jackytoo

Of course the British, Scandinavians, Germans have an effect on the economy on the coastal provinces. If they weren't there there would be a knock on effect, less airport workers down to less gardeners and millions of euros not spent on local suppliers, a downward spiral. Didn't you study even basic economics

bobd22

Bound to have an affect as you say. Five years ago in the village where our house is the expats 2 or 3 nights a week would fill the bars restaurants. These days you see the odd couple. You are not telling me the bar/restaurant owners are not affected by this? Then there is the businesses in the area a lot of expats have gone back you are not telling me this hasn't affected them? Tax receipts to the village council gone down certainly you see a big difference in the immediate area.
They may get by but that is not the point they need the income doesn't anyone?

Domino

it is rumoured the Russians aren't put off one little bit
have even seen adds around on the internet advising homeowners wanting to sell to make contact as they have active Russian buyers and thousands of properties are wanted

Domino

most of our ex-ex-pats have lasted 8 years give or take, the children have grown up, the house is only worth half of what it was bought for, so they are getting out.
the days of the super rich Brits are long gone

went to see a house the other day, the English couple said they wanted €200k for it - but its advertised on a Spanish agents website for €175k.
do they think I just got off the bannana boat

Pit Bull.

That my be the case, but the arse has dropped out of the Spanish building trade, unless the programmes they keep showing on UK tv are incorrect, they keep showing these huge new build ghost towns, unfinished due to the builders going bankrupt. I hope the Russian invasion is the start of things picking up for Spain.

Domino

yeah ok so there are some ghost towns never occupied, or airports never seen a plane

but.......the media keep trotting out the same fotos with different words.

My advice to Rajoy is to counter every single piece of negative press with 2 or even 3 pieces of positive press.
Although I understand he has stopped taking English lessons, can't make up his mind if he should carry on or switch to Russian

steviedeluxe

Hate to say this, as they inherited an amazingly bad situation from the previous govt., but Rajoy gives the impression of being someone completely out of his depth. Unless of course, that's the impression he wants to give.
I agree about the counter policy - I'm waiting for the call from Moncloa right now

Pocaloca

Sorry, but you have a rather lop-sided view of the country! The expat zones in coastal provinces are a very small part of Spain as a whole. Not insignificant, of course, but the vast majority of the country's economy is based on tourism, agriculture and manufacturing -not looking after expats' gardens ...

The building boom which collapsed in 2008 catered mainly for Spaniards, not foreigners, as can be seen by the hundreds of thousands of tower blocks and urbanisations which sprang up around the edges of all our towns and cities. There is far more to Spain than those pink villas on the CDS!

Domino

he seems to get on well with Angela
or is that a ploy or worse a front for her pulling the strings

cricketman

Finally, someone who speaks sense!

Makes a change after 4 years of rubbish

jackytoo

How do you think the 70% of spanish survive on the CDS. The trucks that deliver Coca cola, the San Miguel factory. the supermarkets, furniture shops. It feeds off tourism and residential tourism. The small industry it did have, textiles etc. has been closed years ago. If the foreigners left the Spanish would lose their service sector jobs and then they wouldn't be spending either, as I said downward spiral. Unemployment is now 35% in Andalucía and the province has asked for a bailout.

steviedeluxe

Isn't the fact that higher unemployment levels in Andalucia and the tourist states (Valencia, Murcia, Canaries) a sign that in fact tourism has been bad for the economy? Ok, so Extremadura looks bad too.
Very few people used to visit the Basque country, yet it has the lowest unemployment rates in Spain!

Dick Dasterdly

It's not bad for the economy at all,in fact the contrary,as long as there is a balanced economy.
Sadly that's not been the case and Spain became to reliant on the gravy train of easy money thinking the good times would never end and making no preparation for some rainy days which were always going to happen some time, regardless of the present serious crisis.

Relampago

No, was in the 15thC

The Catholic Kings were the parents of Catherine of Aragon (Catalina de Aragon), first wife of Henry VIII

jackytoo

The Basque country has a manufacturing base Andalucía has nothing to speak of. Some low paid agricultural jobs that's all. The Andalusians are always complaining about the regions reliance on tourism, boom and bust!