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
We’ve now successfully inspected our first villa for the CEE; organised the considerable amount of required info (down to colour of the window frames!); inputted it into the recently updated program; and pressed ‘Return’. It’s an ‘E’ with a figure of just over 50. Well that’s not too bad for here. No air conditioning, which would have decreased the efficiency, but equally no solar heating which would have bettered it. And if water and space heating was by biomass – it would have had an ‘A’ rating. That’s nuts, but that’s what the program gives. Continue reading
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
In the current economic climate it is perhaps not surprising to find that more people are bypassing building surveys in a bid to save money. These are difficult times, agrees the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), but it also warns people that not having a survey done before they commit their hard-earned money to a property purchase is a short-term saving that could result in far higher costs over the longer term. Continue reading
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
Many property deals have fallen through due to differences in opinion by the professional property valuers and their appearing to be ‘out of touch’ with the market. Banks’ valuers in Spain, Tasadores, are obliged to work according to the regulations of the Bank of Spain, which regulations at times have appeared to be more designed to influence the market for the benefit of the political requirements of the economy rather than following the market. The same has occurred in other countries Europe-wide and in other situations. With the countries of Europe trading increasingly between themselves, both in property occupation and investment terms, there needs to be a common, trusted standard. Continue reading
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
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
A bank linked agent has been informed by Its troubled bank ‘parent’ that on the 30th of November the developments they were marketing, as many others, were passed over to SAREB (Sociedad de Gestión de Activos procedentes de la Reestructuración Bancaria – better known as the toxic bank).
During the next few weeks of integration and until they receive further notice from ‘their’ bank or SAREB there will not be any finance available or provided by the new owners of these properties.
So, the period of 100+% mortgages on bank property may be past and a large lump of the property overhang is now frozen until the integration is sorted out and new marketing strategies are in place. It’s going to be an interesting couple of months.
Campbell D. Ferguson, Survey Spain Network of Chartered Surveyors
It was an idealistic law in the first place and it should be that properties existing before it was created should remain forever. However, anything built after 1988 should be removed as having been built knowingly illegally. Banana Beach included as all involved should have known, advised or been advised that the property was illegal for many reasons including the Ley de Costas. Those involved have to be sued for negligence and criminal acts and professional indemnity insurers and the government pay compensation to those who bought ‘in good faith’ trusting their advisers, those issuing permissions and those with responsibility to oversee. Continue reading