Liam Kirkaldy (Reporter)
THE Golden Visa scheme has resulted in a 2,500% surge in interest from Middle Eastern property buyers in 2013-to-date.
Asian and Russian investors have also been scoping out the market in much greater numbers, since the announcement that any non-EU national spending more than €500,000 will automatically be granted a residency permit.
Renewed interest in property is great news for sellers or those who held onto property when times were tough.
Marc Pritchard, sales and marketing director for Taylor Wimpey Espana said: “The Golden Visa is clearly of high appeal to non-EU residents, especially those in Russia, China, the Middle East, and the Far East keen to access the EU and enjoy visa-free travel in the 26-country zone.”
The minimum investment is €500,000 but this does not have to be in just one property, it is accumulative and can be made up by investing in one or more properties.
Interest from Russian and Lithuanian investors has spiked 190% compared to 2012.
The glut of property for sale has also boosted tourism, with potential investors heading to Spanish hotspots to scope out the market and enjoy a holiday in their potential new homes.
The Balearic Islands continue to be particularly popular, accounting for 19.6 percent of total spending by investment tourists and increasing 9% on last year.
You have to take Marc Pritchard’s comments with a pinch of salt, he’s forever talking the market up with spurious figures for the company he works for, he is after all ‘sales and marketing director’. ‘Surge in interest’? lol
‘Interest’ is that, what is converted into sales is the figure to believe. ‘Potential investors’ another vague term, ‘190% has spiked from Russian and Lithuanian investors’ equates to for every 1 interest in 2012, there may be between 2-3 interests in 2013.
Well said Mike. The agents/developers are all constantly talking up the market, probably because they can’t face the truth which is, the property market is deader than dead. Where I come from in the UK (London area) none of the estate agents can get nearly enough properties on their books and everything is flying off the shelf. That is what I call a good market.
If the Junta de Andalucia carry on revoking building licences at their current rate, this will no doubt scare off these Golden Visa candidates. Also, where are all the investor tourists mentioned in the article? Everywhere looks quieter than ever to me. When we arrived here recently, people on our flight were surprised at how quiet the airport was. So it looks like they are talking up the tourist figures as well now.
The problem with a “golden VISA” is that Spain will doubtless change the laws for these people later on down the line to tax them more or make them jump through more hoops. Honestly, you must be mental to invest in Spain. It is such a thoroughly unscrupulous country on so many levels and changing the VISA system doesn’t change that behaviour.
Agree with both Susan’s and Fred’s comments above, as Susan says property flying off the shelves in London and South East, plus other hotspots.
Guess what, this Marc Pritchard has been saying the same thing for years, had a go at him over that time for spouting his rubbish. Now here are a couple of facts about his talking up.
1. Had anyone taken his advice even 2-3 years ago and bought from TW they’d already be losing money heavily on price and transaction costs.
2. He keeps pushing new development in Los Arqueros yet that development has it’s own re-sales site with hundreds on the market and more being sold by other agents.
So, He and TW are competing with themselves with lots of people trying to re-sell what he already sold to them, and these are much lower priced and don’t even sell fast!
Believe him at your peril!!!!
*Fred* They have done that already, reports have been seen in the press of Russians who invested in Spain and acquired residency, then when the residency had to be renewed they were refused for apparently no good reason, sometimes leaving part of the family still entitled to residency while others not. Then they start disgruntled ‘never buy/invest in Spain’ threads on forums etc back in Russia – sound familiar?
It’s just as much of a scam as enticing thousands of expats to buy homes in Spain, built with supposedly dubious legality. The Junta de Andalucia of course claim to know nothing about any problems but cynically, only when all monies, fees and taxes have changed hands, they revoke people’s building licences. The poor expat owner is then lumbered with an unsaleable house and the threat of demolition hanging over their heads. Terrific.
Hardly golden, more like brown times and you know the sort of brown I’m referring to.
The fact is..Spanish real estate is a risk for those of us from outside Spain. As a an American, I learned early on not to believe much of what agents indicated as the true.
It would seem that so many Brit’s have been taken advantage of that the British government would take a position in support of their citizens. In particular, houses to be demolished years after being built because of permit issues which were seemingly “overlooked” years prior.
It will be years, if not decades until the fabric of Spanish legality and governmental honest/integrity will prevail.
Since Rajoy has now said that Russia should respect Ukraine’s territory, and does not agree with its actions, does this now mean Spain will halt “golden visas” for all Russians? Come on Rajoy, show some balls.
Golden times, quite funny really but on my travels last weekend there were many apartments still being built on the Costa Blanca in one area that I went to and they are still selling them, and the new property prices are at a premium. I have to laugh, there was an apart hotel that we used to go for a drink and sit by the pool but in the end the local estate agents who used to put their guests up here had this facility closed to outsiders so that their customers (potential buyers) could not get to speak with locals. The Manager of this Apart Hotel was also assassinated, man came in with a gun, shot him dead and left, 10 minute walk from one of my places, on a golf course, near the beach. Many of the larger houses surrounding this apart hotel increased their security after this, Rottweilers, cameras, high fences…. Moving on, any new buyers, I would only buy second hand, make sure it is about 20 years old, make sure it has an escritura (title deeds) and these will show the size of the place and the land and don’t use the solicitor of the estate agent and if possible go back to the seller without the estate agent and negotiate directly. Estate agents do not normally ask you to sign anything legal over there and they do sometimes add £20k commission on for themselves, fact and never sign over power of attorney to the solicitor.