Spain Real Estate News

MADRID, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Spanish property developers' debts with banks at the end of September were worth around a third of the country's gross domestic product, the Spanish Mortgage Association said on Monday.

A spokeswoman said data up to the end of the third quarter showed hard hit property developers owed 324 billion euros ($458 billion) as a property crisis continued to worsen.

Property promoters have faced a torrid time since a property bubble burst in 2007.

The mortgage association said many property developers could not pay back their debts and that, in turn, was affecting the credit rating of Spanish banks which have largely emerged unscathed from a severe recession and credit crisis.

Spanish house prices fell just over six percent last year but many analysts still say the market has further to fall and data may underestimate the true scale of the slide so far. [ID:nLDE60E0VV] (Reporting by Carlos Ruano; Writing by Nigel Davies; Editing by Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.7072 euro)

Source:  ForexYard

MADRID, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Spanish property developers' debts with banks at the end of September were worth around a third of the country's gross domestic product, the Spanish Mortgage Association said on Monday.

A spokeswoman said data up to the end of the third quarter showed hard hit property developers owed 324 billion euros ($458 billion) as a property crisis continued to worsen.

Property promoters have faced a torrid time since a property bubble burst in 2007.

The mortgage association said many property developers could not pay back their debts and that, in turn, was affecting the credit rating of Spanish banks which have largely emerged unscathed from a severe recession and credit crisis.

Spanish house prices fell just over six percent last year but many analysts still say the market has further to fall and data may underestimate the true scale of the slide so far. [ID:nLDE60E0VV] (Reporting by Carlos Ruano; Writing by Nigel Davies; Editing by Dan Lalor) ($1 = 0.7072 euro)

Residential tourism came to an almost complete standstill on the Costa del Sol in 2009.

The sale of second homes hit its peak in 2005 when some 12,400 homes were sold on the Costa worth 2.3 billion, but last year that was down to almost zero given the recession and the weakness of the pound against the Euro.

Read the full story...

Euro-MPs have demanded the immediate repeal of notorious Spanish land laws that continue to wreck the holiday-home dreams of Britons in the Valencia region.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, visiting the European Parliament in Strasbourg, was warned he could face a campaign to stop EU subsidies to Spain unless he intervenes to stop the confiscation of expatriate properties.

Thousands of holiday villas in Spain have even been demolished without compensation for their owners. In some cases, the authorities have charged the property owners for the installation of local services, even after they have lost their property.

About 15,000 mostly British, Belgian, German and French property owners lodged a formal petition with MEPs four years ago in desperation over a 1994 Valencia land and town planning law which triggered 20,000 compulsory purchases of land or property for "urban" development.

The law's aim was to ensure community development plans were not blocked by individual land-owners, but a loophole meant unscrupulous developers could reclassify rural land as urban without the owners' permission - effectively giving themselves compulsory purchase rights on foreign-owned homes at a fraction of the market value.

The European Court of Justice has already ruled the "land-grab" law illegal, but the European Commission says a replacement law - the Ley Urbanistica Valenciana - still breaches EU public procurement regulations and therefore fails to protect citizens' rights.

An inquiry by the European Parliament's Petitions Committee resulted in a report slamming Spanish planning loopholes which leave homeowners defenceless against developers seizing part or all of their property.

But the abuses are still going, and UKIP MEP for the South East Region, Marta Andreasen, seized on his visit to name four constituents she said faced financial ruin as a result of the property rules: Mr and Mrs Prior, and Ms Snook of Berkshire, and Mr Lohmann of Buckingham.

The Priors' Spanish home has been demolished, and Ms Snook and Mr Lohmann cannot live in their properties because of a lack of basic services and infrastructure.

She told Mr Zapatero, holding the EU Presidency for the next six months: "We want a solution now. We want the people to be able to live in the houses they bought. If this is not possible, they need to be granted fair compensation."

Source:  Google

This Tuesday, the day after some 700 people marched through the streets of Almería against the plans to demolish the homes of 8 British families in Albox, a ninth demolition order was received by a family who own a property in the municipality. The expat support group’, AUAN, said it affects a family in the La Aljambra area of Albox and is a case which is completely unconnected with the ‘Albox 8’.

In the latest news from AUAN, it’s understood that the British Ambassador to Spain has written to the Regional President of Andalucía, and the British Consul, Steve Jones, is planning to speak to the owners affected personally. The Izquierda Unida left-wing party has meanwhile arranged a meeting with the Andalucía Ombudsman, which takes place in Sevilla this Friday.

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Hundreds of expats stopped traffic in Spain yesterday as they protested against plans to bulldoze illegally built homes.

Around 800 British and Irish residents marched in Almeria after demolition orders were issued for eight expat-owned homes in the nearby town of Albox.

The owners are appealing but it is feared many more homes are under threat after Spanish regional authorities overruled planning permission.

Thousands of Britons have bought Spanish properties in good faith, only to find they were illegally built on protected land.

Albox home owner Nicola Veitch, of Jersey, said: 'We are devastated. We have every legal document under the sun for our property.'

On Monday, protesters bearing placards with slogans such as 'We've done nothing wrong' in English and Spanish took to the streets of the city of Almeria in a one-hour demonstration which halted traffic.

Coachloads of protesters travelled from Malaga and Valencia to support the march.

Expat anger has centred on the fact none of the affected home owners were ever informed of the risk to their properties, despite years of legal battles between municipal and regional authorities.

Maura Hillen, president of AUAN, a pressure group demanding an end to the insecurity of the Spanish property market, said: 'All eight of the affected home owners did everything required of them by Spanish law to ensure their properties were legal.

'And now the regional government wants to knock their houses down. It is time for a change in the law.

'This is not about paperwork anymore, it's about people's lives.

'These eight homes are all among the first to be built in the area and are therefore the first to come through the sausage machine of Spanish law.

'Nobody knows how many other demolition orders there could be waiting to be issued.'

The local town hall had issued building licences for the Albox properties, but they were nullified following court action by the regional government.

Also on the march were pensioners Len and Helen Prior, who hit the headlines in January 2008 when their £350,000 home in the nearby village of Vera was bulldozed.

Mr Prior joined the demo in a wheelchair, and said his health has been seriously affected by the stress of the losing his home.

Mrs Prior said that no sign of their promised compensation had been seen, explaining: 'My husband is getting sicker all the time and I am just exhausted.

'And now the regional government have done the same to other people. It's disgusting.'

The demolition orders in Albox were served days before Christmas.

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Property prices are starting to rise in some parts of Spain, according to a new report from one of the country’s largest savings banks.
The much awaited real estate recovery is underway in locations where there is no glut of property such as Cantabria, the Basque region, Asturias and La Rioja, says the report from Caixa Catalunya.
‘House and land prices have touched bottom in some cases. The adjustment is almost over, if not already,’ said Eduard Mendiluce, head of Caixa Catalunya’s property division Procam.
But there is no good news for those wanting to sell in popular areas such as the southern coast where there are many new and holiday homes that are not selling.

Indeed the report points out that there are between 660,000 and 1,040,000 homes on the market. This represents between 2.6% and 4.1% of the country’s housing stock. They expect the glut to fall slightly to between 640,000 and 1,070,000 in 2010, down to between 2.5% to 4.2% of housing stock.

The Caixa Catalunya report estimates that there will be an annual demand of 220,000 homes between now and 2015, almost half the level of 300,000 to 450,000 estimated by developers. At this rate it could take five years for the market to digest the glut.
But there is more good news for the luxury end of the Spanish market with buyers agent

Barbara Wood of The Property Finders, reporting that transactions in prime areas around Marbella were increasing as early as the first quarter of 2009. ‘Secondary areas lagged behind with the first green shoots only appearing about nine months later and the worst locations are still in total paralysis in 2010,’ she said.

Currently the typical person looking for property is a cash buyer, buying for their own use, with a medium to long-term perspective, not dependant on rental income and only interested in buying in prime locations, she explained.
‘And those that require a mortgage need a maximum of 50% relative to value. In other words, the right purchasing parameters are in place again. Spain’s property market managed very well without a mass market before the boom of the Noughties and will do so again, returning I hope to the stability and long-term growth that held for four decades but this time going for quality rather than quantity,’ she added.

She also points out the uselessness of official statistics. ‘The official Ministry of Housing figures, based on registered transaction prices and supposedly objective, are distorted by under declarations of the sale price in the past and only once we have had several years of full price declaration will this distortion be washed out of the system, while the oft-quoted TINSA stats are based on subjective market appraisals. Either way, they are unreliable and, therefore, are meaningless,’ she explained.
‘There is only way to get good information about what prices are doing in 2010 and that is to talk to someone who is actively involved in putting deals together right now. When I’m asked about price falls, if they have hit bottom or if they have further to go my reply is that it all depends and there is no one answer but it seems to me that there are two main factors influencing outcomes: location and how badly the seller wants to sell. I would say there is a shortage of top quality properties in the best locations at the right price level for 2010,’ added Wood.

Source: PropertyWire

Imagine the scene. You’re putting the finishing touches to the Christmas tree when there’s a knock at the door and a Spanish police officer cheerfully hands you an envelope. But it isn’t a Christmas card, rather a demolition order for your beloved Spanish retirement home.

That’s what happened on December 22 to John and Muriel Burns, a retired couple living in Albox, a rural town in Almeria in south-east Spain. Two years earlier another retired couple, Len and Helen Prior, were the first British expats to witness their Spanish home demolished without warning and without having been invited to be part of the legal processes. The Spanish supreme court in Madrid has now ruled in their favour but they are yet to receive any compensation.

It’s easy to dismiss such stories with a cynical grunt and a cliché about expats just not doing their homework but in this case it’s simply not true. In the same area, another seven British families were served with similar demolition notices for properties bought in all good faith but which are now deemed by the Andalucía regional government to be illegal. How can this happen?

Let’s look at the facts. It is estimated that British expats own more than 600,000 properties in Spain, the highest number situated in Andalucía and in the Valencia region. During the Spanish property boom back in the nineties, thousands of Brits jumped at the chance to buy new dream homes in the coastal and rural areas.

Property agents would bend over themselves to offer them an all round service coordinating between developer, local lawyer and council planning official to secure the deal. Trusting expats were often unaware of the frequent horse trading and corruption that snaked its way from estate agent to the very heart of the local council. As has now been discovered in Almeria, Valencia, Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca, the majority of these British expats were duped into believing they had legitimate building licences when they clearly did not.

In the case of the hapless eight in Almeria, their illegal new builds on rural protected land had been approved by the local Albox council which had even issued the appropriate building licences. The Andalucía regional government then revoked the licences as illegal and ordered the properties to be demolished.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and it does not just affect British expats. Thousands of illegal homes have been built in the last twenty years, 15,000 for example in Chiclana, Andalucía, many of which are owned by Spanish residents.

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AUAN,

PO Box104, Can Connect,

Avenida America 14,

04800 Albox.

Almeria. SPAIN

Email: info@almanzora-au.org

Website: www.almanzora-au.org

1st January 2010

The Rt Hon Chris Bryant MP,

Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Europe and Asia),

Foreign and Commonwealth Office,

King Charles Street,

London SW1A 2AH
 

Dear Mr Bryant,

Further to my correspondence of the 2nd of November 2009 I am writing to advise you that the plight of British homeowners in the Almanzora Valley has become more serious.

Contrary to assurances given to you by the Spanish Minister of State for Territorial Policy, Manual Chaves during your visit to Madrid in September 2009, I regret to inform you that eight orders have been issued to demolish the homes of British citizens living in Albox, Andalucia. Three families were served days before Christmas.

The facts are as follows:
Locations in Albox

La Horticheula (2), La Aljambra (2), Las Labores(1), Las Pocicas(1), Rambla de la Higuera (1), Saliente (1)
 

History

All of the houses are in possession of building licences granted by Albox Town Hall in 2002.
The building licences were impugned by the Junta de Andalucia in late 2002 due to the perceived risk of an urban nucleus arising in accordance with provincial planning rules.
The Court in Almeria nullified the licences in 2003.
In 2006 the Junta de Andalucia requires that the Town Hall takes steps to demolish the homes.
In 2007 the Almeria Court orders the town hall to comply within 10 days.
The Town Hall appeals against this order.
The Junta de Andalucia argued against this appeal.
In 2009 the high court in Granada dismisses the Town Halls appeal.
 
Facts

None of the homeowners were asked to participate in the proceedings.
Two of the homes were re-sold during the time period described above.
The majority do not have the funds to fight this.
Our advisors tell us that the proceedings are well advanced. This is a very serious situation.
The notices were served on the 22nd and 23rd of December.
 
 
 
Local Response

Initially our organisation concentrated on finding the victims and ensuring that they were properly informed and had access to legal advice. 

The AUANs’ lawyer has now commenced a time critical procedure to seek injunctions against these proceedings on the basis of lack of communication to the owners and other factors. He will be assisted in this task by an expert in Spanish human rights law. We are funding this activity and the mayor of Albox is co-operating having described the action as an ‘atrocity’.
Members of the AUAN, AULAN and their friends are gathering in an act of solidarity at the former home of Len and Helen Prior on the 9th of January, the second anniversary of their demolition. We will be joined by members of the AUN in Valencia and the newly formed National Federation of Organisations against urban abuse (FAUN). 

The AUAN is organising a protest march which will take place on Monday the 11th of January in the sub-regional capital, Almeria at mid-day with the full support of the organizations named above and others.

I beg that you address this matter with some urgency to your counterparts in the Spanish Government. 
 

Thank you for reading this letter,

Yours sincerely,
 

Maura Hillen     

President, AUAN

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH – THE VICTIMS TAKE TO THE STREETS
 
British ex-pats in the South of Spain are organising themselves to strongly oppose eight demolition orders recently issued to British residents in the town of Albox, Almeria.
 
We understand that none of the victims had been informed of the initial proceedings, and indeed the demolition notification has come as a big shock to them. We consider that they were deprived of a proper opportunity to defend the action, and that their human rights have been infringed. The Auan’s legal representatives, and the victim’s lawyers, are attempting to mount a legal challenge to the imminent demolitions, together with the support of the Mayor of Albox, who described the demolition orders as an ‘atrocity’.
 
Candlelight Vigil 9th January

The first of two planned actions will be the holding of a candlelight vigil on the 9th of Janurary in the ruins of the home of Len and Helen Prior, pensioners whose house was illegally demolished in nearly Vera two years ago on that date. This couple are still living in what was their former garage with no mains water, no electricity and absolutely no sign of any compensation for their loss. This event is the result of collaboration between two local groups (AUAN, AULAN) fighting urban corruption in the area and they will be joined by representatives from across Spain, including the newly formed National Federation of Organisations against urban abuse (FAUN).
 
Peaceful Protest March 11th January

The presentation, just before Christmas, of yet more demolition orders to unsuspecting homeowners in the area, again without any sign of compensation, has been the catalyst for the ex-pat community to take to the streets and make its voice heard. The AUAN (an organisation of homeowners in the area campaigning to obtain legal status for members’ property) is organising a march in Almeria town on the 11th of January to protest against this scandal and appeal to the authorities to respond to the just demands of those innocent people who invested in good faith and are now facing the possible loss of their home and life savings.
 
We are protesting against legal and planning uncertainty, against bad administration and corruption, against the failure to respect citizens’ human rights and against the failure of the administration to comply with European Parliament resolutions including the Auken report.
 
We cannot sit back and watch these demolitions and will do everything possible to avoid this injustice.
 
March Route

The starting point for the demonstration is the Puerta de Purchena at midday (12.00). The route is envisaged to follow the Ramble de Obispo Orbera to the Rambla de Almería (Avenida de Federico García Lorca). There will be a pause for speeches in the area of the Obelisk in calle Regina Regente and the marchers will return to Puerta de Purchena at apx 15.00.

We are not prepared to stand politely by as more unfortunate families are destroyed through no fault of their own. Recourse to further demolitions will only further damage Spain’s image abroad.  The authorities must be made to realise that to continue with these actions is not acceptable, is contrary to the rights of its citizens, attracts damaging and hostile publicity and is tantamount to economic suicide in this region.
 
Support
 
We ask all citizens and groups who wish to raise their voice and make their presence felt to turn up and support us.
 
For further information contact info@almanzora-au.org or call 646506943.