Archives for October 2009
October 30th, 2009
The Savings Bank Foundation, FUNCAS, warns that economic recovery will be mediocre and employment will not be created until 2011. Director, Angel Laborda said, during a conference on the current situation of Spain against the global economic crisis, that the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will take a lot to ...
Continue reading Spanish Economic Recovery Mediocre
October 29th, 2009
The UK economy shrank in the third quarter of 2009, seriously disappointing investors. Purchasing managers say Euroland is back to growth in all sectors. Starting from €1.09 sterling rose to €1.11 before running into serious resistance on Wednesday. It had another look at that level on Friday morning before turning tail. ...
Continue reading Moneycorp: GDP Data Scuppers Sterling
October 28th, 2009
Property prices in Spain have touched bottom but will remain stalled during the next two years, a partner for property advisor Knight Frank said on Friday. "If you put a home on the market at a 35 percent discount to highs from three years ago, and partially-financed, prices are going to ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Prices Flat Until 2011
October 27th, 2009
I am constantly frustrated by Spanish bureaucracy and how it negatively affects Spain's ability to compete in business internationally. However, this week, I caught sight of an article about Community Enterprise which praises Spain for its commercial initiatives in the 1950's: "The Mondragón cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain are perhaps ...
Continue reading Spain: Volatility & Opportunity in Equal Measure
October 27th, 2009
Investors buying holiday homes to rent out in Spain will not be affected tax wise by the Spanish government’s plans to abolish mortgage tax relief from the beginning of 2011 as it will only affects primary residences. However, the latest move could eventually be detrimental to the property market in general ...
Continue reading Spanish Mortgage Tax Relief Chop
October 26th, 2009
Spanish unemployment was unchanged at a better-than-expected 17.9 percent in the third quarter, but analysts said a fall in the number of people looking for work disguised continuing job destruction. The number of unemployed workers totalled 4.1 million in the third quarter, down by 14,100 from the second quarter when the ...
Continue reading Spanish Q3 Unemployment Lower Than Expected
October 23rd, 2009
Having lived in Spain for over five years now I am one of the first to acknowledge what is wrong with the country and the difficulties people can experience living here or buying a property here. I was asked the other day if I would ever consider returning to England to ...
Continue reading Stop the Spain Bashing
October 22nd, 2009
An unusually good week for sterling. The coming week will be even more critical, bringing data for government borrowing, retail sales and third quarter GDP. For the first half of the week sterling remained below Monday's €1.0750 opening. On Tuesday it went as low as €1.06. A Wednesday bounce above ...
Continue reading Moneycorp: Euro Weekly Update
October 21st, 2009
Spain’s housing market is broken and urgently needs fixing, argue a group of top-flight economists from Fedea, one of Spain’s leading economic policy think tanks. In a new report just released, 'For a Housing Market that Works: A Proposal for Structural Reform’, a group of economists at Fadea, including Pol Antràs ...
Continue reading Spain's Rental Market in Need of Reform
October 20th, 2009
In Spain and the UK, there seems to be general disagreement about the state of their respective housing markets. In the UK, This is Money reports that house prices are now higher than they were a year ago as Britain's property revival gathers pace. Meanwhile in Spain, 4 out of 5 of ...
Continue reading Time to Buy Property in Spain?
October 20th, 2009
Spanish house prices are starting to stabilise and now is the time to buy, says the Ministry of Housing. The IMF forecasts even bigger falls to come. Not everyone agrees. “Talk of a slump (in prices) is no longer fitting” said an official from the Housing Ministry yesterday during a press conference ...
Continue reading Government & IMF Disagree Over Spanish House Prices
October 19th, 2009
Fitch Ratings says in a report published today that the Spanish banking system has weathered the global financial crisis successfully to date with no need for capital support from the state. This is due to its retail banking focus, prudent regulation and limited exposure to structured products and complex instruments. However, ...
Continue reading Fitch: Major Spanish Banks Sound Despite Challenges
October 16th, 2009
Home sales in Spain, not including social housing, fell 9.9% in August compared to the same time last year, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). A 10% fall may sound bad, but given the form this year it’s actually rather good. Spain’s leading daily El Pais ...
Continue reading August 2009: Bottom of the Spanish Property Market?
October 15th, 2009
A while ago, I predicted that there would be a Spanish property feeding frenzy as the UK economy recovered ahead of the Spanish economy. In an article I wrote in December 2008, entitled Unbridled Optimism About Spanish Property, I said: "Next year, I see an opportunity for European buyers to acquire Spanish ...
Continue reading UK Recovery and the Spanish Property Market
October 14th, 2009
The number of houses sold in Spain fell 8.2 percent in August from a month earlier, the first decline after rising for three months in a row on a monthly basis, official data showed on Tuesday. Sales were down 9.9 percent in August from a year earlier, the 20th consecutive month ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Prices Decline but Levelling Out?
