Alicanteos

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.
(more…)

One thing I noticed in Spain is the high level of noise in certain apartment, your neighbour way too high…. It was the case when I various flats in Valencia. As I remember Alicante was a quieter place especially where I stayed en La Urbanicazion La Marina (Elche)
Now some good news on the front of sound isolation in Spain.

According to minister Carme Chacón, 1/3 of Spanish homes have too much noise it affects 12 millions people in a country of 40 millions people.
There are new projects to increase the level of sound protection of homes. It involves better isolation of walls and windows.

At this level of the project, they are just doing studies and writing a new official document on the subject.

Technorati Tags: sound, protection, isolation, spain

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

More and more German and British buy a house under the sun in Spain for their retirement also according to census administration of Spain (El Padron), 27, 36 % of the Spanish population is 55 years old or older. Spain will soon have quite a lot seniors. Some countries such as the Netherlands have already adapted infrastructure for seniors but Spain isn’t yet there but they are improving infrastructures.

There is new development of communities (Urbanicaziones) for the seniors and the ideal one usually follow certain criteria’s:

They have restaurants, shopping facilities , libraries, gymnasiums, sanitary.

Usually being 55 or more will be required to have a house in such urbanicazion.

Residents usually need to be healthy and in good conditions with their full abilities usually these type of urbanicazion don’t have hospitals or equipment to follow someone who need medical treatments.

Urbanicazion for seniors are not always on seaside or near a golf, some are in the city and other on the coast. Depending the location , the regions and the level of services offered the price may vary anywhere from 150 000 EUROS to 1,5 Millions EUROS

Technorati Tags: urbanizacion, senior, spain

Renting a flat or buying a flat in Madrid will cost you the same, according to the Ministerio De Vivienda, renting a flat will cost you an average of 11,98 EUROS per square meter a month, if you want to live in a 70 square meters flat it will cost you about 796,6 EUROS a month.

If you want to buy that same flat except 3002 EUROS per square meter, so the total for this flat is 168.112 EUROS, assuming you can get a mortgage for 80 % of the value of the flat and you have the remaining 20 % cash, it will cost about 807,63 EUROS a month with a 40 years mortgage taking into account the Euribor rate.

Renting will save you a miserable 11 EUROS so better buy in these condition at least as far as Madrid is concerned.

Technorati Tags: mortgage, madrid, rent, buy, property

The landlord of an apartment located in Madrid or Barcelona can make as much as 8000 EURO a month by renting his property to tourists and I believe that, I remember I wanted to rent a very small flat in Barcelona near La Ramblas, it was 1330 EURO…I don’t understand these prices they are depressing.

A property of standard quality can bring a yearly profitability of 5% , this is higher return than the average 2% you can get by normal rent.

Many people entered this market during the last few years and the market will probably continue to grow, each time, I go to Barcelona I cantt see to find a room in a hotel…..If you have a flat in the center of Madrid or Barcelona you can get between 80 – 100 EURO a night.
If you wish to invest in that market it will be good to have the transaction made by a registered company that can handle insurances, keys, guarantee.

Technorati Tags: barcelona, madrid, rent, profit, center, property

According to an article posted on Fotocasa , there is a bit of fears about some risk on the Spanish properties market, promoters bought a lot of lands at high prices and they have no other remedy that selling to high prices says Oscar Martinez Solozábal president of Asociación Empresarial de Expertos Inmobiliarios (APEI).
He also see no signs of the real estate bubble deflating in the near future, if that bubble exists because according to other commentators the market is in normal condition and there is no bubble in Spain.

Technorati Tags: bubble, spanish, market, property

Since September 2006 new constructions who use hot water (houses, flats, hospitals, hotels, etc…) are required to conform to the new Código Técnico de la Edificación (CTE), installation of a solar thermal system, the system will be used to heat water and produce electricity.

Requirement isn’t the same depending on the regions and the climate of the area. As a whole, the European Union hopes by 2010 that 12 % of his consumed energy will be renewable energies.
The cost of solar thermal system is high but it last in average 25 years, except 10 years for amortization.

During a sale of new property neither the seller nor the buyer have to pay the property transfer tax (ITP 6% - 7%) , but there are 2 other taxes to pay:

1 – VAT , the tax is applied on the price depend on the type of the property sold.

7% on houses, flats
16% on garages, locales
4% on house that are legally protected

2- The second tax is the stamp duty AJD (Impuesto de Actos Jurídicos Documentados) of 0,5¨%

Example :

If you buy a new property to a developer for 60 000 euros , you will a VAT on that property of 4200 euros, in addition there is the stamp duty of 0,5 % - 300 euros

The VAT is applied directly on the sale price, the stamps duty have to be paid by the buyer within 30 days after the contract (escritura) has been signed.

Recap:

New property - taxes

VAT
Capital Gains Tax
Stamp duty

Resale property – taxes

Capital Gains Tax
Property Transfer Tax
(there is no VAT and stamp duty on resale property)

Technorati Tags: VAT, ajd, stamp, duty, new, property