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
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
Kyero’s recent report entitled – Spain will lead decline in house prices in Europe.
“According to a recent report by Standard & Poor’s, the Spanish housing market will lead the falling prices in Europe this year. They estimate that prices will drop by 7.8% in 2013, partly due to the creation of the bad bank (Sareb), and that the cumulative decline over the next four years will be around 20%.
The report shows that the European recession is still lowering housing prices in most markets, and that the other two European countries which will lead the declines this year will be the Netherlands (5.9%) and France (5%). Continue reading
“In the last five years there has been virtually no value for land,” said Rafael Powley, a Madrid-based director of strategic consulting at JLL. “There are no buyers and if you want to sell it right now, there is no price for it.”
Investing in land or half-built developments means spending money to start, demolish or complete schemes without any guarantee of selling them or finding tenants. Investors are reluctant to do this due to the Spanish recession and excessive supplies of property built up during the boom years.
“The money you need to spend upfront takes you backwards,” said Justin O’Connor, chief executive of property fund manager Cordea Savills, which has about 7 billion euros of assets under management in Europe. Continue reading
It is advisable to make every effort to settle disputes and disagreements out of Court. If that can’t be achieved, it’s the Court that will decide on the basis of the information provided, so the next best step is to make sure that your professional team has a good record, attitude and experience.
With many couples and individuals now owning property all over Spain and it’s islands and prices having changed so much over the past 10 years, it’s not surprising that agreement can’t be reached on market values. So an independent expert has to be appointed. The Court Procedure Rules now encourage the use of a sole joint expert witness, to avoid the situation of multiple values being discussed in Court. Most Courts aren’t keen on discussing numbers! Continue reading
Building specifications, methods and results vary according to terrain, climate and cultures and those of Spain are no different. However, as Spain’s climate and culture are most certainly different from those of Northern Europe, some of the practices and materials may baffle the average expat property buyer. On the Spanish Costas, the humid and salty air associated with strong sunlight and heat, cause the less durable elements of buildings to weather quickly. Further inland, the extreme daily and seasonal temperature and humidity changes have equally serious effects. Advancements in style and materials have also been rapid, as promoters, architects and builders have taken on and sometimes led the expectations of their foreign buyers, so that property built just 20 years ago is considered to be old. However, there is also the sticking to conventions despite evidence of poor results – to use a Scottish phrase, ‘it’s aye been’, meaning the way things have always been done – that leads to many of the common problems experienced by property buyers. With so much publicity of past problems illustrating the ‘naivety’ of some buyers, newcomers to the Spanish market are becoming much more aware of the need to seek advice when considering the purchase of a property. Continue reading
When contemplating a purchase in Spain, you really should automatically take the same or even more precautions that you would when buying a property in your home country. A common sense approach is necessary every time. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen and buyers can get carried away by the dream of owning a place in the sun, especially when prices are as comparatively attractive as they are now. Continue reading
Chartered surveyors are asked to intervene in a wide variety of issues. However, we find that many of our cases concern basic problems with properties that, while easily dealt with, can cause considerable distress to the householders.
The problem that Brian and Jessica Halstead* were experiencing with rising damp caused them to contact Survey Spain and ask for our help. Continue reading
According to local Costa del Sol newspaper, Euro Weekly News, the Spanish Institute of Family Policy has recently stated that the number of households in Spain has increased by 50 per cent since 1991, whilst the average number of family members has dropped from 2.6 to 2.3 (-11.5 per cent) during the same period.
Historically in Spain, many children lived with their parents until they married and many even for some time after that. The country also has a very strong tradition of home ownership, with residential tenancy being rare, principally due to laws biased very much in favour of the tenant, thus discouraging investment ownership of residential property. Continue reading