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Valencia and Madrid have been named as potential property investment hotspots for 2015 as the country’s property market continues its recovery.

valencia 82146 640 300x225 - Madrid and Valencia: potential property hotspots for 2015Madrid is currently undergoing a revival following a rocky ride during the last seven years and Valencia’s position as a key tourist destination mark them out.

In Madrid official figures show that sales were up 17% in 2014 over 2013 and the city and surrounding region have seen their first property price rises since 2007.

 

It adds that as well as being popular with overseas visitors Valencia is a business and investment hub. Latest figures suggest that the number of property sales in Valencia has increased by as much as 30% compared to 2013 figures.
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Residential tourism on the Costa del Sol is recovering from the crisis which hit after the real estate bubble burst in 2008. The increase in sales of properties to foreign buyers is now a fact. Figures for the first six months of this year show that the number of transactions carried out by non residents has exceeded those in 2007, the year before the property market went 46353 1415193 foto 025915 300x225 - Significant increase of housing purchases by foreigners in Málaga provinceinto depression. The president of the Costa del Sol Tourist Board, Elías Bendodo, and José Prado of the Association of Constructors and Developers of Malaga, report that between January and June 4,739 properties in the province were bought by foreigners. This is considerably higher than the 3,506 in the first half of 2007 and is even 45 per cent higher than in the same period of last year.

One result of the positive news is that the Tourist Board and Constructors’ Association are continuing with their ‘Living Costa del Sol’ project which aims to reduce the stock of unsold housing in the area, as it is believed to have contributed to the positive figures.
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Improved confidence in the economy, a wide spread belief that property prices have finally hit rock bottom and more readily available financing are all helping encourage sales in Spain, according to experts.

7475962 1467178 foto 669147 300x225 - Good expectations for Spanish housing marketIt has been widely reported that the summer months saw a recovery in the country’s property market with some seeing sales increase by 8.8% in June compared with the same month in 2013.

Lending also increased, up by 19% in June 2014 compared with June 2013 and there was also a slight rise in prices which saw a 1% increase in the second quarter of 2104, the first quarterly rise for six years.

Before the economic crisis 40% of mortgages were taken out by immigrants. This has now fallen to only 3%. The average age of buyers has also gone up. The percentage of buyers younger than 25 has fallen from 16% to 3%. When it comes to investors, the volume of foreign investments is constantly increasing and 2013 saw a 16% increase on 2012. It is not uncommon for 80% of an estate agent's client base to be foreigners.
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Year on year property sales in Spain have increased for five months in a row, signalling that the residential real estate casas 300x117 - Property market is becoming stable in Spainmarket is becoming more stable.

The latest figures from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) shows that sales increased by 10% in July on an annual basis and by 9% on a quarterly basis.

The INE doesn’t break down monthly sales figures by nationality, but real estate experts point out that foreign buyers are driving the sales increase. This suggests that there is plenty of scope for further increases when local demand picks up with falling unemployment and easier mortgage lending.
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The Spanish housing market remained locked in a trough in 2013, six years after a massive property bubble burst.

23671122 1251066 foto 872872 - House sales fall for third year in a rowAccording to figures released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the number of homes sold last year, excluding public housing schemes, fell 1.2 percent from a year earlier to 276,600 after falling 11.3 percent in 2012 and 18.2 percent in 2011. During the height of the boom over 800,000 houses were exchanged in a year. In December alone sales fell 11.0 from a year earlier to a new monthly record low of 18,619.

The only respite the market has had since boom turned to bust was in 2010 when sales increased 4.8 percent, driven by the purchase of new homes before the introduction of a hike in value-added tax.
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In the crisis years the construction and development industry practically disappeared in the province, where at one point it had employed as many as 100,000 people. Property sales, however, have started to show signs of recovery in 2013 thanks to foreign demand and a continual drop in prices. Violeta Aragón, of the Association of Builders and Developers, admits that the market improvement is greater than expected especially as they “had thought that things would get worse with the increase in IVA (value added tax) and the end of the tax rebate.

56991 949387 foto 1 300x205 - House Sales Surpass Expectations in Málaga ProvinceTraditionally foreign buyers have been regular tourists who end up buying a holiday home, but now there are new clients who don’t answer to that profile. This is the case of the Russians “who are not all buying villas worth a million euros,” Aragón is quick to point out.

“It’s true that there is a segment with very, very high spending power, but the truth is that many are small investors who are spending 200,000 to 250,000 euros because what they want is for their children to have an education in a European country.”

For 2014, she estimates that apart from the cases of people building their own homes, which now contribute in a modest way to the slight recovery in numbers of construction projects approved, “we will also see the start of new projects, but that depends on firms and households getting access to credit and on public investment.”
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The last quarter of 2012 saw a positive end to the year with a flurry of British and other international buyers taking advantage of falling prices and a reduced VAT rate on new properties in Spain.

News 300x199 - Property sales expected to increase in Spain in 2013The higher end of the market also seems to have performed well and at the lower end of the market what are regarded as bargain prices are attracting buyers, especially those with cash as getting a mortgage in Spain is not easy.

Mortgage tax relief has been abolished and VAT on new homes goes up to 10% on 01 January. The temporary reduction of VAT to 4% has boosted the number of overseas buyers.

Foreign buyers have tended to dominate the market in 2012, mainly Belgian, French, Norwegian, Swedish, and a welcome resurgence of more British buyers over the last three months.
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In September, the last month analyzed by the ‘Instituto Nacional de Estadística’ (national institute for statistics), 1287 properties were sold in Malaga province, according to a report issued earlier this week.

Apartments Marbella 300x225 - Property Sales in Málaga Province Increase in SeptemberWhile this figure is fractionally smaller than at the same time last year (by a mere 11 sales), Malaga has seen twice as many properties sold as in Aragón and as many as in Galicia, Castile and Leon and Castile and La Mancha put together. The province has the most house sales in the whole of Andalucía and is only overtaken nationwide by those in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Alicante.

This positive figure, when added to the growth in sales of the previous two months compared to the same time last year, is a great relief in the current harsh economic climate.

One of the deciding factors involved in buying a property this year, apart from falling prices, is the fact that next year tax relief on mortgages is to be removed. Additionally VAT is set to rise significantly in January, from four per cent up to 10 per cent.
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