Negative Publicity in Spain
March 13th, 2008
As the Spanish property market continues to suffer from both falling sales and negative publicity, many property professionals talking to OPP believe not enough is being done to promote the sector’s interests abroad and to provide the British and European media with accurate information concerning recent land grab and corruption issues.
“We’ve had many recent queries from our customers worried about the current market in Spain and whether buying there is a sound investment,” said Nick Freeston, head of UK operations for Taylor Woodrow de España. “Last year’s news of a potential property price crash coupled with the current horror stories of illegal building practices and homes being demolished, has understandably unsettled those looking to buy there.”
While the current decline in the Spanish property market is widely acknowledged by most in the industry, how to tackle the problem, if at all, is a bone of contention for many property professionals. Chris Clover, CEO of Marbella-based agency Panorama, believes that the blame for the downturn in confidence expressed in Spain by the UK buyer, should rest at the feet of the British press.
“I do believe that this information must come out, however a lot of it is one sided and has been exaggerated,” he said. “When it comes down to it, the British press have the responsibility to investigate their sources, and the stories they are writing about, properly to provide a balanced perspective and to not let everyone think that every house on the Costa del Sol will be pushed over by the next bulldozer that comes along.”
However, several agents told OPP that there is no single information resource that British and other European journalists can access for relevant comment and opinions to counter the negative stories that have been coming out of the Spanish property market over the past 12 months.
Eugenio Sanchez-Ramade Garcia-Conde, UK MD, of Spanish developers Noriega, explained that the rule of divide and conquer is in affect across the country.
“Of course it is the role of companies in the first place to promote their product and the country, but the government needs to help with this a bit,” he said. “Spain is a victim of its own success and has marketed itself for a long time as separate destinations: the Costa del Sol, Costa Blanca, Costa del la Luz – for example. Each regional government has its own budget to promote its own areas and their efforts are diluted, there is not one single voice, the central government, to promote its cause.
“When you see Greece or Turkey advertised it is as the whole country and you never see that with Spain. It is undeniable that there have been problems, but they haven’t been explained properly. The G14 is trying to address this but they really only operate in Spain and aren’t too good at reaching the British media,” added Garcia-Conde.
The G14, a Spanish private sector lobby group made up of 14 of the country’s biggest property companies, was formed last year to help promote the country’s property market in a positive light across Spain and around the world.
“It would make sense for the G14 to try and push for change and coordination,” said Mark Stucklin, MD of Spanishpropertyinsight.com. “It seems to me that they are focused on lobbying the Spanish government to put pressure on the banks to help ease liquidity problems and to obtain subsidies for the industry – they are focusing on survival and things are very serious. However, they are not awake and I have seen no evidence of other developers addressing the problems in the market. I run an annual senior management executive education programme focusing on sales and marketing at Spain’s leading business school and I have been telling developers for years they need to get together and promote the industry, however it hasn’t led to anything. The pressure is building though and eventually the sector will have to do something to manage its image abroad.”
“The G14 have got it 100% wrong,” added Martin Dell, MD of Kyero.com. “When they issue a press release, it’s blindingly obvious that their motives are 100% self-serving. Buyers are better than ever at spotting this and so they learn to ignore everything that the G14 will say for the foreseeable future and they are ‘PR-ing’ themselves into obscurity and irrelevance.”
OPP has tried to contact several companies that form part of the G14 for comment on this story over a period of months, to ask how the property sector should work on promoting, and safeguarding the Spanish property sector, but none were available to offer comment.
Dell added that he believes Spain doesn’t need promoting at all, rather rational government policies and property professionals that act in the best interests of their clients.
“The buying public are ever better connected, educated and informed. For that reason, marketing spin and hype work less and less effectively each day. Buyers know that it’s a buyers market right now and if agents want to stay in business, they need to provide superior service without charging a premium.”
Stucklin commented: “I certainly think that there has to be some sort of professional body that has a common interest in promoting the country. This is a multi-billion Euro industry and property is being sold to British and international buyers without any organization or co-ordination to promote its interests. It is amazing that nothing has been done.”
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