Upturn in Spanish property sales?

my mate socrates says it all the time

Woodbug I am not talking about a 50k lodge but one of the 2nd hand caravans where many of the comments regardimg the sales tractices of Park are all over the forums

They charge say 20k and then if and when you want to sell you have to sell to them at a knock down price

Well I wouldn't argue Duncam McG - I reckon Socrates was one of the best attacking midfielders that Brazil ever had -clearly a man of many talents.

Well off topic now acer....

Love Socrates' wikipedia entry 'Sócrates was a Brazilian footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. His doctorate in medicine and his political awareness earned him the nickname "Doctor Socrates"'

Sadly, not my mate Socrates who is a bit of a philosopher, but not an ancient one.

The value of the pound is having a positive effect on house sales.  There are buyers from northern Europe (Dutch, Germans and Belgians (!)) buying off Brits as Brits are able to offer an even better price as they are getting more £'s  with the reduction in the exchange rate.

In Murcia there are lots of Dutch buyers, but I've been told by a local estate agent that there are also now Belgians looking to buy here!  (possibly they're thinking that there will be more work here shortly, than in Brussels?).

To inspectahome

Dont know where you are looking in the U.K. But in the North West living in a Park Home is an inexpensive way to live. For instance double  Park home in the Ribble Valley, full residential status, Council Tax Band A, sire fees £452.00 a quarter.

Some of the comments you have made Acer are bank on but actually the Belgians have been buying for many years, if you look at the new area around Lo Pagan 70% of properties sold are to Beligians, Millpalmerous the same

Unfortunately for brits going back the effect of Brexit has seen the prices of properties being sold reducing, if you work it out they now will gey around 16% more on the conversion compared to a year ago, UK buyesr paying 16% more now

I actually been busier recently selling UK investment properties to expat property owners in Spain as the mortgage business is back in Spain, fixed rate mortgages now available for 1.9% so , they are taking mortgages on the spanish home and buying tennanted UK flats, showing yields of between 8% - 21%, iin fact with the Euro rate €165k will get an investor 3 UK investment properties

All I can say is we just did a 10 week tour from Barcelona down to Valencia, then Javea and then Marbella.  We looked at 30 villas. A couple were very nice and massively off their peak but unfortunately nothing was just right for us.  I know none have sold yet as  l am monitoring the situation.  One came back and offered me a €100,000 further discount as he was trying to sell his father's house by a deadline but it wasn't quite right for us.  I have to say that it costs 13% to buy before obvious removal costs so even if prices tick up by 2% a year it'll be the long term to break even. While so many blue chip bonds are still offering more than this, the rental option still makes more fiscal, if not emotional sense.

Inspectahome.  Where are these properties in UK that return 21%?  I was in the property business since 1976 and only remember a short period of time when those returns were possible to landlords with respectable properties.  Of course there have always been exploitative landlords throughout history and there must be thousands of Multiple Occupancy properties returning huge amounts but I don't know of any legitimate ones. Please let me know, my son will wing a cheque your way for half a dozen houses if they're any good (he's just sold a portfolio of apartments thank God!).

I won't include details on the forum but if anybody would like to PM me I will be happy to provide information, this particular investment is in Leeds, and yield is actually 21.36% with investments starting at £85k and they are NOT multiple occupancy properties

In respect to your grand tour in my view you approached in the wrong way, the nost important staring point should be location, location, location, first decide where you want to be, then you cam PROPERLY focus on the property requirement, typically in an area it is then down to the agents local knowledge, 30%-40% of available properties are not even advertised on websites or available to your avegage British agent

If somebody came to me and said I want to see as many villas as possible I owuld not even entertain them and the one with 100k extra discount priced wrongly to start and the seller would have lost all credibility

I hate to be pedantic, but...."tennanted UK flats, showing yields of between 8% - 21%, in fact with the Euro rate €165k will get an investor 3 UK investment properties"......"yield is actually 21.36% with investments starting at £85k"  85k x 3 = 255k - I'll take that in £ for my €165K right now, thank you very much!! 

As for the old adage "Location, Location, Location", well location is certainly a factor in as much as your part of Spain is obviously experiencing something very different from mine. Every agent I speak to here tells me the same thing. Forget 100k discounts, nobody is spending more than 100k. The only consideration for buyers here seems to be "Cheap, cheap, cheap" with absolutely no consideration given to location, quality, condition etc. If it's over 100k, forget it. 

Inspectahome.  I've previously lived in Spain and that's why I chose the 4 places to view properties and took my time too. I didn't just fly into Europe and start looking!

For background information I also owned and sold out of two estate agencies in the UK as well as a well respected property company in Melbourne. The properties I looked at were all priced correctly in the current market ...priced competitively with other similar properties. What I'm pointing out is that despite the press and agents telling potential purchasers that the market is buoyant it's not. I'm looking for a property in the 7-800k range and additionally I agreed to make a shortlist of apartments in the 250k range for a relative. I literally told him to forget buying an apartment because of 100 reasons and he now agrees.  As for the villas I still believe if you want a permanent home then buying is not a bad idea...but if you could rent there first then that's my advice.  I bought a pair of cottages in the Channel Islands but first rented one for a week, then extended another week.  Then I rented another I liked the look of then came back a couple of weeks later and rented again.  I was so glad I did this as I absolutely love the place. Properties are big investments and shouldn't be rushed into. Despite agents telling you me they had someone very interested in each of the properties I looked at none have yet sold.

I would always advise some one to rent for a period of time before they buy ,l have a villa on Camposol and have notice over the 10 years of ownership a increasing number of buyer's selling up within 6 month's of ownership ,this is not  just a Camposol thing ,l have good friends in 3 other parts of Spain and this happens in their locations as well,although this is good for Estate agent's it is not good from a  selling point of view because you are going to loose a large amount of money by doing so .Hence the property sales being buoyant for the Estate agent's.

Windtaker I simply cannot believe that - I've never heard of anyone doing so. 

It means you're losing 20% to 30% plus immediately on the purchase price in terms of tax, conveyancing costs, agents fees and other costs - perhaps it happens very very occasionally, but not in large numbers.  If people were that stupid they wouldn't have the money in the first place!

Acer I don't know what part of Spain you are in ,obviously not a big expatriate community like Camposol and the likes but l can assure you it happens regularly ,l know off at least 5 in the las 3 years that have bought and put their property up for sale with in 6 months for reasons unknown to me .Although 6 months of ownership is extreme ,the average is approximately 2 years to buy and put up for sale ,you have noticed l said put up for sale as in some cases it takes many year's to sell on.

Acer, if you knew the Camposol urbanisation, then you would believe Windtalker when he mentions people wanting to sell after 6 months of ownership. 

Floela as l said in my previous post it is happens all over Spain in large expatriate area's   not just Camposol    Even yours as you seem to know everything about everywhere in Spain. You would know this but from what I can see it is    ,usualy by the Holiday home owners and not so much the sold evething I own brigade  and move to Spain,  that cannot afford to sell up at a large loss  but of coarse you already know that as well.

Hi Floella,

I know Camposol and have friends there - I simply don't believe Windtaker's comment.

I am involved with two communities not far away and no-one has bought and tried to sell within a short period.  Virtyally all the people I know absolutely love the place.  Mazarron is fabulous - what Windtaker says makes no sense to me.

Hi Acer I can and would prove this to you l have owned a place on Camposol for 10 years  all be it a holiday home   and have friends in 3 other large expat communities in other part of Spain and it happens their aswell ,but I will not give my personal details out on EOS or any other expat forum simply because of the head cases that  haunt  these forums be warned do not give any personal details out on any forum especially not a PM  these forums are full of head Banger's that threaten to come round your house and do you harm if you do not agree with them ,I will not name any names on this open forum but l have passed the info on to the moderators and they have dealt with them .If it happens again l will cut and past the threats and name and shame ,EOS and other forums is supposed to be a bit of harmless fun  sham on the head Banger's

What is the facination with property that the British appear to be infected with?  I know people who love attending open viewings in the UK when they have no intention of buying, and more often than not cannot afford most of the properties that they view. Owning a 'pad' in Spain is a badge of honour to many, what is so clever about re-mortgaging their UK home to buy an inland concrete box, miles from anywhere, that they rarely visit, can't rent out and can't sell for anywhere near what they paid for it, is a complete mystery to me?