Place in the sun Live, Earls Court March 30th-April 1st. 2012

 Just out of Interest.

I have a Corner stand booked (B21) for the show this year.

If you are coming down,pop along and say hello..........

.http://www.aplaceinthesun.com/exhibition/visitorinfo.aspx

I was surprised to see tickets are £15, whereas most UK property shows are free!

Also charging £150 for a "for sale by owner ad" which would be fine if it were no sale no fee but I'll be surprised if there are droves of takers for it..

What will be your angle Georgia? (no need to comment if it compromises your game plan in any way!)

Good luck with it anyway..

 Hi Growler,

I was a little suprised that the entrance fee was £15 but i suppose it is renowned to be the largest and best show of it's kind.

As for the Angle (although that always sounds a little seedy to me) we are basically going to show "price point".

I don't think a lot of prospective buyers realise that you can buy apartments from 40,000€ now and with that nice location and qualities to boot.

It's always good to go to the UK and chat to the general public to get their perspective on Spain,we do sometimes tend to get a bit one sided view on here and other forums.

Although these shows are quite expensive for us to do,we only do one a year and as enquiries are up again this year i hope that translates to interest at the show.

We don't sell off plan or push new developments so what you will see on the wall is actually for sale,built,lived in and with all paperwork...hopefully this way we will be a little different to the standard exhibitor.

Surely georgia as an exhibitor you should be able to get some freebie tickets

Let us know how it goes.  Like you say it's good to get the perspective of people's opinions about Spain, especially those that are only just starting to look now.

Best of luck and hope it's really good for you.

Justin

If you buy the March edition of a place in the sun magazine (£3:50) it contains a  complimentary ticket that admits two people.

 Hi Justin,yes we do get freebies.....they are currently on sale in our office at £16 each......

Joking aside.i think it will be worth every penny to us.

There are not that many exhibitors from Spain this year so hopefully we will have a good through put on the stand.

If the Spanish Property RoadShow in October was anything to go by there will not be many visitors. Apart from the party of us who went to confront the Spanish housing minster and Spanish Ambassador the hall was empty.

Exhibitors were stood talking to each other and the cafe on the concourse was half empty.

Still, good luck!

 From what i hear Sandra,tickets Sales have been quite good and with all due respect to the previous show you mentioned, this is a different kettle of fish all together.

I am looking forward to a night out in London or two as much as the show......

All the paperwork? That's not enough security in Spain I'm afraid.

 Tell that to the Priors and all those who have had their properties RETROSPECTIVELY deemed illegal or blighted by RETROSPECTIVE Ley de Costa Law, and now find their properties included in a buffer zone, unable to sell and when they die it goes into State Ownership!!

 Tell that to those who have been fighting for their legal rights in Spain for YEARS only to find that INCONSISTENT judicial rulings in differing parts of the country now result in some purchasers being denied their rights to cancel the contract, as developers renege on promised facilities within marketing literature.

Tell that to all those who have been subjected and compromised by lack of enforcement of EXISTING laws as they are subjected to costly and lengthy legal fights for justice, with all too many stuck in a system bereft of adequate time constraints and effective complaint procedures.

And this is just a few of the realities.

Talk about having to deal with a moving target isn’t in it…… where will the next retrospective action occur I wonder, and where will the next shift of legal responsibility and unaccountability in Spain rear its ugly head?

And where are those within the real estate professions who had the opportunity to shout out long and hard about these ongoing abusive practices and rally support for effective reform and accountability from within their professional organisations, to establish such workable mechanisms as credible kite marks, and take action against those who bring their professions into disrepute???? Sadly they are all conspicuous by their absence, and continue to ignore the need for proactive measures to clean up their act as they shift around the uncomfortable truths, failing to recognise the route cause of the problems.

Rhetoric is easy……. Its adequate reform and accountability, introduction of ethical practice and a workable and fair system of justice that is required in Spain before anyone can say hand on heart that it is safe to purchase in Spain. 

I wonder if good professionals might use this opportunity in London to network, to address and resolve these major issues with their fellow professionals?

Until such time as they do I’m sorry to say it’s still BUYER BEWARE for those who know the facts and have witnessed first hand how corrupt practice in Spain still sadly bears down hard on innocent purchasers.

Exactly Ads.

I could not have put it better myself.

Just to add, that if any networking could have been done it was in October. There was nothing for the Exhibitors to do but wander from stand to stand and  complain to each other at the lack of visitors. 

I am still awaiting contact from someone from Banco Pastor to contact me as they promised. That is all they have promises and lies until, they hope, you will eventually give up.

NEVER!

 I guess that thread has gone down the usual route then?!

Don't think i will bother in future............

Georgia,

Please keep informing us of events in Spain !!

I cannot understand the mentality and bitterness from ads and sandra to a genuine topic and statement about  the fact that you will have a stand at  the ' a place in the sun' show.

Many people have invested in Spain and been very happy with their property, sadly their are crooks in all areas of life and it is not nice for those that have lost out but to hijack your thread is ridiculous, I will gladly be at the show and visit your stand.

I agree, fair play to you Georgia for hanging in there. Sox hit the nail on the head with the word "bitterness" as it's all too common for the doom-mongers to raise a flag at every opportunity.

Things (economically) will recover to a degree I'm sure although are unlikely to be the same for a very long time. Sometimes it's healthier to swim against the tide with an "every cloud has a silver lining" attitude but when you do so you'll usually be greeted by lots of people trying to drag you down with negativity.

Back to the thread, I suspect the show organisers may have shot themselves in the foot charging £15 entrance at a time when the majority of "shoppers" may be thinking "what's in it for me?" when they consider whether to attend or not.

Best of luck anyway Georgia (I mean that sincerely) and hopefully you'll derive some benefit from it either directly or indirectly.

This is nothing to do with bitterness......it's about gaining a solution to everyone's advantage. Why is that so wrong?

I do not wish Georgia harm in any way and take exception to that inference, but I did hope that good professionals within the real estate industry might have used this opportunity to come together and establish workable solutions to a continuing problem of uncivilised retrospective action and lack of law enforcement in Spain that impacts so negatively on the industry as a whole.

Is it so hard to organise yourselves as a powerful lobby group to defend clients against what is an uncivilised and unjust system? Why do you always react so defensively when this could be a positive way forward?

Why are you so fearful of striving for better regulation and accountability within your own industry and for a system of justice that will work to everyone's advantage in the longer term?

This message was last edited by ads on 16/03/2012.

ads, I don't think anyone is against justice for those that have been wronged, but this wasn't the thread for those comments to be made.  Over the years this website has provided a voice and a massive amount of information about all topics relating to property in Spain, both good and bad, nothing is hidden.

To be fair, georgia was just telling us about his stand at the show and inviting people to come along and say hi.

I think it's important to respect threads that people start and new threads should be started on separate topics.

There is a time and a place for everything and this really wasn't the place to do it.

Justin

OK Justin, but I was responding to the reference on paperwork made within this thread, which implied that purchasers were safe, when in reality given that retrospective action is taking place in Spain, which is totally against the interests and protection of future clients, it needed to be clarified.

 Ads,

It was clarified,all paperwork means fully legal,considering i have never sold an illegal property anywhere in 23 years, i consider that along with the fact that any solicitor can check any property i hold fully.

If you can't get any joy out of your MEP's for your cases and they have openly declared its a lost cause then how do you expect me and a few friends chatting at an exhibition to make a diffrence, i feel for your predicament also,but please let others that haven't suffered be free to discuss more happier subjects without turning every thread into the same subject.

Maybe i could say that you should support me for doing things right as well as me supporting your cause??

You are in danger of becoming the forum equivalent of the local Bar room Drunk that corners anyone who will listen with his tale of woe.

Sox and Growler,

Thanks for your support and it would be great to meet anyone that has the time to come along and Thanks Justing for bringing some levity.

Right.........Change of subject (or back to topic)

Just had the list of Extras price list from Earls Court 280 Quid for internet connection......they have obviously forgot they are dealing with poor Estate Agents........

There are many bitter people on here, I have had a disappointing experiece with buying in Spain, but i'm not in the bitter thing. I bought a place here for the second time and are very happy with it.

Good luck at the show Georgia, there are far more happy buyers here in Spain than bitter ones

Just wanted to add my best wishes to you Georgia at Earls Court! 

Retrospective changes means after the event Georgia,

I think there's some misunderstanding here, as many have had their properties declared illegal or blighted after they too purchased with all the legal documentation in place, and so long as there is no adequate legal compensation structure in place to protect against this scenario in Spain, the warning and educative process sadly has to remain.

Since you bring this subject up Georgia I will respond. The reason MP's MEP's have not come to petitioner’s defence to date is because of the following, and I quote from the office of the Vice President of the European Commission

"Under the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Commission has no general powers to intervene in individual cases of inefficiency of the judicial system or in the area of fundamental rights. It can do so only if an issue of European Union law is involved. According to Article 51(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the provisions of the Charter are addressed to the Member States only when they are implementing Union law. The Commission can only intervene if the matter concerns the implementation of Union law and that national civil procedure which is applicable to such a case is not governed by EU law but by domestic law...... Furthermore, if you think that you are victim of a violation of your fundamental rights, this question should be examined by national courts and, after having exhausted domestic legal remedies, by the European Court of Human Rights itself."

So you see the reality is that innocent purchasers have to exhaust the domestic legal route before they can resort to the Court of Human Rights. And exhausting this domestic route in Spain takes YEARS due to indefinite delays, with no time constraints in place to ensure successful judicial rulings are enforced.

We should not be at loggerheads here Georgia, we should all be working towards a common aim to rid the system of these injustices and rallying for reform, especially as these retrospective actions are doing great harm to the real estate industry, but I can see that you sadly do not consider this as part of your remit now and I wish you well in your business aspirations.