Spanish Property Investment Advice 

Brought to you each week by our property expert, Iain Maitland.

Posted on 09 June 2006

Spain’s Property Market is Going to Grow and Grow

Spain’s property market is going to grow and grow. Ignore what the doom and gloom merchants are saying. Spanish property is underpinned by three solid pillars of profit. Euro interest rates are low. Immigration is rising steadily. Demand for property, especially amongst foreigners holidaying and retiring here, is strong. All the stats I receive day after day support continued growth. Euro rates will rise a little this year but remain low in historic terms. Madrid, for example, has had more than 1 million immigrants over the past five years. 70% of the demand for homes on the Costa del Sol comes from foreigners and that percentage is rising. Of course, the rate of growth is likely to slow but we have a good couple of years ahead of us yet.

I think I must have seen just about every TV programme about property in Spain and Europe. I know from working behind the scenes on one or two programmes a few years back that so much of what is shown is tweaked and manipulated to show how clever the presenters are and how easy it all is. I particularly recall one programme when builders and what have you all moved in almost overnight to restore an old farmhouse which must have stretched the credulity of even the most gullible viewer. Anyhow, the point I am meandering around to is that buying overseas is rarely as easy as these shows make out. And that brings me to the new Which guide, Buying Property Abroad, by Jeremy Davies who says that TV programmes make buying overseas look too easy and attractive. Too right! Check the book out in all good bookshops. And, as you are online now, have a look at the Which site which is at http://www.which.net/moveit/takecontrol/overseas/05onlinehelp.html

A quick mention for my free daily enews and free monthly newsletter service at www.internationalpropertyalerts.co.uk We have a Western European Hotspots report coming up at the end of the month and this features my best-buy investment hotspots in Spain. If you sign up today at www.internationalpropertyalerts.co.uk, you can receive not just free daily enews and a free monthly newsletter but that report as well!

I thought we had seen the back of timeshare scams in the 1980’s when I started off in property. Not so! A massive timeshare scam run by eight con-artists from Andalucia has just been shut down. The police estimate that 15,000 members of the public were conned. This was a dual con. Existing timeshare owners were coldcalled by con-artists offering to market their properties. Some agreed and were duly presented with fake bills for fees, legal expenses, taxes and goodness knows what else. The other was where the same, non-existent timeshare was sold over and over again to beachside Brits. In investment terms, I have yet to see any timeshare that is a worthwhile investment. And, harsh though it seems, I have little sympathy for the knotted-handkerchief brigade who come over all sunstroked on the Spanish beach in summer and sign on the dotted line. Go back in November when it’s miserable and see how exciting it all looks then!

I mentioned that 70% of the demand for homes on the Costa del Sol comes from foreigners, according to a just-out study by Aguirre Newman. Digging deeper into the stats suggests that demand is slowing most in and around Marbella. This can be attributed to several factors including a balancing out of the supply and demand mix, the high prices thereabouts and the recent political and legal scandals. Of greater interest is that the demand percentages are rising now in Murcia and Almeria, which are being tipped (quite rightly) as emerging investment areas with relatively affordable prices. These are where the smart, steady-eddie money should now be going this coming summer.

All for now

Iain Maitland

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