Property Downscaling in Tenerife
August 16th, 2006
Are the days of the traditional, lavishly spacious three bedroom, three bathroom Spanish apartments numbered? According to property experts the answer is very much a “yes”.
A dramatic change in society and public expectation has forced the hands of promoters who are now happily offering small scale one and two bedroom apartments, and they’re going like hot cakes.
First time buyers in the shape of young couples and singletons or empty nesters, now have a much wider range of properties to choose from, particularly in the south of Tenerife and more especially in San Isidro where such flats are being snapped up fast, at a price of between €90,000 and €120,000. Purchasers, more often than not, are people who work in the south and prefer not to make the increasingly stressful commute from the capital or the north.
One well-known Tenerife estate agent chain said that non-EU foreign immigrants are now beginning to step onto the property ladder and for them small flats such as those in San Isidro, where there is, in addition, a large immigrant community, are ideal. But they often encounter problems getting credit from a bank, explained one property consultant attached to the agency. “These people work every hour God sends them,” he said, “but their contracts or other documents are not enough to get them credit with a bank. Banks here in this respect are prejudiced. They will concede a mortgage to a native born islander with a permanent contract although he or she earns less, rather than to an immigrant who might at best only possess a residencia and no contract, even though the latter shows he or she is willing to work from dawn to dusk to pay off their flat.”
