Despite all the scare stories and TV programmes recounting personal financial disasters, many foreign property buyers in Spain still spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds or euro without having an expert look over the property for defects. Sometimes the buyer then ‘repents at leisure’ afterwards, both because defects are found or, as often happens too, the ideal property they reluctantly discounted because of imagined serious flaws, turns out only to have superficial easily remedied problems. Compared to the cost of the property or even just the costs of repairs or checking the legal status, the investment is small for the reassurance provided by a RICS survey. Continue reading
Buying a Property – Who Needs a Surveyor?
Campbell D. Ferguson of Survey Spain Chartered Surveyors, recently had an article published in ‘Spain is Different’, which looked at the importance of using a surveyor when buying property in Spain. There can be issues such as incorrect legal paperwork, where a property owner may have carried out improvements legally or illegally that could be recorded inaccurately. Physical defects with the property may not appear to be problems at first, but can often result in serious implications further down the line. Concrete decay, damp, insect attack, subsidence and earth tremor are just some of the problems that affect Spanish properties. The variable climate means that it is very important that property is adequately maintained. These are some of the issues that can be evaluated by a surveyor. Continue reading
Maximising the value of your property
A property has a generic value that most people will guess at, an experienced real estate agent will estimate and a trained professional – in this case a chartered surveyor – will be able to calculate more accurately without being influenced by the possibility of a selling fee or the emotion associated with property ownership.
There are tried and tested methods used by property professions to value every kind of property from retail units and warehousing to factories, office complexes and recreational facilities – not to mention homes ranging from the smallest studio to the largest mansion. Continue reading
Survey Spain Case Study Number 3
One of the main reasons given for emigration to Spain is the beautiful weather that we experience throughout the year here. When purchasing properties, most people want to make sure that their outdoor living areas are in prime condition so that they can enjoy the Spanish lifestyle.
The instructions that we received from a property agency client, in respect of a potential buyer in Estepona, concerned a covered outdoor barbecue area. Could Survey Spain inspect the roof and decide what – if any – work needed to be undertaken and at what cost? Continue reading
How do you value a property in Spain?
We all have an opinion about the value of a property, especially when it’s ours, and that’s the problem! It’s the value that a prudent, knowledgeable buyer will put on it that’s important.
Homeowners, mixing emotion and ego (and sometime desperation) plus the money they have spent on it, into the equation, will famously tend to overvalue their property. An agent may go along with this to get the listing, but reality strikes when the buyers list what can be bought elsewhere and the bank won’t give a big enough mortgage at that price. Continue reading
Predictions for 2012
By Campbell D. Ferguson, FRICS
Survey Spain – RICS Chartered Surveyors in Spain
Many local professionals have joined the popular LinkedIn ‘Marbella Real Estate Opportunities’ group. They have raised potentially vexed issues such as the economy, the effect that banks’ virtual freezing of finance has on the property market, the potential promised by Marbella’s new marina, the city’s PGOU (Plan General de Ordenación Urbana) or urban planning law, new projects and the Mediterranean corridor’s appeal to buyers and investors, etc… Continue reading
Values and the Banks – where do we go from here?
As a RICS Chartered Surveyor, resident and valuing residential property in Spain for the past 10 years and involved for many years before, I’ve taken a professional interest in all that’s been happening with regard to property price trends in Spain. Since so many of Spain’s unsold (and repossessed) properties are held by the country’s banks, they play an important role in the price determination of Spanish real estate.
The big question has always been: “Who is going to occupy these properties?” It’s not just price that’s the problem. For too long, there was just too much superfluous construction funded by speculators and land buyers, with little thought as to whether anyone would actually want to live there. That’s the real overhang of the market. Now some banks are continuing the immoral practices of high loans by offering to lend sometimes more than 100 per cent of the valuation of properties they have taken ownership of – presumably because it helps them to offload properties at inflated prices. Continue reading
Survey Spain Case Study Nº 2: Structural defects causing problems with neighbours
Living in an apartment block has many advantages – especially if you’re not permanently resident in Spain – but you must bear in mind that any building problems that you might experience could be shared by your neighbours. Even if this is not strictly your fault it can quickly cause a deterioration in relations if swift action is not taken.
Recently, one of our clients found himself in such a situation when malfunctioning rainwater troughs led a neighbour to complain about the maintenance of their apartment. Clearly, when living in an apartment block, a problem shared can be a problem doubled. (Names have been changed to ensure confidentiality) Continue reading
Survey Spain’s Campbell D Ferguson, FRICS, receives an award as an Expert Witness
Survey Spain’s Campbell D. Ferguson, FRICS, recently gained his Legal Experience Training Advanced Professional Award in Expert Witness Evidence (LETAPAEWE) at Masters level BTEC. Study for the award is recommended by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, which is the premier worldwide property professional organisation.
In order to gain this qualification, Campbell studied three modules in Expert Witness Evidence – Law and Practice; Written Evidence – Advanced Report Writing; and Case Preparation and Court Skills. Accredited by Edexcel, which is the UK’s largest awarding body offering academic and vocational qualifications and testing in the UK and over 85 other countries, the course is designed to equip professionals with a body of legal knowledge that is valuable in everyday practice as well as during court representation. Continue reading
RICS report on Spanish residential outlook
The RICS Global Real Estate analysis released mid-November was rather sombre in its outlook on Spain. With Spain at the heart of the present Euro crisis it could hardly be otherwise, but in quoting official statistics on mortgage lending, property values and economic growth, the report indicates that on a national level home purchases, property values and GDP growth has all slumped again, spelling out a difficult year ahead.
In general regarding Spain as a whole, I agree with what has been said,” says Campbell D. Ferguson of Survey Spain. “The level of debt in the economy, both institutional and personal, is huge and it will take many years for that to be removed. Effectively, the years of boom were based not so much on increasing productivity and wealth, but largely on borrowing from the future. The future has now arrived and the debts have to be paid.” Continue reading