Archives for February 2010
February 15th, 2010
The number of houses sold in Spain fell 0.3 percent in December from a year earlier, the 24th straight month of declines, the National Statistics Institute said on Wednesday. The drop compared to an annual fall of 2.6 percent in November and a record slide of 47.6 percent in April. The ...
Continue reading Two Years of Declining Spanish Property Sales
February 12th, 2010
Spain is relying on history to convince investors it will find an escape route from Europe’s fiscal crisis faster than Greece. As investors start to question Spain’s ability to cut the euro region’s third-largest budget deficit, Deputy Finance Minister Jose Manuel Campa yesterday reminded them that “we have done it in ...
Continue reading Spain Relies on History to Reassure Investors
February 11th, 2010
More than half of Spain’s landlords are dodging taxes as the rental market expands, depriving the financially strapped government of more revenue each year. Owners are asking for payment in cash from tenants to avoid tax on 2.5 billion euros ($3.5 billion) of earnings annually, the Gestha union of tax inspectors ...
Continue reading Spain's Tax-Dodging Landlords
February 10th, 2010
Investors still not convinced that Greece can sort itself out without external help. Sterling and euro lumped with 'risky' currencies as dollar and yen push ahead. A one-cent range held sterling between €1.14 and €1.15. It opened in London this morning half a cent down on the week at €1.14. Until a ...
Continue reading Foreign Currency Markets Overshadowed by Greek Problems
February 10th, 2010
Spain has been among the worst affected by the international financial crisis, both in its property market, and economically. But you wouldn’t know it if you listened to official government housing figures. According to the Housing Ministry’s index, Spanish house prices have fallen around 9.5% since the peak in the ...
Continue reading A Profile of Spanish Economic Recovery
February 9th, 2010
Who to believe? In the news this week, one commentator declares the Spanish property industry bankrupt. At the same time, a developer in Almeria has raised prices as a "signal that things are getting better". In Spanish Property Industry Bankrupt?, we read that developers have raised the cost of ...
Continue reading Spanish Property: Hogwash or Hope?
February 9th, 2010
Rocketing unemployment is going to make it even harder for Spain to meet promises to slash its budget deficit, and it is already hard to find an analyst who believes the growth assumptions behind the forecasts. The number registered as unemployed topped 4 million in January, official data showed Tuesday, an ...
Continue reading Spanish Unemployment Challenge for Budget Cuts
February 8th, 2010
In a somewhat shocking and worrying statement, a leading Spanish lender has declared the country’s real estate sector is ‘bankrupt’. According to Santos Gonzalez Sanchez, president of the Spanish Mortgage Association who speaks on behalf of the country’s mortgage lenders, there is so much debt in the industry that finance for ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Industry 'Bankrupt'?
February 5th, 2010
The overseas homes market may have already entered recovery in some parts of Spain as one developer has started putting its prices up. Key Mare in Almeria has seen sales rise by 30% in the last three months and now has more international customers than Spanish ones. The company raised prices ...
Continue reading Spanish Developer Increases Prices
February 5th, 2010
Elena Salgado, the normally sprightly Spanish finance minister, could not disguise her discomfort when she announced an austerity plan designed to slash successive budget deficits and restore the country's credibility on international markets. She had good reason to be uneasy. The table of figures she presented on Friday showing Spain's "fiscal ...
Continue reading Spain at Risk of Greek Problem
February 4th, 2010
Spain’s Cabinet will discuss spending cuts of as much as 50 billion euros ($70 billion) by 2013 as it aims to slash the budget deficit by two-thirds to meet a European Union target. The government will discuss the so-called austerity plan that aims to cut current spending in the central and ...
Continue reading Spain Targets €50Bn Spending Cuts
February 3rd, 2010
Britain emerged from recession in Q4 - just. Germany has no plans to help rectify Greek budget problems. Sterling managed to add about half a cent, opening this morning in London at €1.1450, but did it the hard way. A one-cent setback on Tuesday and a peak of over €1.16 show ...
Continue reading Growth & Credit Status Hold Sterling Back
February 3rd, 2010
Hopes have emerged that the battered Spanish property market could be hitting something that feels like a floor. Pardon the vague language, but with 1 million homes still on the market to say the future is torrid for Spanish property is an understatement despite the latest positive data. The most positive ...
Continue reading Spanish Property: Light at the End of a Long Tunnel?
February 2nd, 2010
I know this defies logic, and I'll understand if you decide that I've joined the pundits who only voice a positive spin on the Spanish property market - but, things do seem to be picking up in Spain. Ignore property asking prices and ignore the government data - they're both misleading. ...
Continue reading Spanish Property Bouncing Back?
February 2nd, 2010
The European housing market hasn’t stopped attracting British buyers, with Spain, Cyprus and Poland among the hot spots. Investing in property abroad is a daunting prospect at the best of times. Many Britons who borrowed heavily to invest in foreign properties have been left in negative equity, which may be enough ...
Continue reading Sun & Sea Property Prospects in Spain
