday. "The PP has caved to the bullying of the banks." The government, she added, has destroyed the spirit of the bill by quashing its main objectives.
...continue reading "Popular Party blocks key elements of draft eviction bill"

Spain Better to Rent than the UK

SpainHouses.netMarch 11, 2013April 2, 2020Leave a comment

Investors now get better gross rental yields in Barcelona and Madrid than in London or Paris. Assessing house prices and the amount that could be eared renting our property, the findings by a Spanish property portal concluded that gross residential rental yields in Barcelona (4.1 cent) and Madrid (4 per cent) are now better than London (3.4 per cent) and Paris (3 per cent).

Falling house prices and the glut of people who cannot afford to do anything other than rent means that investors are winning at both ends of the Spanish property market. Not only are they able to pick up bargain real estate, but are then able to set a high amount of rent, increasing their income.
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Real Estate Company, Reyal Urbis, calls in the receivers with debt of 3.6 billion euros

SpainHouses.netFebruary 25, 2013February 25, 2013Leave a comment

Some five years after the bursting of Spain’s massive property bubble, the casualty list of companies and individuals that have fallen victim to what former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan termed “irrational exuberance,” in this case for bricks and mortar, continues to swell.

Real estate firm Reyal Urbis on Tuesday told the National Securities Commission (CNMV) that it was calling in the receivers after failing to reach an agreement with its creditors to refinance 3.6 billion euros in debt in what is the second-biggest failure in Spanish corporate history. The biggest collapse was also a property company: Martinsa Fadesa, which eventually managed to escape being wound down after reaching an accord with its bankers to pay back 7.2 billion euros in liabilities over 10 years.

In a later statement to the CNMV, Reyal Urbis said it remained in talks with its creditors to find a solution to its financial problems. It said that the solution would revolve around setting up a subsidiary to which practically all of its assets and liabilities would be transferred. The option also remains open to creditors of canceling loans granted to the group in exchange for property assets, an arrangement known as dation in payment.

The CNMV suspended trading in Reyal Urbis shares, which closed Monday at 0.1240 euros, giving it a market capitalization of a mere 36.2 million euros.

Reyal Urbis’ creditors include the asset-management firm Sareb, the so-called bad bank set up by the government to absorb the toxic property assets of the country’s banks, an arrangement that may also help out the sclerotic real estate sector.
...continue reading "Real Estate Company, Reyal Urbis, calls in the receivers with debt of 3.6 billion euros"

Ibiza and Mallorca bucking the trend in Spanish property market

SpainHouses.netJanuary 28, 2013March 31, 2020Leave a comment

The worst appears to be over for the top end of the property market in Spain’s Balearic islands with demand increasing especially from wealthy overseas buyers.

Americans, Russians and Chinese buyers are increasingly attracted to the lifestyle offered on Mallorca and Ibiza.

Throughout the property downturn demand for holiday homes in Mallorca has remained high, largely due to the mix of nationalities involved. The island is two hours flying time from most northern European cities and more than 80% of buyers in Mallorca are not Spanish. Properties on the island are also popular with Germans, Austrians, Swiss and buyers from Scandinavia.

Overseas buyers are attracted by the pretty inland villages, beautiful coves, marinas and beaches, imposing mountain ranges and 24 golf courses. Upmarket design is also helping to attract buyers. The Philippe Starck designed superyacht marina Port Adriano, Nikki Beach and Jumeirah Port Soller Hotel and Spa all opened in 2012.
...continue reading "Ibiza and Mallorca bucking the trend in Spanish property market"

Foreign nationals taking advantage of falling costs are descending on the ‘costas’

SpainHouses.netNovember 26, 2012March 31, 2020Leave a comment

All is not lost: they say that the end of the property crisis is coming from the East, where Spain offers sunny weather, good services, excellent communications and now, cheap housing too. This has become a land of opportunity for a certain type of foreign client with money in their pockets. Mortgage loans may have dried out, but that does not matter; these customers pay in cash.

The Mediterranean region is producing a new model of real estate opportunity: the two-bedroom apartment for 60,000 euros. This is what some banks had been trying to avoid for a long time: demolition prices. But there it is. Reality has moved faster than the government and its bad bank project.

There are two ways of looking at life in the real estate sector. Looking out from the top, on the 19th floor of Madrid's Torre Picasso, the workplace of investment fund consultants, the situation is viewed with a cold, cautious eye: "In the short term, the bad bank will act like the casting-out-nines technique. Things will never be the same," says Rafael Roldán, an executive at Ernst & Young. Or, in other words, big capital has yet to make a move.
...continue reading "Foreign nationals taking advantage of falling costs are descending on the ‘costas’"

Real Estate sector and the bad bank

SpainHouses.netSeptember 24, 2012March 31, 2020Leave a comment

The ‘bad bank’ could help save a large number of companies that suffer from the effects of the stagnation on the real estate market in Spain.

For this reason, nobody in the sector wants to let go of this opportunity and everyone is taking positions to be involved in the new entity in one way or the other. Certainly, the state-backed bank rescue fund, the FROB, does not pay much, but little is better than nothing, given the state of the market.

The last ones to have claimed their participation in the new entity are the developers, which are probably among the most affected by the crisis. Their argument is that they are the ones who really know the market and, for that reason, are the best to evaluate the assets that will be transferred to the bad bank.

“The FROB, or whoever will have the mandate over these assets, must increase the management capacity and for that reason, it must take help from the sector,” said José Manuel Galindo, head of the Association for Developers and Constructors in Spain (APCE).

The real estate assesors also want to participate. The main companies in this sector, such as Tinsa, Sociadad de Tasación and Valmesa, aspire to get hired to assess the assets of the nationalized entities –in principle, only these entities- that will be transferred into the new instrument.
...continue reading "Real Estate sector and the bad bank"

Barcelona Meeting Point 2012 has already confirmed the participation of 74 Russian investors and estate agencies

SpainHouses.netSeptember 10, 2012September 10, 2012Leave a comment

The XVI real estate exhibition Barcelona Meeting Point (BMP)

To be held from 17 to 21 October at the Fira Montjuïc in Barcelona, has already confirmed the participation of 74 Russian investors and estate agencies, and the list is at disposal of the real estates who have confirmed their presence in ‘Russian Meeting Point’.

As reported by BMP, the show will host a minimum of ten meetings 'face to face' with investors and Russian agencies, for those companies who book an exhibitor before October 10, which will cost 6,000 €.

The BMP is the only professional and international real estate exhibition placed in Spain since 1997, founded by the Consortium of Zona Franca de Barcelona (CZFB), which allows the meeting between real estate professionals, to know new investment opportunities and to get project funding, among others aspects.

Good news for overseas buyers: massive decline in real estate prices in Spain.

SpainHouses.netJuly 15, 2012July 16, 2012Leave a comment

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)