Culture Spain – for all things Spanish

Have you been thinking of buying a property in Spain or moving here but been put it off because you cannot understand the Spanish property market? Are you confused by what is happening and unsure whether to buy now or wait – or do you think that perhaps you may have lost the opportunity of buying your dream home in [...]

So, 2011 was officially the worst year for property sales since the Spanish property crash began in early 2008.  Sales were down 20% compared to 2010, which means they were almost 60% down from the halcyon days of 2007. Of course, this is no surprise given the parlous nature of the Spanish economy and the continuing climb in unemployment in [...]

Over the years I have seen, probably, thousands of properties for sale in Spain and these have varied from beach apartments in Spain and village town houses (new and old) – all the way through to luxury villas and fincas.  However, what most of the properties had in common were owners remarkable for their lack of marketing skill and pro activity. [...]

The past week in Spain has seen the dissolution of the Spanish parliament, the second largest seizure of heroin by Spain ever (150 kilos), the nationalisation of three further Spanish banks and continuing tremours on El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands. On the economic side of things, matters show little signs of improving with GDP quarterly growth in Spain [...]

A very interesting graph relating to the cost of living in Spain was produced by a Spanish financial site a couple of weeks ago that is well worth having a look at.  As you can see below, it shows comparative prices of some major items between 1981 and now (2011) based upon the Spanish Consumer Price Index. The two vital [...]

Well, the bad news seems to keep coming for the Spanish economy in 2011 with confirmation of what I have been writing about over the past few months. Firstly, Spanish regional debt appears to be as dangerously out of control as national Spanish finances were before the Spanish national government of Zapatero imposed austerity measures.  Indeed, a recent article in [...]

Excluding the EU, there are at least four levels of government administration in Spain. These are: 1. National Spanish government – based in Madrid. 2. Regional government – each of the Autonomous Regions in Spain, such as the Comunitat de Valenciana or the Comunidad Autónoma Vasca (Basque country) have an elected government. There are 17 of these Autonomous Regions and [...]

I saw an interesting article in the Euro Weekly News today, the contents of which deserve comment.  The article revolves around the Spanish property crash and the number of properties for sale in Spain. According to the Spanish economist Ricardo Verges, there are some 2,320,000 new houses for sale in Spain – a number that is nothing less than breathtaking.  [...]

What if I told you that you could earn millions without actually ever doing anything for just a smallish investment? What if I told you that the victims would be banks and nobody else? (well maybe just the odd foreigner)? What if I told you that you could live happily ever after with no consequences? You would probably tell me [...]

I found a recent article by El Pais interesting.  This relates to the Spanish savings banks called ‘Cajas’.  These are usually quite small, local institutions  with only a few branches, a bit like the UK’s old building societies.  That said, not all Cajas comprise only a branch or two.  la Caixa (the biggest Caja) is enormous and has about 4,700 [...]

Well, I thought I had seen it all when it came to the Spanish property crash, Spanish banks and their lending – most particularly with regard to mortgages in Spain. That was until I read an excellent article in El Pais (one of Spain’s leading national newspapers). As you will see from this article, which is well worth reading throughout, [...]

I was struck recently by an article in the New York Times entitled ‘Newly Built Ghost Towns Haunt Banks in Spain’ which, I think, nicely encapsulated, in an extreme, the problems that beset the economy in Spain.  Certainly, the Spanish economy faces massive problems that revolve almost entirely around property – or at least the vast debts that accumulated during [...]

A while ago, I commented on sales commissions for estate agents in Spain. At the time, what I had no space for was a critical warning to any buyer of Spanish property to be very careful about ‘buyer’s premiums’. ‘Buyer’s premiums’, over the years, have been nothing if not contentious – not least because invariably they have taken unwary foreign [...]

Of course, there is no denying that the Spanish property market is in deep trouble. Indeed, the problems caused by the Spanish property crash are, undeniably, central to the ‘crisis’ in Spain. Quite simply (as everyone now knows) far too many properties in Spain were built during the boom years. To compound this fact, promoters were lent absurd amounts of [...]

It is, of course, no secret that the banks in Spain are now the biggest owners of property in Spain. Naturally, this is not something that they welcome and, as a consequence, several have their own estate agencies (for example, Mediterráneo for the CAM bank and Habitat for Bancaja) to dispose of these properties. The question is whether, as a [...]