Rob Horgan
WHILE the economy may have taken a tumble over the past decade, people in Spain have continued going up… up elevators to be precise.
The large number apartment blocks built since the year 2000 has led to a boom in the number of elevators manufactured across the country.
There are an amazing 19 elevators per 1,000 people in Spain, smashing the European average of 11.
Quick to capitalise on Spain’s high-altitude living was Bernardo Calleja, chief executive of the Madrid-based Otis Elevator Company, who made more than 250,000 of the country’s elevators.
“The Spanish model of housing is not something historical, it’s really quite a recent phenomenon,” said Calleja.
“In the early 2000s there was a mass migration to the cities and people bought apartments because the supply was already there.”
And after a seven year slump, Calleja predicts 2015 will see a new property boom in Spain.
He added: “We still need one more year to see clear growth in new building, but the outlook is improving.
“We will be selling more elevators in Spain in 2015 for sure.”
Hard to tell just yet. Yes, according to reports, new building activity is “on the up”. According to the SPI “Applications for licences to build new homes in Spain grew by 5.1 per cent in the first 11 months of 2014 compared with the same period during 2013, to a total of 33,007 applications”. But that is from a low base and indeed 44,000 applications were made in 2012. Will 2015 continue with rises? Probably, but best to wait for the figures.
We are all agog Quiddy. No doubt you’ll keep us up to date.
Are you Mark Stucklin always trying to push the SPI site? Nearly everyone of your posts mentions it and it is almost a dead site.
Why build when there are hundreds of thousands of empty homes already? Off-topic yet again I see Squiddy lol.
Yes GUAQ EDQ ED DBMarcos99 SteviedeLuxe Uncle Tom Cobley etc sure he works for Sucklin and a few others like his agent mate in Valencia Ha Ha
@Marion that one man band site is pretty much dead in the water since he admitted to ‘earning all his money from his clients’ such as advertisers, agents and developers. They’re even trying to say how safe Barcelona is where he lives, the pick-pocket capital of Europe etc
Trolls take subjects off-topic as Fred says, elevators are going up in Spain though Lol