Furniture pack wanted

I am sitting here contemplating closing on our mortgage. We received the 80% developer loan option which is good however we are still 30.000 euros short to close. The bank has valued our property at 175.000 for a 2 bedroom 1 bath.  If we close we have purchased our place with over 70.000 euros as a down payment.  We purchased the place for 235.000 but our total cost is 253.000 after lawyers, closing, VAT, etc etc. If our total property cost is 253.000 euros and the value is now 175.000 euros it doesn't look like a good deal to move forward. and throw another 30.000 euros to close.  I absolutely cannot find a proper valuation other than the bank. MRI and other rip off artists are still saying the properties are worth a little less than 235.000 but that is probably more lies from the company.

2 questions:

1) Has anyone had any luck negotiating with the developer to lower the price?  I am sure that there are many people that purchased in 2006 or later like we did and are in the same situation. I understand that MRI will throw in a free parking space but I would rather have the price lowered than receive a parking space. It would seem that MRI is throwing in a free parking space so you would think they are trying to get people to close on this thing because the developer would be in trouble if alot of people walk away. They were selling those parking spaces for 15.000-20.000 euros in 2006

2) Is there anyone else out there using this as a vacation rental? I am trying to figure out the true or best estimate of how many weeks per year this apartment could actually rent out. I know the winters are slow and quiet. I know the summer is busy. Do you thnk an accurate estimate would be 25% of the year? Does anyone know of a local real estate agent that is not connected to proindal or MRI?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

hi griff
              i think developers in spain shoud be going down the same road as in england,
you pay your shortfall to them in a time say 10 years. developer gets his money
and gives you time also you will not lose your money. in our town you  pay 75% of say
100k then 25 % in 10years this holds the price for developers as a empty apartment
is no good for anybody,at least you can move in and hope as i think it will in that time pick up.

Hi Griff,
Had a chat with a property managment guy in Almerimar who seems relible and he estimated that it can be rented about 15 weeks a year so I think that you can plan on 25%

Yair

From personal experience renting our 1 bed apartment in Almerimar for the last few years you can probably get good occupation in July and August and pick up a few weeks the rest of the year.  So 12-15 weeks sounds reasonable as long as the rental price is not too high.

A couple of things to bear in mind:

1. The credit crunch may mean that less people may be looking to go on overseas holidays in the coming year. Guess we will have to wait and see.

2. There is a lot of newish property in the Almerimar area so the number of people looking to rent out is growing so it is getting to be quite a competitive market now.

Another alternative that some people here are going for is long term rental. Say for a period of a year. Not too much money per month but at least it it something on a regular basis. If you are considering this route it might be worth contacting one of the local estate agents in Almerimar to ask about how much you might get and how much they would charge to do the property management on a long term rental (including making sure that the tennants pay the rent and the bills).

John

I too think that the guestimation of 15 weeks rental per year is a little on the optimistic side, especially given the current economic climate. Even this year there has been more choice of properties available and less customers, next year I think most businesses are expecting a similiar trend.
Personally, I think you'll be lucky to get into double figures initially. The one good factor is that once people have been to Almerimar they tend to keep coming back! I find the majority of rentals are repeat visitors and/or their families.
I hope I'm wrong for all our sakes.

Casa-care