(LEGAL) VILLA FOR SALE GANDIA, SPAIN
A few days ago, Andrew Linn of Culture Spain’s wine and food Blog sent me an intriguing link concerning the Spanish property crisis – albeit that it pertains to the US.
An answer to the property crisis in the US, it seems, is to demolish the over-supply of housing stock (as you can see from this article) which some large companies in the US are starting to do. The question is: could this be the way forward for Spain and a way of mitigating the current Spanish property crisis?
I presume, of course, that the reasoning behind demolishing excess housing stock is to reduce the over-supply and thereby prop up housing prices.
Frankly, the idea horrifies me!
Indeed, there seems something quite immoral about destroying perfectly good properties (if that is what is suggested) when there are homeless people around. Rather than demolish them why not give them away to the homeless or at least to homeless people who can show that they can afford to maintain the running costs of the properties concerned. This could be done by raffle or by application and would provide much better PR for the companies concerned than destroying sound property (surely?) and would not impact one way or another on property prices if it was done carefully.
I am curious as to what everyone thinks?
Perhaps in Spain there is an argument for demolishing all illegally built housing? That may make better sense and alleviate a perennial problem of property in Spain. Certainly, property illegality in Spain is endemic and does nothing for the reputation of Spain as somewhere safe to buy (not helped by the generally poor standard of legal practice when it comes to the conveyancing of Spanish properties).
There are also, perhaps, arguments for demolishing some of the worst and most hopeless property developments in Spain. However, I suspect, that would be a difficult matter to put into practice given the subjectivity of ‘worst’ – worst looking, worst build quality, worst design etc. Meanwhile, what is a ‘hopeless’ development? I think we all have some pretty good candidates but someone must have thought that they were worthwhile before investing in their construction.
Well, I am not so sure about my last argument – as most of the financing of building projects in Spain was undertaken by the banks and many of their judgements (dare we use that word about their decisions?) were nothing if not ill-considered.
What do you think – is demolishing surplus housing stock in Spain a good idea? Do you have some candidates for demolition or do you think the whole idea is absurd and that it is no solution to the Spanish property crisis?
If you were our esteemed Presidente (Zapatero) what would you be doing in Spain now – to correct the housing crisis?
Nick Snelling - Culture Spain
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The Spanish economy – rotten to the core?
to maintain property values requires a controlled supply. As there is currently a glut in the market, demolition is a viable option, BUT there is the moral conundrum of “housing the homeless”.
Not dissimilar to the food mountains in Europe and the starving across Africa.
However, the homeless rarely vote, so politicians need only listen to their Daily Mail readers. They are in fact, a “scourge on society, like rats, destroying everything in their path, leaving chaos and disease in their wake, benefits scroungers and single mothers, mostly eastern European illegal immigrants”. And so are the homeless.
Furthermore, it is often reported that the burglaries and violence in Spanish society all stem from the homeless, immigrants and general ne’er-do-wells (as per Daily Mail reports, so it must be true).
The solution therefore, seems simple. Shoot them.
Am I being too simplistic?
Hello Nick,
This is an interesting point you raise but the properties referred to by Bank of America are those which are in sucha state of disrepair and uninhabitable that there is no real value to these properties.
Such demolitions do occur here in Spain too, and I recall that an area of housing quite close to Madrid had the bulldozers sent in (La Cañada or something like that) but the media pick up on the social infairness of this as families were living there, albeit in not very humane conditions!
Keep up the good writing.
Nick
this is one of the dottiest wheezes I’ve heard for many a year. How can anyone imagine that demolishing some properties will add value or prompt people to buy the remainder?
It’s not as if they are finite, like the 9 scrolls of the oracle, offered to Wassisname by the Sybil at price of X. When he refused to pay, she burned 3 and offered the remaining 6 at the same price. Again he refused, so she burned 3 more. Offered the last 3 for the same price as the 9 and the 6, he agreed to pay.
Maybe the Americans get some sort of tax break that makes it worthwhile financially but from a social point of view it’s madness.
It’s a bit like the jobs market. Politicians spout on about the availability of jobs, referring to totals. But are those jobs the right jobs in the right places for the right people? Spanish families are hardly likely to up sticks and move to holiday developments just because they are offered them at running costs only.
It just goes to show that there’s just as much nonsense rattling around in the ‘solutions’ dept now as there was in the ‘property investment’ dept.
Chris Nation
Chris – I cannot help agreeing with you! However, this is not the first time that I have heard this suggestion put forward about Spanish property. So, it is worth airing, methinks!
Barry, thank you for your contribution and you must be right, surely. Even banks cannot be so stupid as to destroy half-decent property. Or do I hold too high a regard for the,?
Simon – good to hear from you. It is all rather gloomy at the moment although I am pleased to say that Spain has yet to see the types of riots that occurred in the UK last week. Thank Heavens. So, maybe the tranquil Spanish character will see this awful recession through without exploding into (justifiable) anger against the Spanish banks and the appalling politicians over here…
Nick, great article, and I can offer a first hand example. I live in Lorca, Murcia, which many people will know recently suffered a huge amount of damage by 2 strong earthquakes. We are now 3 months after the quakes and people are still homeless, living in tents and temporary shelters! Less than 5km outside the city of Lorca is the Torre del o Bispo development which in the height of the boom was going to feature thousands of houses with sports facilities etc. There are now simply hundreds of properties on this development sitting empty, with the weeds growing. WHY do the local government not simply give these people a decent shelter in the form of a house?
I drove past the camp of tents today and the authorities have now started constructing timber clad casita style houses for the homeless residents, quite simply ridiculous.
Neil
That is terrible, illogical and makes no sense whatsoever – particularly as the properties are probably effectively owned by one of the banks (a local caja perhaps). So, I agree with you – use surplus housing (sensibly) but do not destroy it… I presume Lorca is suffering from insufficient funds to correct the earthquake damage or do you think they are efficiently dealing with the problem (apart from not using the properties at Torre del o Bispo)?