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Category Archives: Spanish property

Last Working Day before CEE – Certificado de Eficiencia Energética /EEC/EPC Day

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1st June tomorrow, when according to the official national bulletin regulations, all properties going to a notary for sale or lease must have an energy efficiency certificate.

However, to say that the situation is unclear as a major understatement! I have been trying to keep my finger on the pulse of this and not only is the pulse weak, the vein seems to move! I have also received considerable correspondence from others with various opinions. I therefore summarise my understanding of the current situation as follows. Continue reading →

Dissolution of joint ownership of property in Spain

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Dissolution- Survey Spain

If you own a property in Spain with a spouse, relative or friend and wish to transfer or sell the share to the joint owner or take full legal title to the property then read on.

Many problems can arise post completion of a purchase of a property in Spain such as divorce, disputes between the joint owners or potential heirs as a result of an inheritance proceeding or even dissolution of a business relationship and Spanish law is on hand to assist in these situations. Continue reading →

Energy Certificates are Now Required

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The CEE – Certificado de Eficiencia Energética – regulation was finally published on Saturday and came into effect on Monday (15th April 2013). As from the 1st of June 2013, no property transfer, by sale or lease, will be registered by a Notary without a CEE. This results from an EU regulation that’s been in effect from 2002 and the equivalent CEE’s have been required for many years in other countries. New property in Spain has had to have the CEE since 2008 and the new regulation brings that requirement to resale properties.

The property owner is obliged to get the certificate by instructing a suitably qualified property professional. They then inspect the property; note the many relevant points of location, construction and condition; enter the information into a highly complex computer formula; and the bar chart ‘banding’ of the property will be produced. This is then submitted to the appropriate Comunidad’s office (eg Junta de Andalucia or Murcia or Valencia) for ratifying and then the CEE is issued to the owner. Continue reading →

Energy Certificates and their importance

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Energy Certificates and their importanceWhilst Spain may be behind UK in introducing the requirement for Energy Certificates for property, it gives us to benefit from their experience. Here is a recent article that was aired on the RICS Chartered Surveyor’s website. Author is a specialist in Energy Performance Certificates in England.

The 10 years from 2008 to 2018 are seeing a profound transformation of the regulations relating to energy efficiency and, importantly, their impact on properties. Sam Parkes explains: Continue reading →

CEE – Certificado de Eficiencia Energética

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Example of energy efficiency certificate SpainRead the title well, because it’s going to become very familiar over the next few months. On Friday, 5 April, the Royal decree was signed giving authority to the requirement for all property in Spain to have an energy efficiency rating certificate that will last for 10 years assuming no changes are made to the building. For the details, we now wait for the final text to be published in the BOE (Official State Bulletin). As the certification is to be regulated by each Comunidad throughout Spain, there are bound to be some variations. Continue reading →

Where is the market now?

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Q. and A. from a client:

Q. Thank you for the survey, we found this an excellent document with very helpful information. You seem to be extremely busy at present – in your view would you say the property market in Costa del Sol has levelled pricewise and the demand has increased for sensibly priced property? Also is there a particular type of property that you find is selling more at the moment? Continue reading →

Damp isn’t always what it seems!

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Spanish rustic propertyImagine you’re looking for a property; see one on the internet; like the look of it – the size, location, specs … even the price. At this point you’re quite excited, so you get in touch with the agent and arrange a viewing. On the appointed day you set eyes on the home ‘in the flesh’ so to speak, and first impressions are favourable, very favourable.

You look around you and could imagine yourself living here, then step through the front door and find yourself liking the interior too. Already, you could see yourself in here, amid your furniture and personal belongings, using this room for that, decorating and changing things to suit your taste. It’s all looking so good, your enthusiasm is rising and you’ve noticed your significant other is feeling the same way. You can also be ‘blinded’ by the view and the current owner’s possessions, plus the homely smell of coffee and baking! Continue reading →

IMPORTANT Incorrect house value statistics are bringing Spain down! International perceptions are affecting the country to its cost in billions

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1. FACT – true prices paid for houses have fallen 50% or more in most areas of the country and NOT the 30% shown in the registrar’s statistics.

2. CAUSE – Traditionally the full price paid for a property was not shown in the official sales document, with as much as 30% being in cash ‘under the table’. Thus the register shows low values. However, stronger disciplining of money laundering, etc, has meant that the registered prices are probably now only 10% down on the real total money exchanged.

3. RESULT – So registered prices should appear to be rising by 20%. However, as prices have in fact fallen 50+%, the registered prices show an incorrect statistic of -30%. Continue reading →

SAREB Taking Property Off The Market – is ‘slow release’ their strategy to ‘reduce’ the surplus?

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A bank connected Estate Agency has reported that ‘due to administrative reasons we have to take these properties off the market until the process of incorporating the property portfolio of their Bank into “SAREB” has been completed. Unfortunately, we cannot give you an exact time estimation for this process’

Making Sure That It Happens!

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The government body behind Spain’s so called ‘bad bank’, which was set up to remove negative assets from struggling financial institutions, have forecast that Spanish property prices will not begin to rise again until 2017. FROB (The Fund for the Orderly Bank Restructuring) estimate that house prices will fall for the next two years, then stagnate for two years, before starting to increase at an annual rate of 3% in 2017.

Specifically, the organisation believes that prices will fall by 2.8% in 2013 and 1.5% in 2014 before beginning to rise. They also predict that land prices will follow a similar trajectory, falling by 12.5% in 2013 and 5% in 2014, land then beginning to recover in 2016, but at a lower level than that seen by property, just 2.5% a year. Continue reading →