Archives for January 2009
January 16th, 2009
Spanish unemployment topped 3 million for the first time ever in December and the government said unemployment would worsen in 2009, as the global economic crisis continued to wreak havoc on the country's property-driven economy. The number of people out of work in Spain jumped by 139,694 people, the ninth straight ...
Continue reading Spanish Unemployment Exceeds 3 Million
January 15th, 2009
Last year was the worst year ever on record for the Spanish property sector, and this year doesn’t look like it’s going to be any better, reports the Spanish daily ‘El Pais’. Residential property sales collapsed, as did housing starts, and now there is hard evidence of unprecedented price falls, ...
Continue reading G14 Concede Falling Spanish Property Prices
January 14th, 2009
For most of the 1990s, the euro was the big political question for both Spain and the UK. In Britain, the question was whether to join, while in Spain the concern was whether its economy was robust enough to qualify for membership. As the credit crisis begins to bite with particular ...
Continue reading A Painful Adjustment for Spain and Britain
January 13th, 2009
More than six in 10 economists believe 2009 will be a year in which to avoid buying property, with prices falling into 2010. This still leaves a significant minority who think that prices will be close to their nadir towards the end of this year as the recession and credit constraints ...
Continue reading Property in 2009: Economists Divided
January 12th, 2009
Around the world the property industry is preparing for rough seas, clamping down budgets and stowing expectations. In many ways, 2009 will be “a deeply unpleasant year,” the Global Property Guide forecasts in its annual report, a fairly typical example of industry projections. A review of 2009 forecasts finds pessimism running ...
Continue reading 2009 Property Predictions
January 11th, 2009
A large number of Britons buying off-plan homes from bankrupt Spanish developers say they are tens or even hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket, because banks in Spain are refusing to honour guarantees. Bank guarantees, or Aval Bancario, from developers have been compulsory by law on off-plan purchases in ...
Continue reading Spanish Banks Pile on the Misery
January 9th, 2009
The Ministry of Housing recently released their provisional figures for Q3 of 2008. You can download the revised, sanitised and translated MVIV figures from Kyero.com. Most of the data released by the Ministry of Housing (MVIV) is unreliable because it uses property valuations rather than actual sales prices. However, ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Transactions Down by 42%
January 9th, 2009
It could take two and a half years for the glut of new, unsold properties in Spain to be cleared, according to the latest data. It is estimates that there are almost a million new homes that are unsold, most on the Spanish coast, many of which were built for British ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Glut to Persist Until 2011
January 8th, 2009
The number of people seeking a new life in Spain has surged by 12% as Britons firmly established themselves as the country's fourth-largest immigrant community. Figures released yesterday by the Spanish government revealed that the number of British expatriates registered as resident in Spain had risen to 352,000 at the start ...
Continue reading 12% More Britons in Search of Spanish Property
January 7th, 2009
Spanish banks are turning into some of the biggest real estate companies in Spain, just as they did during the last property crash of the late 80s and early 90s. To a greater or lesser extent, banks are running some of Spain’s biggest listed developers, companies like Colonial and Metrovacesa, ...
Continue reading Spanish Banks Asset Rich, Cash Poor
January 6th, 2009
Over the Christmas break, I was reminded how some things never change. After systematically working my way through a big tin of Quality Street, it was the round, flat, yellow toffee pennies which remained for several days before being thrown away. Perhaps it's just me, but I've never understood why ...
Continue reading Spanish Property is like a Box of Chocolates
January 5th, 2009
A new statistic from the Ministry of Housing helps to show that the Spanish property boom is definitely over. The number of transactions involving resale properties is back to the pre-boom low, with sales falling 47% to 179,000 in the first 9 months of the year, compared to 339,500 in ...
Continue reading MVIV – End of Spanish Property Boom
January 2nd, 2009
Download the latest Kyero.com Spanish House Price Index. Updated with the latest analysis of average asking prices for Q4 2008, it shows Spanish house price trends from mid 2007. Comparing the average asking prices of Q4 2007 and Q4 2008, many vendors and estate agents continue to price properties optimistically. Although ...
Continue reading Fictitious Spanish Property Prices
January 2nd, 2009
Spanish property prices may barely have fallen so far, if you believe the official figures that is (down just 0.5% in 2008), but all that is going to change in 2009, according to BBVA, one of Spain’s largest banks. Prices will fall “close to 5% in 2009 and 10% in ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Prices to Fall by 25%
