snikpoh

Just heard on TV that the Spanish government have reduced the tax for buying a property from 8% to 4%.

I wasn't sure if this was just new properties or all of them.

Anyone else heard the report?

agoreira

Not heard a peep, but google has! haven't read it all, but seems it's only until December.
http://www.idealista.com/news/archiv...vivienda-nueva

steviedeluxe

It's on spanish websites

http://politica.elpais.com/politica/...97_225241.html

Strange timing though. You would have thought Zapatero would have done it a few months back so that house sales would have increased through the summer prior to the election. It's only for 4 months, and I wonder if it will have any noticeable effect ?

steviedeluxe

It's for new properties.

steviedeluxe

Here's the first article in English I've seen on this.

http://www.businessinsider.com/spain...-growth-2011-8

Lenox

I've written it up here.
It's a short-term 'nudge' to help the banks shift some 'new stock'.

Jontee

That's no help to anyone stuck trying to sell their house! In fact for the next 4 months they may as well give up on the idea completely. A saving of 4% on new properties effectively means re-sales have to be reduced to be competitive. How unfair is that??

fionamw

Further to that, (and I really don't know what statistics in the current market could be believed anyway) I'm intrigued to know whether newbuild, older urban or 'historic' campo properties are those actualy selling in greater numbers right now.
Put more succinctly, what are people actually buying, if anything!

jackytoo

I heard the banks are refusing to lend on campo properties. This new tax reduction is just the Government's way of helping their mates...the Bankers and Developers who are stuck with all the unsold stock. Doubt it will make much difference, the new ones are well overpriced even when they say 40% off.

fionamw

???? Old campo (and town, I guess) properties are possibly the most legit of all ! Or maybe that's not the reason?

hotchick

I am guessing by " campo " you mean countryside ? Our financial advisor has recomended we buy Old, countryside, inland properties, which is want we want anyway. He is saying that at the moment until the problems with new builds have been sorted, don't touch them with a barge pole, even if they have all the paperwork in place.

snikpoh

I agree, but you also have to be VERY careful with properties in the campo.

That's where we live and the number of stories from people living in similar properties is amazing.

When we bought ours, we had to employ someone to verify the extent of the building and the land (for cadastral purposes). His comment was that up to 90% of the Valencian, campo properties are illegal in some way.

I think part of the problem is that these properties pass from one family member to another and have done for centuries. When a foreigner then comes to buy one of these, they uncover all sorts of problems; - never been registered, owned by a number of siblings and one of them is disputing something, illegal extensions been built, no habitation certificate or equivalent etc.....

hotchick

Thanks snikpoh - wowza it sounds like a minefield out there - I would hope with a decent lawyer all this would be looked into - or am I wrong there ?

fionamw

The theory is that if it's on the escritura (deeds) and any extension received proper building permission, everything's aok.... but that many mayors are currently awaiting clink because of dodgy planning agreements............. anyway, as I said, OLD (already reformed not too long ago that they're naff but not too recently that they may be dodgy - hedging my bets here!) properties whether campo or urban, still probably remain the best option in terms of finding something legit and with a bit of not only provenance but dare I say it class*. (ducks swiftly)


continuing to dig, I'd clarify that's class as distinct from style
...and putting my shovel down, I'll acknowledge 'each to their own'... !!....