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Foreign buyers are increasingly more attracted to houses on the market in Spain because of the possibility of having a second home in a warmer area that will only cost more or less half or even a third of the original asking prices that were seen in 2008. Spanish Property investment also suppose to be a reason for those who believe that buying when prices are at the bottom is always an opportunity for the future.
 
The Public Works Ministry stated that 8,803 houses were purchased by foreigners in the third quarter, a jump of 18 percent from a year ago. This is consistent with the growth in this area in the last five quarters.
 
In the first and second quarters of 2012 we saw an increase of 16.2 and 15.3 percent consecutively. This is great for the market because of the vast quantity of homes sitting around unsold since the crash in 2008, and the government is taking advantage of the situation by promoting sales and tax improvements to non-residents and foreign buyers.
 
 
Resident cards for foreign buyers seem to be working
To target the Chinese and Russian markets, mainly, the government is considering giving residence cards on a temporary basis to non-residents that buy homes worth more than 160,000 euros. Read the full article about homes for sale in Spain for foreign buyers

Should I pay a Finder's Fee (FF) to source a Spanish property investment? Well, that is a good question now, given that the Spanish property market is supposed to be a buyer's market instead of a seller's market, as it is now in London, for example.
 
To find the right property is a very hard job that requires skills, contacts and lots of time. Any professional agent and/or property finder should get pay for that. If anyone is telling you "it is for free" he is taking a referral commission and hiding it to you... specially in Spain.
 
I am going to try to explain in the best way possible why I believe a FF should be utilized as a clever option in the current market situation studying case by case. Not always is going to work better than the classic agents’ commission but in this post there are some thoughts. Probably the "margin for negotiation" is the key.
 
 
1) You might ask yourself: Why pay a FF to source a property in a distressed market with thousands of affordable and even cheap options? Well, the answer is that a proper sourcing option will save you all the time it takes to go through those hundreds of options and will prevent you from getting a sub-prime option in terms of location, quality and exit strategy. To pay a FF to a property source who receives dozens and dozens of properties in his inbox every week is a time and money saving option.
 
2) A FF will provide a service that works in your own interest rather than in the seller's or agent interest or in a commission-type way.
 
3) The FF will save you not just the time but the phone bills from dozens of phone calls trying to get your messages across to a Spaniard in case you want to do it by yourself.
 
4) BETTER MARGIN FOR NEGOTIATION. When paying a FF to get properties directly from sellers, this option will give you larger room for price negotiating. It is a proven fact that distressed sellers with a good property are not always ready to give away a percentage to an agent for commission but are happy to negotiate the price with a motivated buyer. This is why, in the current market, a Property Finder Fee agreement becomes a double win for the buyer-investor who will get the property for a much lower price.
 
 
In other words, a Finder's Fee will narrow the search of a property customized to your needs, will save you time and money, and will potentially give you a better buying price.
 
In any case, the buyer endS up paying either the agent’s commission or the FF, the most important is to find case by case what will work better for you.
 
 
Other articles of interest:
Investors are chasing the property market in Spain
Why Spain still the best country to invest?
Will prices rise again? Current values
 

Banks have a unique status in our society.  Powerful, and able to drive the economy, they seem heartless and ready to put profit above any moral or human principle. Why not just say this when it seems to be a generally held view?
 
They were vital in the good times when people needed money to fund projects – to buy a house, for example – but in recent years, with the economic crisis hitting really hard, their true natures have been revealed and their behaviour has led people to accuse them of preying on the weak and vulnerable.
 
 
These are a few thoughts on why banks can be considered one of the most hated institutions in Spain at the beginning of 2013.
 
 
1) Thousands of Spaniards have been badly affected by Spanish Banks Swaps contracts which were sold as insurance against interest rate fluctuation.  These people have had to pay thousands of Euros each in the last 4-5 years.
 

After four years of legal battles the organization No-Clip has successfully coordinated legal action on behalf of these consumers which has resulted in the courts handing down hundreds of judgements against the Banks. In hundreds of cases the Banks have lost and had to return the money.
 
 
2) Many thousands of Spaniards have been affected by “Preferente” contracts. These were sold as deposit or saving accounts but in reality they were agreements to invest in complex financial products in such a way that the clients’ money was locked away for decades. These products were only ever appropriate for financial institutions and should never been sold to ordinary members of the public. There are already associations supporting clients affected by "preferentes".
 
Many people have effectively lost their life savings due to preferentes because they will not be able to recover their savings in this life … and neither will their children or grandchildren.
 
 
3) Who else hates Banks in Spain?  According to the many estate agents with whom we work in Spain they are being badly hurt by the major role of the Banks in the property market.  Not only do the banks hold huge property portfolios, they also prevent estate agents who sell repossessed properties from getting a proper commission.  Unless they are selling large quantities of repossessed properties, the profit for the hard work is short.  Only two weeks ago a senior executive from the property arm of a "Spanish bank admitted that the banks disliked others making a profit from properties repossessed by the banks".
 
 
4) Cruel evictions: another reason to hate Banks. The attitude of the banks during the present crisis has led to more than 100,000 Spanish families losing their homes in recent years without having had the chance to renegotiate the terms of the loans and thus make them affordable.
 
 
The recent suicide of a woman in Barakaldo (Vizcaya) who was evicted from her home in November 2012 brought the bank’s uncaring attitude into sharp focus, and the popular backlash against the banks has led them to revise their policies and place on hold their evictions. They are now more willing to discuss a renegotiation of the mortgages with their customers. Yesterday we got a phone call from an expat in Marbella whose house has been repossessed out of the blue, and despite him paying €3,500 in October to stop the process. The guy said.
 
 
5) Banks have been lent so far €60 billion by the Spanish Government – money which has come from Spanish tax-payers.  In addition the European Bank will give €39 billion for the Spanish banks’ bailout from EU taxpayers.  So we pay the bank directly as a client and also pay them a significant sum from our taxes. At the same time, Spanish Banks are strangling people: swaps, preferentes, evictions, refusal of credit, higher rates of interest, and so on.
 
Yesterday also, my brother was charged by his Bank a 30% higher commission for account maintenance compared to 2011.
 
Who else hate Banks in Spain? A friend of mine… who told me about Spanish Banks: they would sell their own mums for a profit.