SPANISH GOVERNMENT PROPERTY ROAD SHOW 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 @ 1:06 AM
Sr. José Blanco the Spanish Development Minister (El Ministro de Fomento) has announced that the Spanish Government Official Property 'Road Show' will commence in London on 4 May 2011.
In the official press release issued on 14 April 2011 in Madrid by the Ministerio de Fomento Sr. Blanco said:
"The Road Show will highlight the strengths of our economy, transparency and legal certainty of our planning legislation.
It is a good time to carry out this pioneering initiative because the markets that have the potential to invest in second homes are recovering and we must revive the holiday housing market ‘to speed up the digestion of stock’
In selecting the countries to be visited in this first round of Road Shows we have taken into account variables such as the volume of house purchases in Spain that its citizens have made in recent years, its investment in general in our country, the situation of their respective economies and the potential for increased investment in our second homes market.
The United Kingdom is the first international destination for this first round of Road Shows because, according to the latest data available, its citizens and investors in 2009 accounted for 31.5% of foreign buyers of property in Spain.
In subsequent weeks we will also visit France, Germany, Holland and Sweden. In addition we will visit also Russia.
The Road Show is designed in two phases: in the first phase the Ministry of Development will transmit confidence to large investors and brokers, offering all the information regarding our market, ongoing policy reforms and greater transparency regarding the evolution of prices and stock.Subsequently we will develop a second phase, open to private sector participation, with a selection of real estate products that meet minimum standards of legality, planning and quality through an evaluation process in which agents and companies interested in participating in this round may voluntarily submit their properties and products”.
Speaking to Onda Cero radio station Sr Blanco defended the need for the Road Show by stating that "The fact is that there is a 'stock' of residential housing and it is necessary to speed up sales because it is weighing heavily on the sector financially".
He said "It seems that I have become a real estate agent but my role is to ensure greater legal certainty to potential investors following many campaigns against the Spanish property sector"
In February 2011, when previewing the upcoming Road Shows the Spanish Housing Minister, Sra. Beatriz Corredor said: “Come here calmly and trust in the system that we have and the transparency we provide”
Sr. Blanco and Sra. Corredor need to understand that for thousands of victims of the Spanish Property Sector there was and still is no ‘transparency or legal certainty’.
Despite many empty words by Spanish Government officials there still remains little evidence of any ‘ongoing policy reforms’.
Lawyers and Banks have been negligent, the court system is overloaded, judges are inconsistent and real justice is still an expensive dream for many victims.
There remains a basic lack of understanding of LEY 57/68 and in many cases the law is not applied properly.
The Supervisor of the Spanish Banking System – the Banco de España is totally ineffective and has no real power. The result is that the Banks have been allowed to ignore their obligations according to LEY 57/68 and work together with the corrupt developers to blatantly steal purchaser’s off-plan deposit funds.
It is a serious mess and Sr. Blanco and the Spanish Government have NOTHING to put on a show about. Before making more empty promises and embarking on a Road Show designed to entice other unsuspecting ‘victims’ into the shambles that is the Spanish Property Sector Sr. Blanco must, together with his government colleagues, rectify the serious injustices that have taken place over the past decade in their country.