Archives for June 2010
June 1st, 2010
Spain’s Socialist government will impose a new tax on the wealthy within a few weeks, broadening its deficit-cutting campaign after unions threatened a general strike to protest against austerity measures. The new tax on people with a “high-economic capacity” will be created “in a few weeks,” Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez ...
Continue reading New Wealth Tax Planned to Raise Revenue
June 2nd, 2010
Spain’s glut of newly-built holiday-homes will take the market between 4 and 5 years to digest, according to José Manuel Galindo, President of the Association of Developers and Constructors of Spain (APCE). The over-supply of first homes, on the other hand, will have gone within 2 to 3 years. There were ...
Continue reading Excess of Holiday Homes Starting to Clear
June 3rd, 2010
Spain aims to pass a long-awaited labour market reform before the end of June, with or without an agreement with unions and business leaders, Economy Minister Elena Salgado said on Monday. Negotiations on thrashing out a deal were held on Monday after the labour ministry said it would extend a deadline ...
Continue reading Spain Aim to Pass Labour Reforms Before Month End
June 4th, 2010
Shares of Portugal Telecom climbed on Wednesday, nearly single-handedly driving its home market to positive ground, after Spain's Telefonica came back with a 14% higher bid for the Portuguese group's stake in a Brazilian telecom. Portugal Telecom shares were up 4.1% in Lisbon trade and had gained as much as 8%, ...
Continue reading Telefonica Up Bid for Brazil's Vivo
June 7th, 2010
Wary investors pushed up Spain's borrowing costs on Wednesday as a debt downgrade from last week cast a shadow over the country's efforts to avoid a Greek-style debt crisis. Good news on the jobs market seemed to give markets little cheer. The spread — the difference in the interest rates between ...
Continue reading Spain Borrowing Costs Rise but Unemployment Down
June 8th, 2010
Newspapers are predicting falls in property prices in both the UK and Spain as more housing stock comes on stream and demand is hit by rising interest rates. The Telegraph asks “Is the holiday over for the property market?” and cites case studies of amateur investors planning to sell up ...
Continue reading Media Predicts Property Price Drops for UK and Spain
June 9th, 2010
Are you living the dream? Do you think Spain is still a good investment opportunity for property? Two frequently asked questions that even now, after all these years, confuse me. My dreams tend to be focussed on one-off events that will never happen, the fantasy of winning the Euro Lottery; scoring ...
Continue reading Living Happily and Legally in Spain
June 8th, 2010
As Summer approaches, a quick word of advice about two car rental gotchas! I recently rented a car at Malaga airport for a couple of days and it ended up costing double what I had expected. Here's what happened and, more importantly, what you can do to avoid the ...
Continue reading How to Save Money on Car Hire in Spain
June 10th, 2010
Spanish property prices might still be 12% too high say rating agency Standard & Poor’s, despite a market correction now into its 3rd year (at least). But S&P’s conclusions are only as good as the figures they use, in this case official figures that I for one don’t believe (and ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Prices – The Reality
June 11th, 2010
Spain's unions said 75 percent of public sector workers joined their strike against austerity measures on Tuesday but it was business as usual in Madrid with few disruptions at hospitals, schools or government offices. The two largest Spanish unions said as many as three-quarters of 2.3 million workers in state-run entities, ...
Continue reading Spanish Unions Strike Over Planned Wage Cuts
