Re: Confused!
 

The only time people profited from property speculation in Spain was back in 2000 approx when the peseta moved to Euros. I remember buying my flat for 9 million pesetas ( about £ 35,000). Sold 1year half later for 96,000 euros!!. Seems crazy but you have to consider how all the different currency rates were then. £1 was 2 euros ( or more) and the peseta was at some weird rate. Add in the fact that undeclaring values was common place and it was a bit like the gold rush. By 2007 though things took a turn for the worse and Spain had never recovered.

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It's all about timing, as ever. In 2006, 3 years after I bought my former house, a very similar property a few doors away was sold for 50% more than I'd paid so if I'd sold then I'd have been in profit, but not at any time since. Had I needed to sell a few years earlier than I did it would have been much worse. Another close neighbour sold about a year before me (very similar sized house) for 20% less than me.

I think your memories of the exchange rate are a bit out though, the highest ever pound to euro exchange rate was €1.752 in 2000.

https://www.keycurrency.co.uk/gbptoe...d%20experiment.

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I wouldn't say that and anyone who bought in the right area after the peak of the bubble between 2009 & 2013 would have seen similar. Some data from April and prices crazy: The Balearic coast remained the area with the highest house prices on the Spanish coast in April 2021, with average prices of 3,273 euros/m2. The islands are followed by the coast of Gipuzkoa (3,147 euros/m2), Maresme (2,370 euros/m2) and the Biscay coast (2,365 euros/m2). The Costa Brava (2,241 euros/m2) and the Costa del Sol (2,050 euros/m2) also show average values above 2,000 euros.


Back in 2012 houses that cost maybe 250K are selling for 400K today, so there still seems to be people who profit.

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Ibiza has a reputation for being recession proof. However covid has absolutely devastated the tourism industry there. I’m not sure it will ever h be the same again. Maybe thats what it needed as prices were going higher and higher each Year. Also with the 90 day rule now in effect the British run bar zones like San antoni will be out of workers. And how these super clubs are going to operate with these covid regulations I don’t know. There’s no where in Spain Safe to invest anymore.

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Superficially, quoting a buy price of 250k and sale price of 400k sounds good, but by the time you take out all the taxes etc you face here in Spain, how much capital gain will there be left?

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What percentage of housing stock do you estimate are properties which are unsold abandoned family inheritances where the cost of selling and officially dividing money is not actually worth doing?

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All it means for Ibiza is that the island will become even more exclusive. While it might be a tragedy for the people running clubs today, there are always other buyers who want exactly that to happen.
Getting rid of tourists at the lower end just means it's even more attractive for the super wealthy. They don't care about tourism and the villa that was worth 2 million today will be worth 3 million next year and eventually someone will start selling burgers for 40€ instead of 20€.

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Just checked are there is lots of affordable housing stock in Ibiza, that is in the range of a few hundred thousand.

Sure you're going to need a wad of cash to get a place there, but it is a popular location.

But you certainly do not need millions. Not sure it is as elitist, as you are suggesting.

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You are right but even after tax it's still a profit and the people who stay in their homes aren't bothered anyway. Then you have the main home exemption and those over 65 don't pay but Brexit is another issue for those with holiday homes.

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Naturally. Because only Brits know bar work, right?

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But they do speak English as do their customers!

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More interesting to look and see what the banks have on their balance sheets left over from the property boom / collapse, probably over 300,000 - down from the 1.3 Million .at its peak. Most of the inheritance ones I suspect are out in small villages which have gradually been abandoned as people move to urban areas. There is actually a website that promotes properties in such villages offering incentives for skilled craftsmen and similar to repopulate.

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there’s old abandoned houses near me that you can pick up for an absolute bargain. 20-30k for a 3 floor 5 bedroom house in the middle of the village. I know someone that lives in one. However there is no electric connected and not sure he has running water.

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Hold your horses there Fred!!!

The British are an absolute embarrassment when it comes to their grasp of languages. On the whole they speak English and nothing much else!!!

I mix with a very international group of people from across europe and latin america. All speak English and Spanish as a minimum. Most speak a minimum of 3 languages with many speaking 4 and 5 languages.

All these people could do the job an English waiter does, but as it happens they are all graduates and get paid a salary many multiples of a waiter.

Lose the, we speak the 'Queens English' and the world owes us something attitude.....

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Stingychips / Loafing Along

I suspect it is a minority of cases where the inheritance tax is the issue and more likely properties that are on the banks books.

Yes, in small villages across Spain there has been massive depopulation (oxymoron?). I can well imagine you can pick up properties in villages for next to nothing.

I live in a desirable area and have been here for some years. There are numerous properties that have been unoccupied for years around me.