Spanish Property Investment Advice 

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

Posted on 26 May 2006

1 in 3 People Living in Spain in 2015 Will be a Foreigner

According to off-the-record sources, it’s estimated that one in three people living in Spain in 2015 will be a foreigner. That’s a startling statistic and great news for anyone who is property investing there. For me, the government decision to offer legal status to 700,000 immigrants who have lived and worked in the country for more than six months is a big plus. I believe we will see Eastern European immigrants pouring into Spain over the next few years. As in the UK, these will create lots of rental hotspots as these workers clearly need somewhere to live and tend to cluster together. They key is to follow where these workers go and offer low-priced accommodation in these areas. More on that soon.

The biggest slow-burn story continues to be the court ruling that allows Revenue & Customs to obtain details of Barclays Bank offshore accounts held by British residents. HMRC sources suggest that they expect to generate £1.5billion in unpaid income tax from Barclays customers. It says that 9,300 Barclays customers have addresses in Britain and accounts outside of the country even though only 20% have filed UK tax returns and only a fraction of those declared foreign income. Let’s clarify this by saying that we are not just talking Barclays here. Anyone who has an offshore account or property and who is spotted by HMRC can expect to receive a letter from HMRC inviting them to come clean. I am currently compiling a free article about this for members of my free daily news service at www.internationalpropertyalerts.co.uk If you have an offshore account or property overseas, you need to read it.

As a hotspotter, I have been following the Disney Park story for a while now. For those of you who are not up to speed, there are plans for a park close to Manilva which is close to Marbella. The myth is that it will be a massive Paris-style park. The reality is that it is likely to be substantially smaller than this. Even so, it is likely to be a boost for tourism, and not just here. The talk is that in return for building a new park, Disney will contribute towards the cost of building a new motorway from Seville to the Costa del Sol. That is where I think our attentions should be drawn before this five-year unfold starts unfolding!

All for now

Iain Maitland

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