Buying opportunities in Tenerife and Spain

December 13, 2011 – 12:10 pm

Property bargains abound in Tenerife and Spain

The recent credit crisis has opened up some superb buying opportunities for buyers seeking a second home in Spain. While prices have fallen typically 25% from their peak.

For example, the Polaris World resorts were made famous by endless TV adverts featuring Jack Nicklaus before the recession hit, now these superb, complete golf resorts have a small proportion of unsold properties which the banks are keen to sell.

Buyers are advised to move quickly as much of the stock made available by the banks has sold in the last twelve months. Prime position property is becoming more difficult to find for buyers and the future of such cut price deals and mortgages remains uncertain with the government bailout of CAM about to result in a sale to a stronger banking group in Spain.

Villa Cashback MD Paul Williams remains cautious about continuing half price deals. “At this stage we don’t know what form a future CAM bank will take and what the pricing strategy of the new banking group will be. What we do know is that a weak CAM bank has so far undercut the stronger banks in pricing their property. Now it’s about to be bought by a stronger institution there’s no guarantee of the property giveaway continuing.”

Brand new apartments are available on resorts such as Hacienda Riquelme where front line golf apartments are available at less than half their original prices. Mortgages of up to 90% are available for overseas buyers. The resort has proved extremely popular with UK and northern European buyers this year.

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3.4 Million Spanish homes are empty.

December 2, 2011 – 11:08 am

Too many empty homes in Spain

3.4 million Spanish homes lie empty, 13pc of the total housing stock  according to a new report from IDC. There are 676,000 empty homes in Barcelona and Madrid alone. Of the two, Barcelona has the biggest problem.

This is a “worrying situation with very negative consequences, principally a huge cost,” explains Carlos Parra, Director of IDC, quoted in the Spanish press. The empty homes are neither for sale nor for rent.

At the same time, tens of thousands of homes are being repossessed, and millions of young adults can’t afford their own home.

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

The housing market slumped 32% in April.

June 15, 2011 – 9:42 am

April was the worst month for the Spanish property market since the crisis began, but the picture isn’t so bad over 12 months. Excluding social housing there were just 20,997 home sales in April, 32pc down in a year and 25pc down in a month, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics.

Compared to April 2007 the market has shrunk 62pc by volume and more than 70pc by value. No segment was spared. New-build sales fell 32pc YOY to 11,534, and resales fell 27pc to 12,566.

Figures from the Ministry of Public Works (Fomento) for the first quarter paint a similar picture. There were just 74,540 home sales in Q1, 50pc down on previous quarter and 30pc down on same time last year, according to figures The fall between December to January was dramatic – down 75pc.

But the picture looks much better on a 12 month basis, with sales down just 1.6pc to 458,748 transactions over 12-months to the end of March. There is an obvious explanation for the drop in sales in Q1 – the elimination of mortgage tax relief that brought forward sales into last quarter of 2010. This is likely to distort the market for at least the first 4 months of the year

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

Spanish property owners see mortgage repayments rise

September 14, 2010 – 4:26 pm

Mortgages repayments in Tenerife on the rise

Spanish homeowners are likely to see their mortgage payments rise over the coming months after the nation’s benchmark rate for loans, Euribor, rose 1.42 per cent in August, which could lead to more distressed properties coming to the market.

The rise marked the first increase in loan rates since October 2008 and is likely to squeeze Spanish homeowners further as almost nine out of every ten new Spanish mortgages are floating rate, reports Business Week.

Repossession orders in the nation already jumped to 27,621 in the first quarter, from 23,433 a year earlier and this upward trend is likely to continue.”You can’t expect Euribor to stay at the current low levels for ever and what really matters now is the rate of ascent,” Raj Badiani, an economist at IHS Global Insight in London, told the news provider.

The troubled real estate market in Spain and the Canary Islands could provide an opportunity for property investors hoping to find a home in Tenerife or find propertyfor rent or sale in Tenerife or the Canary Islands for a bargain price.

From the highly interesting Property Showrooms site

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

Rents on the rise for landlords

September 3, 2010 – 4:11 pm
Rental income on the increase for landlords in Tenerife and the Canary Isles

Rental income on the increase for landlords in Tenerife and the Canary Isles

Rents are rising and prices are falling, so yields are improving for landlords. Average rental prices rose by 1% in July compared to last year, show the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE). This is surprising given the glut of property for sale and rent on the market.

Over 6 months annualised rental prices have gone up by between 0.9% and 1.2% per month, whilst house prices have gone down between 4% and 5%, meaning that rental yields are improving. Some good news at least for beleaguered property investors.

But consumer price inflation has risen by 1.9% in the same period, so although yields are rising, rental income in real terms is actually falling.

Rents went up the most in the Balearics  and Canary Isles (+1.5%), and down the most in Navarre (- 0.5%).

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

No major turnaround in property market

January 4, 2010 – 2:08 pm
No major upturn in the property market on mainland Spain, whilst Tenerife and the Canary Islands show an improvement

No major upturn in the property market on mainland Spain, whilst Tenerife and the Canary Islands show an improvement

There has been no major turn around in the health of the property market in mainland Spain but no lurch downwards either. Homes sale in September, not including social housing, stood at 33,276, up 7.4% on the previous month, but down 19% on the same month last year. Compared to 2 years ago, sales in September were down 42%, which just shows how much the market has shrunk since the boom.

The figures show that, though the market is significantly smaller than it was, it is not getting any smaller. It appears to be bumping along a floor of around 30,000 sales per month.  Monthly sales have come down compared to 2007 and 2008.  The market is still depressed in volume terms, but not getting worse the islands, such as Tenerife appear to be improving in fact.

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