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Tag: Spanish

Published on Leave a comment on Spanish Architecture: Casa V in La Coruña, by Dosis de Arquitectura

Casa V consists on the rehabilitation, adaptation and expansion of an existing house, located in Oleiros (La Coruña), designed and built in the early 1960’s.

The intention of the project is to make a place where three generations of one same family can enjoy their holiday simultaneously. For that purpose, a new house is made for the two younger generations, which consists on a side wing that articulates itself with the old building on the northeast. The rooftop of this new house serves as a private garden for the pre-existing house as a landscape response to the existing topography. The original house accommodates now the spaces for family and social interaction, as well as the rooms of the first generation. Each family member has its own independence while remaining a part of a single set. A multilayered wall defined by a single construction detail, which serves both as structure and as thermal and environmental overcoat, meanders in order to embrace the multiplicity of events that occur in the house. Spaces are defined by the unfolding of matter in space-time, which topologically adapts itself to what happens inside. The new house is formalized by the continuous flow of a completely neutral wrap – no edges, no color, no texture - and, within this wrapping, life, action, is the protagonist.

casav - Spanish Architecture: Casa V in La Coruña, by Dosis de Arquitectura

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Published on 2 Comments on Spanish House Prices Keep Falling

Spanish house prices fell by the most in the third quarter of this year since a massive property bubble burst around the start of 2008, according to figures released Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

noticia 17 de diciembre 300x219 - Spanish House Prices Keep FallingThe INE said prices declined 15.2 percent in the period July-September from a year earlier after declining 14.4 percent in the previous three months. Prices have now fallen for the past 18 quarters, with the pace of the falls accelerating over the past year. Prices in the third quarter of last year were down 7.4 percent, eased 11.2 percent the following quarter and dropped 12.6 percent in the first quarter of this year.

The average price of existing homes declined an annual 16.4 percent, while the price of new homes dropped 13.6 percent. Prices fell in all of the Spanish regions, with the biggest fall experienced by Madrid where they declined 17.9 percent, followed by Asturias where they dropped 17.5 percent.

Home sales have picked up in the past few months in anticipation of an increase in the value-added tax rate on new housing to 10 percent from four percent at the start of next year, when the government will also remove tax breaks for mortgage payments on the main home.

However, demand for housing remains conditioned by an unemployment rate of over 25 percent and by tight credit.

Via: elpais.com

Published on Leave a comment on Spanish Pavilion at Floriade 2012

Spanish Pavilion Design presents a modern architecture with display a splurge color exterior and colorful interior. This pavilion display at the Floriade 2012 in Venlo, Netherlands which is a wonderful architecture design from designer Pulgon Diseño.

Made of recycled materials like fruit boxes, planks and some rest of the building materials, this pavilion brought go-green concept. Cradle to Cradle is the idea which the designer believes that every originate smaterial from nature must finish up as a natural part of it as well. And in the process Pulgon Diseño has created a green structure that is visually distinctive and strikingly vivid from materials that have mostly been discarded as waste.

Spanish Pavilion design is a example of a sustainable design that is both flowing in its appearance and fully functional. The structure was designed to highlight the importance of organic products and how various things and materials in nature can be used and reused for construction. An amalgamation of multitude of materials and colors, the Spanish Pavilion seems like a natural structure that just sprung out of the ground and has a very “natural” feel to it.

Spanish Pavilion Architecture - Spanish Pavilion at Floriade 2012
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Published on Leave a comment on Feng Shui Used To Attract Asian Buyers to Spain

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.

feng shui bedroom 300x225 - Feng Shui Used To Attract Asian Buyers to SpainGrupo 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.
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Published on Leave a comment on Spain sinks deeper into recession in third quarter

The Spanish economy shrank by 0.3pc between July and September, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of contraction.

danger crisis 263x300 - Spain sinks deeper into recession in third quarterSpain is buckling under the pressure of a large deficit and a property crash that has left its banks struggling under a mountain of bad loans.

Swingeing spending cuts and tax rises have stifled investment and have left consumers without the money or the will to spend.

The third-quarter data from Spain’s national statistics office was a first estimate of GDP with no detailed breakdown. Despite the decline, it reflected a slightly better performance than the 0.4pc fall in GDP economists had predicted.

However, economists said the figure was likely to have been flattered by consumers bringing forward purchases to beat the VAT rise in September, partly veiling a weak consumer backdrop.

“Domestic demand likely contracted sharply again, despite some spending being pulled forward ahead of the VAT hike,” said Greg Fuzesi, economist at JP Morgan. “Our forecast anticipates an intensification of the Spanish recession at the turn of the year.”
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Published on Leave a comment on British buyers willing to purchase a second home in Spain

Around 56% of British people enquiring about the Spanish property market are actively interested in purchasing opportunities according to a study by Spanish real estate agent Inmoaction with 27% of respondents commenting that they would buy a second home in the country.

680121 619762 1 300x200 - British buyers willing to purchase a second home in SpainResults from the survey of more than 1,500 people highlights that the decline in prices in the Spanish property market is increasingly attracting British buyers looking for a well priced dream home.

‘While the data shows that Brits seem to be showing a great deal of interest in Spanish property, we are seeing this interest translate into action,’ said Marc Pritchard sales and marketing manager of Spanish house builder Taylor Wimpey España.

‘While enquiries by Brits have increased by 5.5% in August this year compared to the same time in 2011, last month saw 53% of all our property sales in August made to British clients,  the strongest sales month to British buyers since September 2010,’ he explained.
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Published on Leave a comment on Spanish Banking System under exam

The Bank of Spain had chosen two consultants so that they value the Spanish banks’ assets.

The purpose of this evaluation is to “increase transparency and definitively dispel doubts about the valuation of bank assets in Spain”, Economy Ministry sources said.

De Guindos 300x198 - Spanish Banking System under examThe independent consultants selected are the German Roland Berger, and Oliver Wyman of the United States. Oliver Wyman has a dark point on his curriculum as he classified Anglo Irish Bank as the best in the world in 2006, just two years before this bank was nationalized.

Economy Minister Luis de Guindos refused on Monday any further serious regression in home loan defaults.

The performing loan ratio for mortgages currently stands at 2.8 percent, compared with 21 percent for credit to the real estate sector. The banking system’s loan portfolio is currently around 1.76 trillion euros, of which 656 billion is in the form of mortgages to individual homeowners and around 310 billion to property developers. In a decree approved earlier this month, the government increased provisions for loans to developers to up 45 percent of the value of the credit.
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