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
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
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
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