Luxury property success in Spain

October 12, 2011 – 9:01 am

Luxury property selling well in Spain and Tenerife

A luxury Spanish property agency has reported its most successful ever quarter in the three month period from July to September.

Lucas Fox International Properties sold €19.5 million-worth of luxury Spanish real estate in 2011’s third quarter, its best performance since opening six years ago.

Lucas Fox sells properties in Barcelona, Costa Brava and Ibiza.

Alex Vaughan, Director of Lucas Fox, said that recent rich buyers continue to enter the market despite recent negative comments. Personally, I can’t wait for them to start selling luxury properties in Tenerife, that will hopefully inject much needed cash into the local economy

Source: OPP

By Angela | Posted in Economy, General, Health, Holiday, Inspirational, Miscellaneous Articles, Property, Tenerife, Things to Do, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Spain’s luxury housing market remains bouyant

September 1, 2011 – 4:44 pm

Tenerife prime property holding price well once more

Spain’s luxury residential market is showing some resilience as Eastern European and non-mortgage buyers surge into the market, according to new research.

New reports from Lucas Fox International Properties show that the average prices in the areas remain way above the national average.

And as finance becomes less scarce the luxury market has shown more strength than others.

Russian buyers are particularly active in Barcelona according to marketing director Anthony Leaton.

Source: OPP.org.uk

By Angela | Posted in Economy, General, Health, Holiday, Inspirational, Miscellaneous Articles, Property, Tenerife, Things to Do, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Serious vendors dropping prices to ensure a sale.

July 25, 2010 – 2:25 pm

Serious sellers in Tenerife and Spain drop prices to ensure the saleA growing number of vendors trying to sell their homes are dropping their asking prices, according to new research by one of Spain’s leading property portals. Asking prices for 18,007 resale properties in the Idealista database were reduced in June, 30% more than same time last year, and the highest level for 2 years. The number of price reductions has been on the rise every month since January, causing the 12-month average trend to rise after falling for about a year. But if the number of discounted properties is growing, the average discount value is not. Discount values peaked at the beginning of last year and have been declining ever since, so it’s a story of more, but smaller discounts.

The markets where the biggest proportion of vendors decided to drop prices were Madrid (9.3%) and Barcelona (7.4%). That means vendors in Spain’s two biggest markets are becoming more focused on finding a buyer.

- Asking prices were down just 0.5% in Q1 over Q2, to 2,374 €/m2.
- Prices rose in 5 regions: The Balearics (+2,4%) Galicia (+1,6%), Castilla y León (+1%), The Basque Country (+0,9%) y La Rioja (+0,6%).
- Prices rose just by 2 €/m2 in Barcelona, to 4,084 €/m2. Even so, prices there are still below where they were 5 years ago in Q1 2005. They are down 16.4% from the peak of 4,888 €/m2 in Q1 2007.
- Madrid fell 0.4% in Q1, to 3,831 €/m2, 11.2% below the peak of 4,315 €/m2 in Q2 2007.
- Valencia fell 0.7% to 2,335 €/m2, 18.4% below the Q2 2007 peak of 2,861 €/m2

Sellers in Tenerife and the Canary Isles are  also following this trend to ensure a quick sale.

By Angela | Posted in Economy, General, Health, Holiday, Inspirational, Miscellaneous Articles, Property, Tenerife, Things to Do, Uncategorized, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Fines in Salou for tourists with bare chests.

July 10, 2010 – 6:36 pm

Appropriate dress required when off the beaches in Spain

Appropriate dress required when off the beaches in Spain

British tourists face fines of nearly £250 for failing to cover up their bikinis or bare chests on the streets of a popular Spanish seaside resort.
The resort of Salou on the Costa Dorada, south of Barcelona, has become the first place in Spain to ban shirtless and bikini-clad tourists in a bid to clean up its reputation, which has been badly damaged after becoming a haven for drunken British students.

In a set of new by-laws passed by the town council those who flout the ban could be fined between €100 (£81) and €300 (£245). Those caught drinking alcohol on the streets or having sex on the beach could also be prosecuted and beachwear will be banned from all but beachfront bars and restaurants.

“We want to ensure that Salou has a good image,” said the mayor, Pere Granados, explaining the move. Earlier this year locals complained about the drunken behaviour of British students who flocked to the resort for the Easter holidays. More than 5,000 British students aged between 18 and 23 crowded into the town 70 miles south of Barcelona to attend “Saloufest” an annual party organised by university sports clubs. Residents complained of “streets running with vomit” after scantily clad students spent their nights binge drinking and indulging in “anti-social behaviour”. Paramedics treated at least a dozen tourists for alcohol induced illnesses and several arrests were made, including one student accused of raping another.
The event caused an “anti-British backlash” that pitted Spanish families taking an Easter break by the sea with businesses reliant on tourism to survive.

The bikini ban signals a growing unease in Spain against those sunburnt northern European tourists who offend the local population by walking in the streets, dining in restaurants and even doing their shopping in little more than beachwear.

“It is not normal to go the market with your packet on show or round the tourist sites in a thong.” said Alberto del Hierro, councillor for Tourism in Salou. “One shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets or enter public buildings in unseemly apparel. It gives the city a low-class look.”

Earlier this year the regional capital Barcelona stopped short of introducing a similar ban but has embarked on a campaign urging tourists to dress appropriately when away from the beach. Posters showing a stick figure couple in swimming costumes with a red line across it have been plastered at sites across the city ahead of the summer season and hotels, bars and restaurants in the tourist areas have been asked to display the signs. “We want to make people understand that it’s an attitude that we don’t like,” said a spokesman for Barcelona city hall. “It’s not banned or punishable but it’s something we don’t think is polite.”

It might not be too long before a similar stance is taken in Tenerife and the other Canary Isles.

By Angela | Posted in Economy, General, Health, Holiday, Inspirational, Miscellaneous Articles, Property, Tenerife, Things to Do, Uncategorized, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Upturn in Spanish housing sales.

April 10, 2010 – 10:43 am
Upturn in Spanish property market

Upturn in Spanish property market

There was a small upturn in Spanish housing sales during the fourth quarter of last year, according to recent data released by the Spanish Ministry of Housing.

The increase was small, but enough for the Government to get excited about: “The transactions in the fourth quarter represent a rise of 4.1% with respect to the same period last year, this being the first year-on-year rise since the fourth quarter of 2006″.

In fact, if you just look at the ordinary housing market, the upturn was even better. Excluding social housing there were 116,664 house sales in Q4, a rise of 5.5%. Regrettably, that’s where the good news ends.

Take the year as a whole, there 413,112 transactions last year, a fall of 19% compared to the previous year, and a whopping 46% down on 2007. Even the Q4 was down 33% compared to 2 years ago.

Some regions did better than others. Looking at a selection of regions popular with holiday home buyers, the inland province of Teruel suffered the most in 2009, down 36%, followed by Las Palmas in The Canaries, down 32%. At the other end of the scale, Spain’s two big cities did the best, down just 1.7% in Madrid and 3.9% in Barcelona.

The small national upturn in Q4 that got the Ministry excited was almost entirely driven by big increases in Catalonia and Madrid (Barcelona +35%, Madrid +41%). Why the big surge in home sales in those two cities in the last quarter of 2009? I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it had more to do with banks shifting Spanish property around their balance sheets than families buying homes to live in.

By Angela | Posted in Economy, General, Holiday, Inspirational, Miscellaneous Articles, Property, Tenerife, Things to Do, Uncategorized, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Are Property discounts what they seem?

January 17, 2010 – 2:54 pm
Property discounts in Spain and Tenerife,are they all that they seem?

Property discounts in Spain and Tenerife,are they all that they seem?

There is no shortage of price promotions being touted, for example Metrovacesa’s December promotion of 1,500 homes with alleged discounts of up to 52%, and Banesto’s November promotion of 1,200 homes with alleged discounts of 40% (Metrovacesa is one of Spain’s biggest developers, and Banesto one of its biggest banks).

But when  real estate experts what they thought of the discounts, scepticism was the order of the day. “One has to interpret these discounts and ask what levels they are calculated fromDi,” said Ernesto Tarazona, Corporate Recovery Director at Knight Frank España.

After all, what good is a discount if it is applied to some unreal starting price? According to the experts consulted for article, in many cases today’s discounts are based on the demented valuations used at the height of the boom, arguably irrelevant in today’s straightened economic circumstances. Supporting this position is a recent report on the Spanish property market  stated that prices are still close to 30% over-valued, and the valuations used by banks and savings banks (cajas) “do not reflect true values and result in a general over-valuation of property.”

That said, you might still get lucky and get the odd bargain,  especially holiday homes on the coast.

Just look at the published accounts of developers for the third quarter of this year, says the article. Their gross margins are still positive, implying that they are selling above the crazy prices they paid for land in the boom, if they sell at all, that is.

The real question is why are prices so high, even with the alleged discounts? Because neither banks nor developers are prepared to sell at a loss whether in Tenerife or Barcelona, explains the article. New accounting rules from the Bank of Spain may change that, but for the time being the discounts on offer are not really discounts at all, at least not compared to today’s market prices.

For my money I would say that will all change in 2010, one way or another.

By Angela | Posted in Economy, General, Health, Holiday, Inspirational, Miscellaneous Articles, Property, Tenerife, Things to Do, Uncategorized, Weather | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)