ivanmax

I am Spanish and lived in Britain for five years (went to college there). My advice:

DON´T, DON´T, DON´T BUY PROPERTY IN SPAIN!!!

We got a huge housing bubble here and it is about to burst. If you want to invest in property go to Croacia (nice weather and people), Turkey or anywhere else.

There is a huge housing problem in my country and things are going to get very nasty in the next years. If you buy a property in Spain you will be losing money and I suppose you don´t fancy that do you?

By the way, I bought a nice massionete in Southampton in 1999 for 52000 pounds. The same kind of property here cost about four times the price and it is built with the crappiest materials in the Earth (the guys who build the houses in Spain only care about making money quickly).

Buy yourself a house in my beautiful country and you regret having done it in less than two years. Prices are going down for sure. It can not be otherwise in a country where the average salary is 600 pounds (monthly) and a one bedroom flat can go easily for 250000 pounds.

Take my advice and put your money somewhere else.

A nice Spanish man,

Iván.

mrcusa

In January this year, I sold a flat in Bournemouth.

It was a flat above a restaurant in Poole Hill, very tiny indeed, 2 bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and tiny lounge.

It sold for £120000

That is Euros 180,000

I hope that I have done the right thing by buying a 3 bedroom flat in Majorca on the north coast for Euros 195,000

It is a large flat, with marble floors, beuatiful tiling in the kitchen and two bathrooms and three bedrooms. Large lounge with balcony and sea glimpses.

We will see!

Martin

GCM

To some extent I can agree with the comments made but then you have to realise that house prices are crazy everywhere. While prices might go down in Spain they will almost certainly go down in England too - but that doesn't mean everyone in England should be looking to sell quickly.

It all depends on what you need - we all need a house to live in - now if you are thinking of invesmtment - well that's a different story (Spain is a poor investment right now). So if you sell in England and get yourself a much better house in Spain then surely you are doing the right thing (as long as you are sure about your move to Spain).

Because most buyers on the Costa of Spain are Brits the market and future direction of house prices surely can be tracked as to what is happening in Britain.

Some people have described prices as plummeting. So far I haven't seen this myself. Sellers are realising they may have to take offers but then the prices are still very high and most people must be making a tidy profit unless they bought recently.

From what I can see with England - maybe the activity in the housing market is picking up slightly and I know more Brits are arriving out here (I'm in Spain) so maybe things won't go down as much as most people predict.

Maybe it's wishful thinking - I for one would love prices to come down. One positive factor in prices coming down is the amount of building here - it's too much and for that reason alone I don't think enough Brits can move out to fill all the new houses and apartments.

Interesting times.

Mark

muttymutt

Hello to all on here at the mo! Just wanted to say my bit about buying over here in Spain. we have lived here almost 3 years now on the northern Costa Blanca, Gandia to be precise. I don't understand where all this massive building is going on, certainly not up here!!! I have noticed many more Brits here in the last 12 months, because the housing market is slow in the Uk most of them only have apartment money(second mortgage type stuff) they still seem to be buying though. Another reason the market has slowed he is because of very bad press in the Uk. The LRAU for example, anyone reading about that in the Uk automatically thinks its all over Spain! Secondly the comments made by this thread starter! NOT all houses over here are made of crap!! Lots of Brits buy from Brits who's houses are good quality. The worst houses are the 'second' home Spanish ones!! Ones that have been in the family for years, that they only use at weekends or in the summer and when they realise what crazy money they could get for it they try and sell it to the Brits!!!! Unfortunately its the British estate agents who try to push the sale with tons of their commission on top!!!!!

muttymutt

Just curious 'mr nice spanish man', if things are that bad here in spain why are you back here??!!crap houses, crap money etc....why????

meseta

Ivanmax, what a sweeping generalised statement !
Tales of doom and gloom about the Spanish housing market are not new. They have been around for years.

Demand is high, or at least is high here in Andalucia, because people want to come and live here. The building that's going on here cannot cope with the demand; not just from Brits but from the many other nationalities looking to make a home here. Prices will continue to go up. Simple. Do you honestly think the developers are building 'just in case' ? I agree that the rate if increase in selling prices has slowed down, but bubble burst ? not for years to come.

"Buy yourself a house in my beautiful country and you regret having done it in less than two years. "

So, tell us where your facts come from please, because I, for one, don't believe you !

Beachcomber

Are you giving this advice out of the goodness of your heart or do you, perhaps, have a hidden agenda?

nnbrnt

Hi - We live in Palma, don't tell anyone how it is here, everyone will want to come !!!

XTreme

I thought the same thing!
Or maybe it's just the backlash from Lee and Cheryl?

nnbrnt

Well actually we were on a Place in the Sun too but saw the property we bought before we went on the program, we used the program just to pay our expenses to go - awful weren't we!!! It is only a program and I think Lee and Cheryl is all set up anyway. Ours was a bit and you just go along with it, after all do people really think Lee and cheryl were for real!!!

XTreme

Well.....speaking as a Welshman, I can tell you that Newport is not exactly renowned as a centre of intellectual excellence! So you never know!

cidshock

We took a drive down to Murcia yesterday, around 20 KM away all I saw were hundreds of cranes and thousands of apartments being erected along with villas etc, so there is plenty of building going on in many places.
incidently we live out side of albox in Ameria and in a 20 km radius there is plenty of building going on which are mainly being snapped up by the Brits.

poollounger

You may be right and you may be wrong...Quite frankly I think there is an exchnage programme going on.....tons of Spaniards in Britain replacing those who are now in Spain. And Ivan what about those people who are buying in Croatia and South Africa with possible future political instability?? It's the same anywhere....buy sensibly, try not to pay over the odds, and look around. I think it's the naive who will get burnt. I certainly found that looking inland in Spain prices were a lot lower when walking into estate agents in places like Utrer and Moron than searching on the Internet.
I looked at a place in Chiclana that was very nice in July of this year but found somewhere nicer, then saw the same property with another agent at E40,000 higher!! And a house in Algondodonales that was shown to me at 240,000... way beyond my budget is now on the market elsewhere at E180,000 !! Yikes...and by the way I van what makes you think that your maisonette is still going to be worth what you paid for it in the future??

meseta

Ivanmax, are you still there ?
Do you live in Spain or are you taking advantage of the UK's property market ? One comment from you has brought you quite a few questions; how about a response ?

ivanmax

Hi,

Yes I am still here. Please check this:

http://foros.finanzas.com/SForums/$M=readforum$F=41145

That is one of the most popular housing foros in Spain. Plenty of guys there with degrees in economy predicting a huge drop in prices coming very soon. Do as you want. If you put your money in Spain you will remember this message believe me.

Regards,

Iván.

Ps. By the way. I don´t have any hidden agenda and I am not interested in people buying houses in any other European or African country. I do not have Real state interests either. I love you British coming to my country and spending you money here believe me. I am just trying to let you know about something that the censorship of the Spanish media will not make public. 27% of the money that my goverment gets comes from housing developments and they are the last interested in letting you know that the housing bubble is about to burst.