Bad news in Spain!

I thought there was a new law in recent years where new builds had to have solar powered water heaters?  It might have just been in our province of Murcia, but our developer definitely had to add them to our houses when they missed the contract completion date by 2 years and fell within the new regulations they hadn't planned or provided for !

 Turkey is no different to anywhere else, some have problems, some don't.  The beach locations where most British people go to buy holiday homes are great, but the homes are not built for bad weather.  Turkish people call them summer houses and only use them in the summer.  Our house in Turkey was a in a beautiful location opposite a fabulous beach which overlooked the Greek island of Samos - just heavenly.   It was a new build. 

Within one year of ownership terraces, walls and ceilings had to be repaired as it couldn't withstand the weather (no sign of builder of course).  Within 2 years we had to pay many thousands for huge remedial work.  Unknown to us, none of the sewage pipes under the house had been connected to the main sewage drains.  Like many areas of Spain, that part of Turkey is a huge earhquake zone, and houses have to be built to withstand them.  They have concrete cavities beneath the house, like many in Spain.  Ours had been filling with sewage for years, until it was finally came into the house.  Within 3 years it was sold!   Spain really isn't that different. 

Looks like bad news for some in Turkey and Spain then.

Bobaol, no I didn't mean to suggest that I knew about the solar energy scenario in Spain, it was more of a query to be honest. I haven't seen anything like as many properties with solar panels in place in the Costa Del Sol as I did in Turkey where it appeared the norm, so that again was a query relating to an observation within the construction industry. Nothing more. Having said all of this I wonder if it is cost effective to follow this route but I just thought it might provide some means of employment in Spain alongside environmental benefits, that's all. Likewise with useful infrastructure projects and upgrades to properties such as your guttering request, but there again there isn't any point to that if there isn't the infrastructure to take away water that comes from the gutters as it's   just moving one problem area to another. Jane's point is interesting- I wonder if that directive is just in the Murcia region?

The politicians comment was meant to be across the board and was not aimed just at Spain although to back up the problem in Spain I read today "It is clear that some of the cash that helped propel Spain into the ranks of the world’s richer nations has been misspent. That has helped deepen German and British doubts, already aroused by the financial crisis and the bail-out for Greece, about the wisdom of being so generous towards the southern members of the EU. ".

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I think that reporter's a master of the understatement?

Oh dear, just looked at the latest posting in Good News and now think my suggestion to encourage employment in Spain might be perceived as a "non job".

It was reported on chat sites that all new houses in Spain had to have solar panels for water heating etc as from 2008 (I think), however this appears to be antoher one of those rumour thingys as haven't seen new builds with them fitted as a matter of course.  Another "however" is that the government is giving grants up to 35% to have them installed.  Have absolutely no idea of how much these systems would cost or whether you would recoup your money but, as fuel prices are constantly on the rise, it might be worth looking into.  This, however, is far from new technology.  I remember one of our married quarter blocks in Cyprus being fitted with them back in 1982 as an experiment.  The occupants were told to leave the hot water on all the time rather than putting it on a timer so that costs could be compared.  ISTR the bills at the end of the quarter were about triple what they normally were but that was probably the way the Cypriot workers had wired them up.  Don't know what the final outcome of that was.

And, although my house has had no adverse problems throughout the (what we shall have to learn to call it) the rainy season, some houses with open porches have had a lot of damage, especially to the front doors.  When I had a quick look (nosey devil that I am) the damp courses (yep, they had been fitted) only comes up to the level of the porch so all the rain pouring in has caused damp on the internal walls above the damp course.  Ah, well.  I believe the owners of the houses are taking legal advice as the builders say it is not their problem.  Mind you, the streets outside were totally awash with water in the last rains, so much so that one of our neighbours was a bit concerned and check the interior of a lot of the houses but, thankfully, no damage or leaks.

At least in Cyprus they were a bit more prepared and there are monsoon drains everywhere to take away the excess.  Or there were until the building malaise took over there just as it did on the Costas.  The older areas had the monsoon drains but the newer builds hadn't bothered.  Most of the flats and houses in Cyprus used to have flat roofs so that didn't help.  You will also see building iron and reinforcement frames sticking out the top as they could then be declared unfinished (in case the owner wanted to build on top when his daughter got married for a dowry) and a lower tax was paid on the building.  Don't know if that's still the case as I haven't been there for over 20 years.

That's an informative  post Bobaol....... thanks. Like the sound of monsoon drains.

p.s. thought I need to add however that it might not be a rumour thingy, more that the Spanish developers were bucking the rules.

It looks like Spanish councils are in big financial trouble.  More here.  I guess this means higher IBI bills to pay for the mess?

Looks like unemployment is on the rise again in Spain, topping 4 million.

According to Moody's:

"it will take several years for Spain’s economy to recover from the collapse of its real estate boom, predicting gross domestic product will expand an average of “slightly above” 1 percent between 2010 and 2014.

Even if GDP is only going to expand at just over 1%, then that's not enough to create jobs, and is likely to lead to more unemployment. 

Will unemployment  eventually touch 25% by 2014?