The Latest Spanish Property News from Kyero.com

Jeff Greensmith of FINCAS direct had some great information about the property market in Catalonia in response to our Spanish Bad Guys, Part 2 article. Here’s his update on the situation in Catalonia:

The lack of coordination between Catastro and Registro de la Propiedad definitely strikes a chord: how many times have Registro staff told me that ‘we don’t have anything to do with the Catastro’, and vice versa. They say it as if they were proud of it!

As a seller of mainly rural properties in Catalonia I regularly get involved in planning questions and still — despite the fact that I speak Catalan and Spanish and have lived here for over 20 years — often find it very hard to get clear, straightforward answers to questions about planning issues. Local councils, central planning authorities, the Catalan environmental department.

To an extent it’s part of Mediterranean culture, the tradition of getting on with your life in spite of local authorities, the nod and a wink to the mayor, the ‘do what you want but we don’t want to know about it’ attitude. Spanish clients instinctively understand it of course, but it’s near impossible to explain to a northern European buyer.

But many Spanish local and government authorities have improved radically over the last 15 years, so let’s hope we’ll begin to see some coordinated improvements in the property sector.

In Catalonia, a new law, the Llei d’Habitatge, came into force on April 9th.

Among other things, it sets out to regulate estate agents:

- Compulsory register (but it hasn’t been set up yet). Agents’ register numbers will have to appear on advertising

- Insurance now required

- Bank guarantee will be required if deposits are retained by the agency and not paid to seller

- Agents must have a signed mandate from the seller for every property they offer, stating price, commission etc along with details of the property.

Apparently the law also aims to set up quotas of lower cost housing for sale, similar to the ‘viviendas protegidas’ but with more control. Hopefully some of the over supply of apartments etc could be converted.

Jeff Greensmith, FINCAS direct

Is any property below €50,000 a cheap Spanish property? Are cheap Spanish properties only to be found at auction or as bank repossessions? How much below market value does a Spanish property need to be to be considered cheap?

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