Fredbargate

Note the development the Irish guy was on came to a halt two years ago.

Well before the sh1t hit the fan

bil

I'm not sure I understand some of the criticism here.

Capitalism is based on people gambling on what is going to happen.

All mortgages are people gambling that it will work.

The ones who win are described as successful investors, and no-one worries how near they may have come to the edge.

The losers are criticised for being stupid.

You can't have any ecology, whether it is the stock market, the housng market or the living world without winners and losers, for if there were no losers, then who would the winners eat?

Post this housing slump there will be a lot of people who picked up a bargain/s and who will in the years to come be hailed as savvy investors.

Then the cycle will repeat to a greater or lesser extent.

big wheels

I thought she looked familiar. so did a bit of digging
It's confirmed elswhere that she is something of a regular on these types of programes.
She featured first a few years ago on "Passport to the sun" set in Mallorca and presented by Nadia Sawalha. (this was the series that featured Leapy Lee)

Mandy from Bradford was starting a new life in Mallorca with her daughter and renting a one bed apartment. When their funds started getting low she hawked herself round the hotels and beaches trying to get work from tourists as a nail beautician.

So she was skint then. But suddenly it seems that she has funds to buy in Marbella.

bil

I have often thought that some of those characters have cropped up a couple of times.

Recycling?

fionamw

Given she's a tv regular, we may yet get the chance to check, but it's my contention the awful brown teeth were in fact teeth covered by a brace.
(cos I thought the same then looked again more carefully!)

derek500

Can anyone explain why the mortgage of the couple with the large house has 'doubled because of the recession'?

livit

They stated there repayments had increased to 3,000 ish Euro`s a month, i don`t believe they stated ther mortgage had increased.

Maybe they didn`t realise how the interest is applied in Spain.

There are debt forums dedicated to Spanish debt.

If warning`s were available, understood and not ignored there wouldn`t be such a situation, I`m sure if the programme had 20 hrs of air time, they`d fill it, no problem.

People still refuse to accept Spain is in recession and was before the UK, they still believe they can move to Spain, get work and manage, some might, hell one day even a lemin will survive.

HBG

I wondered about that too, but certain Spanish interest only mortgages, fixed for say, two years, then rise considerably when the term expires. Nevertheless, in the past year, they will have come down. Currently, and I'm no expert, you pay around 500 Euros per month, per 100K borrowed. On that figure, that couple must have borrowed something like half-a-million Euros, against a property now worth around that amount, or less.

Sadly, in our circle of acquaintances, many others are in the same boat. I was in that boat too, in the UK, in 1990. and '73, or was it '83? I got over it, and they will too.

hitchw

I wonder if the second part will actually show some stories of people that have made money out of the current climate, for there are more than a handful of them? It is a bad situation for some, but then again, it always has been, there has always been cases of developers going bust and leaving empty shells of buildings dotted around the coast, I know more now than before but it has always been there. The same as any country in the world as another poster mentioned, where there are losers there have to be winners, some people just have better luck or are more astute than others. Like the old boy that bought off plan in his living room, he even said the salesman had "glossy brochures"... No excuse for parting with his pension fund if you ask me.

Fortaleza

It's the usual bias slant that you hear in British media recently. Apparently all prices have gone up massively in Spain because of the recession. It's trotted out on the radio and TV all the time and it's usually by people who only visit Spain and not live here. Just last month I heard on a Five Live SPORT (yes, sport!) programme the commentator lamenting how expensive it had gotten:

(In a discussion about transfer fees etc) "The Spanish are really suffering. They seen prices rocket since the credit crunch. I just got back from there and I restaurant we always visit it cost us 90 pounds. The last time we were there just over a year ago it was just 60 pounds"

NUMPTY!!!! The prices haven't gone up. Your pound has gone down. A year or so ago €90 may well have been just 60 pounds. With the euro and pound at near parity, well €90 will be 90 pounds or thereabouts. So how exactly are Spanish 'suffering'? We're still paying exactly the same.

This is why a lot of people are trying to offlad their mortgage laden properties. People who signed on to a Spanish mortgage two or three years ago but paying for it out of their UK bank accounts may well have been paying 500 pounds a month but with the current exchange rate that will have jumped massively. Had they been in Spain paying from funds in a Spanish bank, this jump would not have happened.

livit

959,000.00 ish Euros purchase price, selling for 565,000 ish.

Thats what they appear to have wrote on the for sale sign.

livit

Really.

They`ve increased.

Guess there not bargins anymore then.

hitchw

thing is though, although they have to pay a massive mortgage, wouldnt it just be better to soldier through the hard times and then when the economy starts seeing an upturn (which surely it must as whatever happens brits will want to go to spain and as in any recession there is an exit eventually), after all they are renting out a 5 bedroom holiday home and judging by the look of her it is around the Puerto Banus area so must be earning them most of the mortgage, and then carry on with life... also, one thing that made me laugh about the wife...she complained she worked 120hrs a week...sorry, i dont for the life of me believe she works over 17 hours a day!!! I mean, what does she do??

Fortaleza

Well, if it's Puerto Banus, there are lots of girls who work those sort of hours, especially in summer!

livit

Don`t think they got much choice.

I said previously on here about the Spanish programme following rich Spaniards.

One family, 1 million euro apt, 1 million euros yacht, no money to pay all the bills, business on the downward slope and all worthless because nobody is willing or able to buy even at bargain prices.

So his 2 million assets are worthless.

I`m so glad average and happy, imagine having those toys and poor, that would be depressing.