Economic situation in Spain

Hi Fly, Bob, Norman, Georgia & others. Definitely parky here in Guardamar. Possibly 8C now outside but cosy-ish indoors probably 20/22C as we have had our aircon-heating on since 8.30am. Trouble is the large open plan house, whilst great in hot weather, is too open & not able to be sectioned off. Think I'll buy sheepskin slippers to bring out.

Fly380,

Good grief, what has happened to you, have you become acclimitised????

Who can afford to have heating on at night? whatever next,

just put your hat on and stop complaining.

as to your lack of insulation - that's another thread.

if you have a magic wand and can whisk me and my JCB over there, I'll lay your cable for you.

I enjoyed your blue joke but you left out the digger driver who does the demolitions from the loop

I note that GB is telling us that the leaders haven't got it right yet

It is perhaps not understandable.

Regards

Norman

On Winter Fuel Allowance, the position is simple.  If you are resident in Spain (as in spend more than 183 days in Spain or are on the register) then you are not entitled to it.  If you claim it anyway then you are a benefit cheat/thief/scrounger.  End of.

You can report a benefit thief online at  https://secure.dwp.gov.uk/benefitfraud/ or you can call the benefit fraud hotline on 0800 854440

Sorry jek but not completely correct. To initially qualify you have to be resident in the UK on a specified date. One you have qualified you may still continue to receive it if you move to another EU country.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/Benefits/BenefitsInRetirement/DG_10018657?CID=furl-winterfuel

 In fact jek is totally wrong not just "not completely correct".  If you lived in UK in the October of the year you reached 60 you get the WFA for life.  Pointless referring to websites like that when they don't apply.  

Actually the website is about the WFA, not reporting abuses.  However, please read the line about being eligible when you move to another EEA country.

But, if you become a resident of another EU country BEFORE the qualifying date for WFA then you cannot legitimately claim it. That is why I think jek is 'not completely correct '.

** EDITED - Please respect terms of posting **

If you want the truth as to the Economic situation in Spain, then start by reading this:

Is Spain's Economy too big to bail out?

"Indeed the Lisbon Treaty declares that no country is allowed to get a bailout if their deficit is higher than three per cent of GDP. At the moment deficit levels in many EU countries are in double figures."

As I've stated in other posts, Spain isn't the only country in Europe that is in Economic trouble, and if Spain goes, so does the Euro, the Eurozone and all of Europe.

If people are concerned with the economic situation in Spain, even if they do not have any monetary ties with the country, then reading the Spanish press is a far better insight than that of the 'rags' in the UK!

Economic situation in Spain.

There has been so much hot air expended on this, we now no longer have to worry !!

Our old friend China is handing out Christmas presents

See here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12065731

oh yes, and at what cost????

old chinese saying  'yuck fou'  springs to mind

will it be America, Europe and then the World, who said communism was dead????

Watching this youtube clip will make you all feel better

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDej3riTOS4&feature=player_profilepage

http://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/costaluz/4702/legal-tip-415-law-5768-and-overexposure-of-banks-to-real-estate.aspx

Legal tip 415. Law 57/68 and overexposure of Banks to real estate
27 December 2010 @ 10:35

A new:

As you all know, Bank of Spain has requested Banks and saving banks to show their exposure to real estate risk by the beginning of 2011. Some banks have already informed the Stock Market National Commission on the impact of the real estate crisis to their accounts. Bancaja, for instance registered its leaflet by which it informs that its non profitable foreclosed assets by date 30rd of September 2010 is of 3596 millions euros. CAM declares 3200 millions of euros. Caja Madrid declares 1197 millions of euros

These figures come from flats, developments and land assigned to banks as a consequence of foreclosure procedures.

The Spanish financial sector has 70.000 millions of euros of estate either assigned or acquired, according to data of bank of Spain dated June 2010.

Two ideas:

- Most of this estate was conceived as second residences for northern europeans. Sunny homes. Why not to negotiate our debt with these assets?

- If Banks had been respectful to Law 57/68, this disasterous exposure would have not had this enormous dimenssions. Lack of diligence: dangerous business.

Anyhow, let´s keep moving ahead!

Maria

Uvas by Sir. Mo at Flickr.com

( You all may know that we, Spaniards eat grapes when the Year is coming)

I deal with both Spanish and English banks on a regular basis, yes the Spanish banks were not concerned about the mess that the Uk banks found themselves in perhpas verging on arrogance, however UK banks are no wmaking healthy profits due simply to the fact that they are basically all now owned by the british government, nothing is likely to imporve in the UK in the next 12 months or at least whislt we have a coalition government who are all to scared of potentially losing votes than gaining them to be able to make largescale changes. Spain will continue to suffer as the brits are by and large the greatest volume of investors in Spain both property and holiday wise.

Interestingly enough Tenerife have cut all prices etc etc probably feeling that some visitors spending less was better than no visitors!

Property prices in Spain now appear to offer realistic value for money however with british lenders having tightnened up massively in regard to their lending (now baqck to strcit income multiples, large deposits etc) few wil be able to remortgage to raise the deposit to purchase in Spain-a vicious circle all round that needs to be broken in order to achieve long term repair.

Dear All,

if Spanish prices are now realistic and if you cannot sell because there are no buyers what does realistic mean?

but assuming realism exists, what is there to repair?????????

surely no one is expecting the "investment" bubble to come back

that surely is not realism!!!!!!!!!!!

Regards

Norman

"realistic" in property terms means that the price demanded is the same as of lower than-a genuine valuation from an indepedent valuation company.

the fact that there may be no buyers does not mean that something is priced unrealistically, in markets as they are buyers would be looking for "distressed" sales whereby they can purchase something that is a genuine bargain. Once can always sell anything HOWEVER not necessarily at the price that they require.

i do not think that anyone is expecting "the bubble" to return however 10% of brits will still "retire" to Spain as they have done every year, if anyone is considering purchasing abroad form the UK then the most popular destinations will still be Spain, followed by France as "newer" destinations such as Turkey, Cyprus etc will still only account for a very small % of overseas sales.

"realism" was never mentioned in my posting which referred simply to "realistic value for money".

"what is to repair?"  a completely different scenario here, when the "bubble" was at its height the UK economy was strong, the £-euro was at around 1.45, inflation was at circa 1% so what is to reapir is actually the UK economy and only when that is fully "repaired" will there be any major uplift to countries that rely on brits tourism or purchasing.

Dear All,

sorry that is stretching my imagination too far for that to be realistic.

I doubt that it will be any comfort to those that cannot sell and have onerous mortgages around their necks.

As to "independant valuers" aren't they the same people who valued Spanish property to include all terraces as built meterage in liason with the rest of the "professional" crooks to boost the bubble and give large mortgages to everyone with a "pulse"?

I believe that "professional" criminals make up the planet's criminal fraternity to a level of 90%.

Did they not also provide inflated values to the many UK apartment  development complexes that have crashed.

As to the bubble itself, well you cannot stop the "bulls" pouncing anywhere and at any time, they rule the world.

Of course you cannot stop the "herd" copying the bulls and reserving multiple contracts whilst "experts" fuel the flames with their spin and optimism.

In short you cannot stop corruption whilst so many "professionals" live off of it.

Nevertheless it is hard to see the bubble ever returning to Spain if it is relying on the Uk for it.

As Techno will tell you the UK is in deep and serious trouble.

Regards

Norman

Norman Sands is on the point of driving me and many more off this forum. I was deleted because I called a member an idiot as he had called be a benifit cheat, that was ok for him to call me a cheat when he had his facts wrong. now king norman is still infering that I and many more are not sane because we live in Spain HOW LONG IS KING NORMAN GOING TO BE ALLOWED TO KEEP CALLING ME. I did lose money to a u.k. estate agent when I bought off plan and then went on to use another agent who lives out here in Spain and is an expat. Many bad apples are found in big barrels all over the world and through the ages.I nearly slipped then, but no I won't mention the king.

If one cared to view my posts they would notice that I have not posted for several months, it is my opinion that forums are arena,s that allow those that have experienced certain aspects (whether these be good or bad) in the hope that it helps others in similar positions.

Some will choose to use these to rant and rave and to condone many things this is where a "moderator" comes into play.

To choose to abstain sadly is not going to aid those who truly seek help or advice. When reading posts in it reasonably easy to find out which "posters" apply and use logic and rationale in their views.