tezrogers

Was considering purchasing a property on Camposol Urbanisation but after watching the programme recently I am not sure.
Has anyone got any advice on this please.

mikelincs

The problems were only on part of the huge Camposol Urbanisation, so a visit to the area and a very good look round for any signs of cracking etc would be the best way to check it out, but do not buy without looking.

bil

My advice would be to find a structural engineer, buy him a drink and get some advice on what to look for.

I had a friend who was one, and he came out to look our place over. I was worried about a couple of cracks, but he wasn't. They were vertical cracks and were where the terrace wall joined the house, and the old garage joined as well. They were built on almost as an afterthought, and weren't keyed in well, so they move slightly wrto the house. His comment was, 'No biggie.'

The ones that he said to watch out for were stepped cracks esp on the corners. These indicate that the corner is dropping (or worse where the centre of the house is rising.)

Get clued up before you go because knowledge is power.

Rosemary

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Rosemary and Graham

Rosemary

Although I know nothing of the area or the urbanisation, considering the vast amount of properties for sale all over Spain is it really worth the risk of buying there. Looking at a web page about the place there appears to be many problems that could be ongoing.

Graham

Lynn R

I saw the programme and regardless of the kind of structural problems being reported, I could not for the life of me see why anyone would have wanted to buy a property there anyway - it just looked like an enormous, soulless housing estate of identikit properties stuck in the middle of nowhere in a not very attractive landscape. What was it that the OP found appealing?

Chiclanagir

I am with Lynn on this one - apart from the problems and the fact that you need to go outside to go to bed - it looks a horrible place to live. What is the point in moving to Spain you may as well go and live on an housing estate in the middle of any city in the UK.

agoreira

Must admit I only saw part of the programme, but from what I saw it wasn't only the horrendous damage, but the fact they people suffering didn't seem to be getting any joy in getting it sorted. The builders gave the usual waffle, but the owners featured seem to have been left with completely unsellable, dangerous properties. Agree with the other comments, why on earth would anyone even consider buying in such a godless, depressing place. Price?

HBG

I don't know the Camposol site, but property prices in Spain are going into meltdown. Whoever buys CAM bank in September won't pay more than a quarter for their extensive property portfolio and throw the whole, toxic mess on to the market at something like 40% of their current value.

Property-wise, CAM is the fourth biggest bank in Spain and other banks are bound to follow. It might be wise to delay buying in Spain for a year or so at least.

mikelincs

From the programme it seems to have been a huge place built in the hope it wold get all sorts of businesses, leisure services etc, but in the downturn they have not materialised. There are many other urbanisations, built much closer or in small towns that would be more suitable, and as has been said, pleanty of places that people ant to sell, so should be no problems. I didn't like the look of the place on the programme.

bil

Sound advice.

steviedeluxe

According to the following chart, Sept 2011 is the next bottom of the market. After that we've got 2 years of growth! (I think I'll stick to buying the odd lottery ticket though!)


http://www.moneyweek.com/~/media/Mon...450&h=338&as=1

avocados

Very Bad Advice!!!

Clearly, many people are not in tune with the Spanish housing market.

Firstly, CAM is no the 4th biggest in Spain.
Secondly, The Spanish have a tremendous ability to resolve problems like this without making much of a fuss.

Thirdly, The Spanish Housing market is very localised and cannot be referred to in general terms. For people that know their market there are excellent deals out there. It's just a case of negotiating an acceptable price based on future expectations.

I should also point out that all that matters for the banks is Valor Tasacion.
Currently, that represents a 20% drop from peak. the peak was 2005/2006 (not 2007/2008, as the public seems to think!!)

My OH is now buying a property that is the equivalent of 35% of current valor tasacion. In other words, he is buying at year 2001 prices. Official prices doubled from 2001 to the peak in 2006.

All the people that told him to buy in 2005 are now saying that 2011 is NOT the time to buy. The majority are wrong again.

So, if buying, do your numbers and don't worry about media panic.

Ex-pat

OH and myself visited the place about 4 years ago.
Then, the houses where already falling apart. The urbanisation is built on a sloping side towards the sea (not really a mountainside). It is divided into four separate area's. We went to the highest part first and looked down towards the sea which was about 5 km away. My immediate thought then was: NO greenery in sight, no bushes or trees, no colour except sandy brown similar to the desert.

We talked to several people (maybe we did not talk to the right ones) but the general feeling was that they did not want to live with the Spanish.

As I said, maybe we spoke to the wrong people but why come to live in Spain when you have that sort of attitude.

We saw an estate agent who insisted that we should have a look at some property. That was his biggest mistake! The property that we saw was too small to swing a cat, and outside spiral staircase took us to the roof,well it would have done had it not come away from the wall! The estate agent said that the property was one year old!

The overall feeling was that this was a large housing estate, think Milton Keynes although I would not want to insult anyone from Milton Keynes.

We would never even consider living there and we were happy to leave the place.

This of course is only my opinion and as everyone is different the place probably appeals to many others.

bil

So you think the market has bottomed and is ready to rise? I'm impressed that you should have such inside information when the world seems to be tanking.

Prices are low, and the current dip in shares has the smart, cash rich people buying shares like there's no tomorrow.

By all means buy a property now if you like it and want to live there indefinitely.

However, if you want to buy for investment, I'm damned if I know anyone who is saying "Buy, buy, buy!"

From what I see here, with a lot of people who want to sell and can't, and lots of newbuilds standing empty, there is no sign of an upturn any time soon.