ivanmax

Hi Coralsoft,

Yes I was replying to you. Have a walk around the town center and sit in an outside terrace. Try to leave your mobile on the table and the waiter will come and ask you to put it in your bag because if you leave it on the table it would disappear in less than ten minutes.

I lived in "Las Acacias" which is a neighbourhood very near "Lavapies" in the center of Madrid and I saw more pickpockers and people on drugs that I never had seem although I have visited quite a few countries and lived in a suburban area of the UK for five years.

As I told you in the message I was myself victim of a pickpocker who stole 200 euros from my trousers pocket.

The crime rate in Madrid is going through the roof and any policeman will tell you so.

Regards,

Iván.

ivanmax

Hi again Coralsoft,

Yes apparently I didn´t read your message well enough. Sorry about that.

Iván.

Charles_Austin

Well BBV (biggest Spanish bank) has said this morning that prices are not going up anymore...

Something must be going on in sunny Spain for a bank to say that.

Charles.

coralsoft

I've been warned about that by friends, likewise pickpockets. Maybe my size and cropped hair mean that people don't try anything where I might see it.

I know that crime is on the increase. to epidemic levels, and as I say, it wouldn't surprise me that violent crime was on the increase, too, though I'd hazard that it's still behind London level (I lived in London for 15 years, much of it around Brixton, so I know when a place feels violently threatening). It's a sign of the times and requires considerable behavioural/educational change to do something about it, unfortunately.

ant_samaran

You may find interesting the following news:

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/6597...CABOGATA/HOTEL

Building in natural parks have been something nobody has complaint about for years. There are literaly millions of properties in Spain built on illegal land. If you are gonna buy something make sure is not one of those or you may be having the guys of Greenpeace hanging from your window and asking the goberment to pull it down.

With the goberment we got now the days of that hotel are counted.

Antonio.

Nige

Of course GREEPEACE in Spain have waited until the hotel infrastructure is actually erected before making publicity. Pity they didn't become active when the site was being cleared ready for the development years ago. And anyway, the Medio Ambiente are pretty tough in Andalucia. I drove through a 'Natural Park' a couple of weeks ago and the only other cars were Environment Police or Park Wardens ! No chance of doing anything 'illegal' in that park. I am wondering if this development actually is 'illegal' or whether the entire protest is just a big publicity stunt. Anybody really know ? Here's a picture of the Greenpeace stunt at the nearly completed hotel.
http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/image_...tos/246357.jpg

bourgogne

errm ok;

wake up
and the UK can sod off

cleared that up for you?

meseta

What a charming individual you are. You really have a way with words. I still have no idea what your completely useless post means. Are you French ? or are you just a waste of space altogether ?

GCM

Hi Meseta

I think Bourgogne is just trying to say he is a Brit who is glad to have put the UK behind him for a better life in France.

Lets's get back to the real matter in hand here - property prices in Spain. Anyone with factual stories about what is happening right now to the property market would be welcomed - after all this is an expat forum for Spain.

Regards

Mark

meseta

Thank you Mark for the clarification.
Agreed !

Nige

Property prices in Spain. Spain is a large country with many many regional variations of prices. Much depends on supply and demand in any given area. Also the provincial economic performance is a very important factor as you would appreciate. I think that it is useful to study actual figures going back for years in order to obtain some idea of trends. The Sociedad de Tasacion (The Valuers) keep very good records which are open for anyone to read. they are updated half yearly. It is easy to look at a particular area or town and discover the costs of new builds etc by looking at the website: http://213.195.76.140/html/index.html
then look at MERCADO INMOBILIARIO (housing market) then Precios de la Vivienda (house prices) then choose from the 3 options for a graphical description of past performance. Just select the number of years needed by using the shift key to highlight.
This must surely give anyone interested a good factual idea of trends in any area.
For local views about future prices it is best to look at local economic factors as well as countrywide trends. Just as in UK where house prices in London rocketed and are now stagnant whereas in other areas of the country prices moved way beyond inflation because of local circumstances. Maybe the house prices were not keeping abreast with reality.

Nige

Specifically reporting on the off-plan phenomenon of recent years on the Costas, and how this has affected prices, the article by Mark Stuck - a Spanish property consultant - sums up that situation quite well. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspap...875425,00.html

GCM

If you haven't read the artricle - see the link above as posted by Nige - then you should. One lady is named as facing a £92,000 loss because she put down deposits on two apartments as speculation the prices would have gone up by the time they were finished.

It looks like she has bought two apartments she didn't have the money for and now doesn't want either of them but can't find anyone to buy them - unless she takes a massive hit. Wow. That's a huge risk to have taken but she can't be the only one. At the time of buying it must have looked like being a sure-fire winner.

I don't think we can judge her though - I'm sure we have all been the victims at some point of greed getting the better of us - I'm painfully remembering the high-tech stock market boom about four years ago as I write this!

Mark

bourgogne

yes and i am sorry i am rude

come to france, and scream and scream and scream!!!!!!! sod off i like its rude but not too. sorry to offend anyone, its actually displayed in my car LOL its me i'm really not hostile or a troll

ant_samaran

Hi,

This is a response for Nige. If you believe any of the Spanish goberment stadistics you need to take something that makes you wake up. I am Spanish and my goberment would do anything to make things look nice on paper.

Housing is the biggest Spanish business (it represents 27% of our economy!!!) and the goberment will never let anybody know that the housing bubble has exploded because our economy will suffer a lot.

Do not believe the Spanish goberment stadistics!!!

Also we got here a "Sociedad de tasacion" called Tilsa who are really nasty guys. They are very good mates of the Spanish State agents and they will say anything to make people believe that everything is wine and roses.

The Spanish housing market is death. If you got lots of money and you want to buy a house to live here do it. If you need to go to the bank to ask for money DON´T . Go to any of the beautiful and very sunny countries of East Europe. You will pay a fraction of the price for something much better built and you will be living in an unspoiled country.

Antonio.