Spanish Property Popularity Rising – Why?
January 12th, 2010
Last week I mentioned that 2010 had started briskly for Kyero.com. Comparing the first week of 2010 with that of 2009, we’ve seen substantial increases across all metrics.
- Overall page views up by 46%
- Unique visitors up by 63%
- Property page views up by 47%
- Property enquiries up by 34%
- Clicks to estate agent web sites up by 41%
What is going on? We would normally expect to see some growth each year – because, for six years now, the vast majority of the advertising revenue we generate goes straight back into developing Kyero.com.
However, no amount of software development can compensate for a tricky world economy and a suppressed property market in Spain.
I suspect that property-related search has boomed in general, and I suspect that this is particularly true in Spain and other ‘laggard countries’ in Europe.
I believe that two of this week’s news article explain the surge in interest in Spanish property.
Spain: One of the Best Real Estate Investments in 2010 explains why investors are re-assessing the region, and The Real McCoy on Spanish House Prices explains the rationale behind them expecting substantial discounts.
(Incidentally, for these same reasons I see key-ready Spanish property as offering the best combination of price, risk and value at the moment.)
Currently, the strength of the Euro against the British pound means that Spanish property is of most appeal to buyers in the stronger Eurozone countries: France, Germany and Holland.
However, as detailed in: Worst Not Over Yet For Europe, the Euro’s foundations are shaky due to the uncertainty surrounding the finances of Greece. Accordingly, foreign-exchange traders are forecasting a sinking Euro, a rising US dollar – and a rise in Sterling.
It might not be long before Spanish property becomes even better value to UK buyers too.
Whatever kind of property you are looking for in Spain, you will no doubt have been rattled by the news of yet more property demolitions in Almeria.
It amazes me that this is still happening in Spain but Nick Snelling’s article: Another Nail in the Coffin for Spanish Property puts things into perspective.
A related article from the Telegraph can be found here – worth a read for the comments alone.
If you’re as disgusted as I am that this is still happening anywhere in ‘civilised’ Europe, please take 2 minutes to add your signature to this petition.
Just before Christmas, I wrote about Spanish banks and their charges. Now, there’s some good news from Santander as reported by This is Money and Which.
It looks as though Abbey current account customers can now get withdrawals from Santander’s 4,300 ATM’s in Spain – without any charges at all.
From a personal perspective, I’ve found Barclays in Spain to be the best (in terms of charges) for personal and business banking.
Martin Dell, Kyero.com
