No Spanish Conspiracy Theory Required
February 23rd, 2010
Spain tries to hide under the smokescreen of an International conspiracy, TINSA is revealed as not-quite-so independent after all, and two pieces of good news for Spanish finances.
In a bizarre twist this week, Spain hit out at English-language news agencies conspiring to bring down the Euro and the Spanish economy.
As the writer of The Zapping of Zapatero in the Economist answered:
“To this piffle the best retort is: grow up”.
Mr Zapatero, however, continues to insist that Spanish economic recovery is near – something that economists outside the country have a hard time agreeing with because the Spanish government haven’t fleshed out their recovery plans.
However, two pieces of good news for the Spanish economy broke this week – shoring up international confidence in the country.
First, Spain enjoyed a strong bond issue – raising €5 Billion. A bond is basically an IOU from the Spanish government and, the fact that it sold out quickly is a very practical demonstration of how confident the world’s financial markets are of Spain’s ability to repay that debt.
Second, the International Monetary Fund stated that Spain is not Greece. A spokesman said:
“Spain has robust economic statistics and institutions with a solid history and credibility”.
It seems that despite the constant news and rumour-mongering, investors are more than willing to continue investing in Spain – all conspiracy theories aside.
Moving on from the world of Spanish politics and finances, please check out Nick Snelling’s new article: What the Spanish Coastal Law Really Means.
If you are thinking of buying a Spanish property anywhere near the sea, it’s important to be ware of this fuzzy piece of legislation.
Last week, I sang the praises of property valuations company, TINSA. Chartered surveyor, Campbell Ferguson was kind enough to email me this quote from Fuster Associates, a legal firm in Murcia:
The biggest valuation companies, such as Tinsa and Tasamadrid, are connected with savings banks and the banking industry; “hence, every time they value a home at less than its former value, their own assets depreciate”. To put it another way, “to admit that homes have come down in price is tantamount to admitting that the assets which back up loans have fallen.”
Hmm, so maybe my assertion that one of TINSA’s advantages is that they’re independent is suspect – that’s certainly true in the opinion of this Spanish commentator who said:
“You trust the valuations of a company funded by more than 30 savings banks? Bad analysis.”
I admit that the independence of TINSA may be questionable – but I do stand by the fact that their index trend is the only data series which tallies closely with what we have observed in practice.
Moving on ..
We started a new Kyero blog last week to let you know what we’re up to behind the scenes here.
Some of the posts are quite technical, some aimed at estate agents, others at the general public. Some talk about functionality we’re developing, and others about problems we’re trying to fix.
I hope you find the posts interesting and decide to comment and have your say if you feel strongly enough about a particular subject.
Martin Dell, Kyero.com
Related Posts
- TINSA: Spanish House Price Trends November 2009
- Tinsa Spanish House Price Index March 2009
- Transparent Spanish Property Prices
