Sell in UK and buy in Spain
Jul 21st 2024 | 6:18 am
#31
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 1,171
From: Dubai UK Spain
Re: Sell in UK and buy in Spain
The problem does not seem to be with the big expensive villas which the working class locals can’t afford. It’s with the apartments which is what they used to be able to afford before the tourist letting put the prices through the roof.
The inevitable solution is to ban tourist apartment letting or at least limit it. One interesting suggestion is that you cannot have a tourist letting licence unless the “property†has its own private entrance.
Yes the income from tourists will drop but a satisfactory compromise is going to have to be acheived. I would definitely not invest in low end BTL property. A nice 5 bedroom villa could work out but I don’t have €1m to spare - I prefer to live in my €1m villa!
The inevitable solution is to ban tourist apartment letting or at least limit it. One interesting suggestion is that you cannot have a tourist letting licence unless the “property†has its own private entrance.
Yes the income from tourists will drop but a satisfactory compromise is going to have to be acheived. I would definitely not invest in low end BTL property. A nice 5 bedroom villa could work out but I don’t have €1m to spare - I prefer to live in my €1m villa!
The problem will take a very long time to resolve, settle and balance. If there was a blanket ban on Airbnb style rentals it would still take a very long time for those properties to find their way into the market for locals to rent. I don’t think the backlash should be underestimated from both local businesses and local owners both of whom will be financially hit. My understanding is that in the city centre type locations the majority of owners are Spanish (I have no insight into stats for other areas) . Tourists will always find an alternative holiday but any enforcement action could ultimately hit their fellow Spanish countryman and woman.
Jul 21st 2024 | 7:02 am
#32
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 11,231
From: Granada Costa
Re: Sell in UK and buy in Spain
No, I said if I had €1m to invest in a villa, I would live in it not let it!
Jul 21st 2024 | 7:38 am
#34
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jan 2017
Posts: 1,171
From: Dubai UK Spain
Re: Sell in UK and buy in Spain
Agreed. Spain has lived with mass tourism for many decades now and this problem has only become so acute since the end of the pandemic, it seems to me. The number of apartments built for residential use which have now been converted to tourist lets has grown so rapidly that it has led to a complete imbalance in the housing market. The present level of tourism is also causing problems in other areas, airports cannot cope without ridiculously long queues at peak periods, public transport is so full that people are finding it difficult to get around (as we have experienced, we don't even try to go to Nerja in July or August, and now services between here and Málaga are so full that people have been unable to board services and faced a long wait for the next one) plus journeys are taking much longer because of the sheer volume of traffic.
In my home town in the UK an RAF station closed and 2000 homes were built which on the face of it was lovely, but with very little increase in local infrastructure. Roads are queued, local hospital completely unchanged and stretched, schools, GP surgeries, dentists etc etc.
By banning tourists it potentially just creates another set of problems IMHO. It’s not as simple as kicking out tourists and everything will be ok.
