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| Eye on Spain Newsletter 8 January 2008 | |
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Buenos dias Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year. I’m personally quite glad to be getting back into a routine again and looking forward to an “interesting” 2008. For this week’s newsletter I just wanted to talk a little about what’s in store for 2008…. This year is going to be a difficult year for the Spanish real estate market. I’m sure that statement doesn’t come as a shock to you but I don’t think anyone can really predict what’s in store. 2007 was difficult enough with many estate agencies closing down. Over the past five years Spain has been building homes at a rate of around 800,000 per year. That’s more than the combined total for Britain, France and Germany! That is an astonishing figure. The Spanish building industry is now predicting that over the next five years this figure will fall by nearly 50% to around 450,000 units per year. The knock on effect, as we are already seeing, is the loss of jobs in the building and real estate sector. In fact, one of my Spanish neighbours popped in for a chat last night. He works for a company that builds roads. He was telling me that they only have work for another 3 months, then he’s got to find himself a new job, probably not in construction. When we think of a declining property market we tend to think about the struggle people have selling their properties and the agents having to close their doors. But the problem is far greater and affects so many other people who all depend on the property market. We have already seen some of the major estate agents and developers making huge changes in order to reduce internal costs and become more efficient. This has lead to some major concerns for off plan buyers wondering if their development will ever be finished hoping the developer doesn’t go bust. We have seen this happening already. I think 2008 will follow a similar trend to last year with buyers exercising a lot more caution during the buying process. They will be carrying out a lot more research and be less likely to be pressurised into buying anything. Our long term rentals facility on the site has already generated a huge number of enquiries since the beginning of the month from people looking to relocate to Spain but unsure about whether to buy at the moment. They are all treading carefully. Therefore, my advice to any property hunter is to do your research, make sure you get a good price and use independently recommended companies. This week I have asked some top names within the Spanish property market to give their opinion on the outlook for 2008. I’ll have those for you for next week. In the meantime, I’d be interested to know what YOU think 2008 has in store for the Spanish property market. Have your say on my blog, just hit the “comments” link and leave your opinion. I would really appreciate it. Now, what are we up to at Eye on Spain for 2008? 2008 is an exciting year for Eye on Spain. This year we’re taking action. We want to make a difference. We want to use our position as the top online resource for Spanish property buyers and owners to truly make a difference. We want to make buying a property in Spain the pleasurable experience it should be. Want to know what we’ve got up our sleeve? Then watch this space as we show you how the power of the Internet can make a difference…. Finally, I wish you a prosperous New Year and we’ll be back next week with our regular newsletter. Un saludo
Justin Aldridge |
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