Property Pulse Issue 378 – 22nd May, 2012

This week's hand-picked Spanish property news
- we scour thousands of news sources so you don't have to

In Spanish property news this week, the consumption of unsold property is again reported to rely heavily on foreign buyers.

This year, nearly a quarter of the housing surplus is anticipated to be purchased, with English, German and Scandinavian buyers as the most prolific. Not surprisingly, as mortgages are now harder to obtain, cash rich buyers are increasingly able to take greater advantage of the bargains available.

On our current affairs section, rumours of a VAT increase suggest the tax could be increased later this year, rising to the approximate European average of 21%.

VAT has a direct effect on new build property in Spain, being subject to the reduced rate (currently 8%) VAT. More recently, the rate has been cut to 4% (the super-reduced rate) in efforts to encourage new property sales.

Any increase in VAT would be a general result of on-going economic struggles, but we’ll be watching closely to see if the government risks increasing the tax on new properties.

Finally, a couple of Kyero announcements you may have missed. Firstly, we will soon be hard at work on a mobile version of Kyero. We’ve been monitoring mobile usage closely and recently non-Windows and Mac access to Kyero has topped more than 10% of total visits.

A large proportion of these visits are from tablet users, particularly the iPad which Kyero is more easily navigated with, but now mobile specific use has reached 5%. For these users, a mobile version will be warmly welcomed, whilst also benefiting tablet users greatly.

Also this week, for any budding writers interested in the Spanish property market or estate agents with information to report, we’ve opened up various sections of Kyero for user submitted content.

If you have an interesting property news story, a useful article, some local news or any comment or analysis on Spain and particularly the Spanish property market, we’d be delighted to hear from you.

For anyone interested, please open a support ticket with a brief outline of your article and we’ll get back to you straight away.

Here’s the best of this week’s Spanish property news.

Saludos from everyone on the Kyero team!

May 22nd : Construction Activity in the Eurozone Up 12.4% in March

The eurozone construction sector recorded a year-on-year the decline of 3.8%, according to data published by the European statistics office. In Spain, the annual drop was 10.9%.

May 21st : Top Spanish Properties This Week on Kyero

Each day, we record the popularity of every Spanish property advertised on Kyero. Here’s this week’s top Spanish properties – as voted by you.

May 21st : Investments and Exports Suppress Spanish Economy

According to the National Statistics Institute, the contraction of 2.6% in investments and the 0.9% drop in exports has caused the economic decline and puts Spain officially in recession.

May 18th : Spanish Property to Fall 24% in 2012, Recovery in 2013

According to the Corporate Practice Institute, the stock of unsold homes in Spain will be reduced by 23.6% in 2012.

May 17th : Services Sector Decline Deepens in March

The services sector recorded a fall in its turnover in March of 5.3% over the same month of 2011, which marks seven months of declines year-on-year.

May 16th : ECB to Help with Audit of Spanish Banks

The Spanish Economy Minister, Luis de Guindos, said that he has asked the European Central Bank to assist in the independent audit of the Spanish banks.

Useful resources

Car Rental in Spain
Compare the best available rates

Flights to Spain
Compare every airline and fare

Holiday home insurance
Get comprehensively covered by Intasure

Legal Advice
Independent lawyers look after your interests

Receive the latest news, offers and top tips in this newsletter every Tuesday.



Get more from Kyero
Bookmark properties and searches, get automatic updates about new properties, make one-click enquiries and more ..

Compare house prices
Get a great deal by downloading our comprehensive Spanish House Price Index

No spam
We never pass your information to anyone, ever

Winners
Best Spanish property portal 2008 and 2007 in the CNBC awards

Kyero.com
Copyright Portal47 Ltd