Alicanteos

About 19,000 properties built in Marbella with illegal licenses will be legalized under the new Urban Master Plan (P.G.O.U.) of Marbella. From 1991 to 2002, the city of Marbella was in the hand of mayor Jesus Gil, the man was first popular among the citizens he reduced street crimes and started a real estate boom. However, in the recent years, that idyllic image faded away, Juan Antonio Roca was the planning adviser of mayor Jesus Gil, the man pursed a quest to wealth giving the impression that his motto was the ‘the end justify the means’, the council handed out building licences for tens of thousands of homes which higher authorities now deem not legal. In 2002 Jesus Gil was banned over Roca the man behind the curtain was able to use the next major Marisol Yagüe (Today, she faces charges of bribery, perversion of the course of justice, and of altering the prices in municipal deals )

Juan Antonio Roca, 53, is in prison he siphoned the wealth of Marbella for him and his partners in crime.

Technorati Tags: marbella, corruption, housing, legalize, urban master plan

Simed (Salon Inmobiliario del Mediterraneo – Mediterranean Real Estate Exhibition ) is since 2004 the annual meeting of professional and people interest in the residential real estate market in the south of Europe.
The exhibition offers business opportunity for sellers and buyers the last editions generated a turn over higher than 125 millions Euro from direct home and land sales. Majors developers will be at the SiMed making special special offers, if you are interested the SiMed takes place in Malaga from October 3rd to October 7th details at http://www.simedmalaga.com/.

SiMed 2006

17000 m2 of gross exhibition space
9500 m2 of net exhibition space
120 first class exhibiting companies
25000 visits
16000 visitis by accredited professionals
Presence of 17 countries and 43 Spanish provinces
212 accredited journalists
183 different media

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A new Land Act came into effect on 1st July 2007 replacing the old Land System and Valuation act 6/1998. There is an interesting article about the new Land Act on Mondaq.com , the article says that the new act purpose are:

Preserve landscape and environmental character
Curb property speculation and rising house prices
Stop excessive development

This is indeed good news they are at least 6 noteworthy novelty :

1 – Rights of all citizens are specifically regulated

2 – A requirement that 30 % of new residential land be set aside publicly protected housing

3 – All planning instruments and agreements must undergo a public information procedure before being approved.

4 – Change in the zoning of land

5 – Expectations not to be applied in the valuation of land.

6 – A requirement that new developments allocate to the public stock of land a percentage ranging between 5% and 15% of the land

More details on Mondaq

Technorati Tags: spain, land, act, law

According to Enrique Llopis, Honourary President of the Alicante Real Estate Agents College, 300 estate agencies ceased trading in Alicante in the first seven months of 2007. This is quite a number. The numbers of agencies in trouble is estimated at 3000.
The most vulnerable agencies are the smaller and newer companies.

Prices are stable on resale properties but as I said in an earlier post , the time to sell a property is getting longer about 120 days. They are also less buyers at this period new mortgages over the first six months are down by 2.85%, that the first reduction in six years.

Technorati Tags: spain, property, market, mortgages

According to the Red de Expertos Inmobiliarios (REI) 30 % of real estate agency in Spain could close their business in 2007 if they don’t adapt their marketing approach, The sector has to face a reduction in the numbers of properties to sales.

The numbers of transaction decrease and the time to sell a properties increase , it averages 120 days for the moment.

September should be a key month to observe the trend , let see what happens.

Technorati Tags: properties, spain, market

There is a phenomenon that has been going on for a couple of years now in spain, it is the mobbing (illegal pressures on tenants) on people having an old rent and paying less than 100 Euro of rent, usually it goes like this , the speculation and inflation make the prices go up however some people signed a contract so long ago like that old woman paying 40 EURO /Month since 1936 her landlord mobbed the flat causing damage that she couldn’t afford to repair and also making difficult to her to stay in that place. Mobbing is a way for property owners to kick tenants out so they can find someone else that will sign a new contract to today market condition and pay much more.

In Barcelona, 201 mobbing case have been reported from January 2005 to May 2006. I’m not aware of any law for a better protection of tenants as far as I’m concerned being a property owner is the way to go.

Technorati Tags: spanish, property, mobbing

Is the U.S mortgages financial crisis caused by subprime (the practice of making loans to borrowers who do not qualify for market interest rates because of problems with their credit history or the ability to prove that they have enough income to support the monthly payment on the loan) has an effect on people in Spain ?

That crisis caused a lot of mess with companies , financial products with no investors on the markets to buy. The European Central Bank and many other central banks put cash on the markets to ease the crisis , today investors are feeling safer espcially about the banking sector.

According to expert the access the price to obtain a loan will no grow because it would cause a slow down of the Spanish economy (who want that ?)

Anyway, according to Jean-Claude Trichet the CEO of the European Central Market the markets are coming back to normal.

Technorati Tags: subprime, spain, loan, mortgages

Prices of rent has increased in Spain of +4,3 % in just a year., prices of charges (water and other services) also rose of +3,1 % during the last 12 months.

Highest increase has been in Madrid and Asturias with +4,1 % followed by the Canary Islands with +3,8%, Community of Valencia +3,7 %, Catalonia +3,5 %, Basques Country +3,1%

Lower raises have been observed in Andalucia and Rioja +2,7%, Navarre +2,5%, Cantabrias and the Baleares +2,4%, Aragon and Galicia +2,3%, Melilla, Castilla and Leon +2,2 %, Murcia (+2.1%), Castile-The Spot (+2%), Extremadura (+1.7%) and Ceuta (+1%).

Technorati Tags: rental, price, index

If you consider a mortgage loan to finance the purchase of your property, they are two aspects that will tell how much you can borrow.

The value of the property – A valuation company will determine the value of the property, in some case the valuation and the purchase price may differ greatly.
You pay the valuation process ( a valuation is like a survey report) whether you get the loan or not.

Income - Spanish lenders generally calculate a ratio of your net disposable income that will be used to repay borrowing and will want to ensure that you have the ability to service the loan. If it is a family or joint purchase then multiple incomes can be used. lenders usually
recommend that the monthly instalment you will have to pay for the mortgage loan, should not exceed a certain percentage -around 30%- of your monthly income. It is safer for you: you avoid the risk of non- payment if you have unexpected expenses.
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Nowadays, new properties on the Costa Blanca are built with security doors, protection grills and monitored alarms. A property in a community is even more protected because a community is occupied all year round.

Some recommendations:

Don’t make easy to enter your property (security doors), don’t let a ladder in your garden or things that make easy to access your house.
Lock the windows when you aren’t home.

Don’t show off your stuffs (plasma TV, dvd players) usually thieves know you have that stuffs when you get rid of the boxes or if you let the boxes in your garage, so take the boxes away to some place where they could be recycled.

Even if you live alone put several names on the entry doors.

Ask your neighbour or someone to collect your mails when you aren’t home.

If you contracted a video monitoring system connected to a central make sure that the company offering this service is registred with the Registro de Empresas de la Dirección General de la Policía.

Infra-red detector is the most modern security system, it detects the people by the temperature of their body (37 degrees Celsius), if you have the money for that system go for that.

Technorati Tags: robbery, spain, protection, security