BBC are on the case

News on the Spanish property scandals and the backlash

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13313924

Rod

There was also a good article in todays's Observer.

 People should understand that property as a home or an investment is only viable if there is a firm foundation of property rights and law to back it. The boom in property in Western Europe was largely driven by this basic assumption, that, and cheap money.

Investors from all over the world flock to London because of the UK legal system. I'm sure you could buy a mansion in some far flung country for a few grand , only to find the next day its been appropriated by your friendly local despot. What ever you paid for it doesn;t then mean a thing if it does not belong to you. Property rights and a decent legal system are everything.

I think its clear from the last few years that Spain is a third world country in this respect. Not only is it a great shame hanging over the countrie's head, but talk about shooting yourself in the foot. One in five jobs and an economy totally dependent on the property market and then you go and do your best to do over as many of your customers as possible.

NO ONE should even consider buying property in Spain until Spain makes it quite clear where the law stands and also should compensate all those that it has failed. Only then should any fresh money come in.

To add insult to injury you now have a government official "advising" people about property prices and making predictions of "leveling out" and good value. Please give me a break, these are the same poeple that presided quietly over one of the biggest booms and busts in modern history. They are not fit to run a sweet shop, its just as well they have a safe tax payer funded job, its hard to imagine how they would cope in the real world.

Whatever the legal system Spanish property is going down down down for the next decade or more. As per the former "hot spots" in the US, you will soon be able to buy a 2 bed apartment for less than a car. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/may/08/property-spain?INTCMP=SRCH

QUOTE from Guardian article:

The government's price index show Costa del Sol values down another 8% in the year to late March, while "recent interest rate rises are likely to put further downward pressure on prices" says Mark Stucklin, a Barcelona-based analyst who writes an online market guide, Spanish Property Insight.

A Reuters poll of economists and property experts shows a strong majority forecasting two more years of price falls. Investment bank Morgan Stanley predicts prices will drop another 10% this year alone, while business consultancy PWC says it could take a decade before the market stabilises.

Problems aside, why would anyone invest in Spanish property with this gloomy forcast?

Here hoping all the  criminal devellopers, and criminal mayor and policiticians that reside in Spain are caught in the samesand storm. I sick to death hearing about crooked spanish developers how profess to be bankrupt - someone magically buying properties in venezuela, brazil and the caribbean with our money.

hopefully there families will all be on the streets soon begging for the tourist buck