Lenox

According to Manuel Bellido, the director of the IPE (Instituto de Práctica Empresarial), since 2006, the descent in the number of homes sold to 'Europeans' in Almería and Malaga has been 90% - that is - in 2006 6,329 homes were sold to extranjeros in Andalucía, in 2009, only 367 homes have been sold.
And get this!
(today's) El Mundo newspaper continues this revelation with the following:
'The severe problems which have surfaced in places like Almería - particularly in the Levante and Almanzora areas - to do with the foreigners, mainly British, buying illegal homes in the last few years have caused an understandable climate of distrust in their 'home countries' and the collapse of house prices for Andalucian homes'.
It seems that a new organisation, called Spanish Homes Network, supported by the Junta de Andalucía and with full legal protection for buyers, will solve all of this...

carter71

Do you think this is a genuine change, or part of a cynical PR campaign to bury the problems under the carpet? How can this reach the local level in any case?

Lenox

I just hope that all these new buyers, these happy and confident home-owners, will spare a thought for the many thousands of fellow-Brits who live in the same area and who must still use 'builders electric' and hosepipes and who will continue for many years to live under the threat of demolition by the self-same government that now finally notices the oodles of money available out there from the Frozen North.

More seriously perhaps - yes, it is a good thing that this particular boil has begun to be lanced (if, as usual, for the wrong reasons). We certainly need an agency that can advise, inform, defend and protect the foreign buyer in Spain - because it is in the interest of the Spanish economy to do so. I'm not sure that it should be an estate agency though...

michaleen oge

too little too late lenox. and letting the fox(estate agency)guard the henhouse is laughable. something needs to be done,sure enough,but without root and branch surgery on the chancers and corruption endemic in the spanish legal and government system,i am afraid nothing will change.
bulgaria and places of that ilk have the same problems associated with spain,but seemingly not as prolific. i know people buying at this moment in bulgaria who wanted to purchase in spain but were put off by the chance of coming unstuck. not too many programmes on itv about bulgaria,are there?

Mitzyboy

Not yet, no ...... but give it time

HBG

I’m surprised that any British people are still coming to Spain to buy property after all those programmes of houses being demolished and turds floating down the street every time it rains. It will take years and a concentrated effort by Saatchi to wipe out those memories.

My friendly bank manager from years ago has now been promoted to regional level and we still meet occasionally. I once asked him just how much the British expat community contributed to the Spanish economy.

We were sitting in a bar and he didn’t have much paper, so be borrowed some from the waiter. I’ve long ago forgotten the numbers but remember when the noughts went over the edge of the paper and made me laugh.

One million people investing an average of £150,000 to buy a home and bringing over £15,000 a year to spend in Spain . . . I’m no good with figures, but it amounts to a lot of zeros.

No wonder they’re trying to get back to those times.

michaleen oge

not trying really hard enough by my mind,but going in the right direction at last. it is a shame it took this long to come and a crying shame for the people whose properties have been,and are being,demolished.
i hate to say this because i know i am going to get it in the back of the neck,but really, it needs saying. the british have invested heavily in spain for decades. we are not johnny-come-latelys like the russians et al. i think a love/hate relationship springs to mind,but the spanish should really appreciate what we have done to contribute to the country. never mind the mindless drink-sodden idiots who infest the costas year in and year out(and they are contributing too), i mean the british who have gone inland for the quiet life. we have bought up properties that were falling apart,paid over the odds,hired local tradesmen to renovate,(paid over the odds again),and tried to integrate as much as possible.
my local coviran manageress tells me that her takings have plunged since a lot of the british sold up and moved out. she wants to know if there are any more british due any time soon.(answer is no but i won't tell her that). but it is the costas which are getting the bad publicity so the whole of spain is painted as well. fingers crossed,a turning point may have been reached.

pete_l

To be fair, it was only 1 programme (or one series - I didn't see it/them) and a few articles in the Daily Wail that no-one takes any notice of anyway. Plus people have very short memories and will have forgotten all about it by the time they go on holiday and subsequently decide to buy in Spain.
I think that's more likely to be a million people (who've bought anywhere overseas - I'd be more inclined to say a quarter that number who've gone to Spain), but with 4 or five to a family. It's the family that would buy - not each individual. So divide the total by 4 or 5: maybe €30-40Bn sales over the past 20 years and another €3-4Bn a year. It's still a large number though, and sure beats picking a few billion euros worth of lettuces.

HBG

I think the official figures do point to a million Brits in Spain alone. What I forgot to mention is that those Brits who live here get visitors from home on a regular basis.

We get around four visits every year from family and friends, usually three to four people at a time who stay for two weeks. They’re in holiday mode and spend a lot of money while they’re here.

And happy expats in Spain attract more UK residents who want to share that happiness. I think the number of noughts is off the page again, and all Spain needs to do is rebuild the Prior’s house and fix a few drains. And legalise a ‘few’ houses.

agoreira

Not only have there been more than one programme, it has frequently been in the news, and in all the papers, especially the better one´s where the readers are the ones likely to have the money to buy. There are loads of forums that potential buyers read, and they are awash with horror stories,(http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/forums/) I think you severely underestimate the effect these have had. In a post here, in Andalucia alone sales of properties to foreigners have dropped from over 6,000 dwellings to 367! That´s from 2006, so before the crisis took hold, sales have been dropping alarmingly. The only reason this new initiative has been introduced is because foreigners no longer trust the Spanish or their system, and rather belatedly they seem to becoming aware of the fact. Yes, some people will be buying, but the figures below suggest to date it´s only a handful. For years they have been ripping people off, it´ll take a long time to repair the damage and instil some trust in the Spanish system.

cricketman

Well, official figures say there are only 315,000 Brits living in Spain (2007 figures), but other sources estimate 760,000.

So that means the majority of British people in Spain are hiding from the system. Makes you wonder what type of Brit actually lives in Spain!?

agoreira

According to this article, about one million living there with only 400,000 registered! It alters with every article you read. This is about Brits living in Little Brit ghettos on the coast and exploiting the Spanish health service.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/expat/a...much-of-spain/

I think we know that, but the lady writing the article gets it about right.

Lenox

The figures supplied in Spain come from the INE - the instituto nacional de estadísticas. They are very exact (bean-counters), but their figures are based on the information they get.
Only those Brits on the padrón will be counted by the INE as 'living in Spain'. Not the number of British-owned households (no one has a clue... the nearest and best estimate was a figure of Northern European households provided by Ciudadanos Europeos and based on information from the Butano contracts to foreigners (!!) giving 1,3 million homes - holiday or full-time).
The number of tourists to Spain - given with the most exquisite accuracy by the INE - is obviously false. You drive in and out of France a couple of times and you've messed it up already. You, a foreign resident, don't stay in a tripper hotel? Don't count!
The Foreign Office in London reckons we are about a million - a chunk of citizens for which they don't seem to take much interest either.

HBG

Despite the well-publicised horror stories, there is still a fantastic demand in the UK to emigrate to Spain. After Australia, it’s the most popular foreign destination for people from the UK. The reasons are obvious and don’t need repeating, being part of the EU is probably the most important one.

There is a lot of talk from the economists to suggest that Spain, Greece and a couple of other countries are so disadvantaged by belonging to the Euro that they may have to revert to their old currencies.

If Spain should revert to the Peseta under something close to the previous exchange rate against the pound, they will have to lay on extra ferries and planes for the Brits coming over and the 1.3 million empty houses will be sold overnight.

There will be British flags flying over Auyntamientos all over Spain.

And those people asking themselves what kind of Brits live over here should look in the mirror.

agoreira

Possibly, but the fact that more go to Australia means it's not an essential requirement. For me, I'm guessing it would be the weather. How many, hand on heart, would have gone if the weather was the same as UK? Possibly for the one's in the north the weather was not quite so important, but not many went for the culture, the language etc.
Yes there is talk of countries wanting out of the euro, Spain. Greece, Ireland etc, that's why I for one am glad the UK is out of it, at least we have control of our currency. The richer countries with the euro will end propping up the poorer countries, not sure to what degree and for how long they are prepared to do that.