Iona Napier 
MARBELLA and Barcelona have been listed among the top 20 places worldwide to invest in property… now!
According to the Telegraph, Catalunya’s capital (‘a magnet for beautiful people’) has seen a 250% increase in sales over the last year, with two-bed flats selling for €500,000.
Marbella, where ‘contemporary villas continue to be highly sought after’ comes in at no.12 on a list which also includes the French Riviera, Grenada in the Caribbean, Tuscany, Turkey and Panama among the contenders.
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British and other foreigners’ zeal for real estate speculation and profit, rather than purchase for actual residence, is responsible, in part, for anti-foreign sentiment in already somewhat xenophobic regions. Local people don’t like to be told that “You can’t get along without our pounds or dollars.” Even though dependency on foreign spenders may be partly true, people view this as an assault on local pride to say nothing about the demise of local culture caused by expat activities, many distasteful. At least that is the case in Asturias, and likely the same in most countries, UK and US included.
i don’t know of many average expats who are making a profit on property in Spain currently. Marbella has lots of repossesed stock that are quite good value, but Spain is heading towards uncertain times presently and investors are pulling money out of Spain big time currently. There are many ways to “invest” in a country of course. Many people moved for lifestyle changes but at rhe same didn’t exoect to lose 50% of their investment either.
Fred, if Spain wants to attract (foreign) investors, it must make itself competitive and business friendly.
The new holiday rental legislation for Andalucia is just about to make the property market much worse. Wait for a glut of properties to hit the market with very few people wanting to risk buying them.
Difficult times ahead for Spain.
Difficult times ahead for expats, definitely. The Spanish I know laugh at the new rental laws. They know people by word of mouth, have the same clients for years, only accept cash, and can simply ignore these laws. Rental businesses will suffer; savvy owners who have a bulging contact book will thrive.
Yes. But that isn’t a business model that allows for growth. The hotel Mafia think they’ve won, but they’ve actually p****d on their chips, because the knock-on effect will be to send (me personally) to Portugal, along with many refusenicks of Spain and it’s liberal ways. Not.
Depends on what ‘business friendly’ means. Probably had enough of the mess in Southern Spain.
Chas,
I was’nt aware that there were a lot of foreigners living in the Astuarias or anywhere along the NW coast.
Certainly on the Med coast it was the Spanish who built apartment block after apartment block, all crammed together. When I returned along coast from Malaga to Almeria in 2002, the first time after m1968, I was appalled at what I saw approaching Aguadulce – it was like a vomit of apartment blocks spewing out of the arroyo where once there had been just 3 little fishermen’s casitas.
The same tragedy can be said of Turkey’s Med coast. Both peoples should have controlled any development but greed got the better of 99% – they did it to themselves, now some of them want to blame it on the guiris.
But your point about speculation is absolutely right about Brits and Americans when it comes to real estate. Other Europeans simply don’t understand the madness.
Wait till the UK market, especially the SE and London implodes, there will be lots of tears and then some because greed blinds the stupid to reality
In Asturias there are a number of Brits who have bought isolated fincas in order to be as self-sufficient as possible, and a few, in larger cities. In 17 years I have only met maybe three Americans, and then they were Cuban Americans married to Asturians. A few Brits speculated on ‘good deals’ along Llanes coast line a few years back,but abandoned the properties after they were condemned for mold, rising damp and lack of insulation.
My point is that the foreigners I have met are not at all into a social bar scene except going to town markets once a week and having coffee at a cafe. Their children all attend local schools. All in all foreigners are pretty well integrated up here, that is, as well as they can be given the insular natural of village populace.
Chas,
we well remember seeing all the rampant construction going on along the Astuarian coast as we travelled back and forth with the brilliant FEVE single track line to and from Bilbao. Where are all the buyers going to come from we said to each other, well of course they did’nt.
We rented an apartment in Ortgueria – it was 3 years old, a small 3 apartment construction. single brick walls, no insulation or heating. Our furniture began to get mold and though it never got really cold down by the coast the dampness always seeped into the bones.
We went to see the chain smoking architect and I asked him why he OK’d these constructions, he just looked at me with a belligerent eye.
If these Brits were so stupid to get involved in property without a firm knowledge of what constitutes good and bad construction then they did it to themselves.
The Celtic peoples of the NW have had to suffer much discrimination from the Visigoths and Goths that invaded and don’t forget what Franco did with his Morrocan troops, slaughtering thousands of miners. You should know that mountain peoples tend to be insular. I investigated the Cantal in France. I picked up on the insular mentality and decided it was’nt for us.
There never is any substitute for in depth research and local knowledge. Had there been the info available online we would never have gone to live in Spain. All this data is now available easily online.
Yes, much of the coast has been spoiled with big ugly buildings. In the last 15 years the golf-course-by-the-sea-mentality has been responsible for much of the problem exemplified by Ribadesella. I had the opportunity of meeting with the former Director of Urbanization and Planning (Ordenacion) for Asturias who fought with little success against those sprawls. He has since returned to his professorship in Madrid at Carlos III. He discovered the main culprit was/is a former president of the Asturian college of architects (Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Asturias) who became a “developer” of this travesty. He referred to ecologically sound architecture using wood and insulation as ‘gaseosa’, ie, fizz water. Of course he was in collusion with brick and cement vendors and giant contractors, and had enough influence to prevent any tecnico (aparejador) from signing off on projects not built with blocks and stucco under threat of black-balling by the Colegio mafia. Our local Alcalde knew him well and wanted to introduced modern materials via architects trained in North America and Scandinavia, but was totally thwarted by threats of prolonged legal cases meant to protect the absolute powers of the Colegio.
..
No, we would never have come to Spain had we more information, though things didn’t seem so bad 20 years ago. Construction corruption here isn’t visible till you get into a project. So, I doubt more research would have reveled those problems. A politically savvy Spanish friend referred to our area as the Appalachia of Spain. Indeed, it reminds me of visiting West Virginia and Arkansas: its beautiful, but who do you talk too. At least it discourages the drunken colonies of foreigners from moving in. ‘Yobismo’ is not tolerated, though people don’t much care what you do on your own land. We mainly have Whole Earth Catalogue (semi) off-the-grid people with big gardens and chickens here, and with good satellite internet connections.
Yes, much of the coast has been spoiled with big ugly buildings. In the last 15 years the golf-course-by-the-sea-mentality has been responsible for much of the problem exemplified by Ribadesella. I had the opportunity of meeting with the former Director of Urbanization and Planning (Ordenacion) for Asturias who fought with little success against those sprawls. He has since returned to his professorship in Madrid at Carlos III. He discovered the main culprit was/is a former president of the Asturian college of architects (Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Asturias) who became a “developer” of this travesty. He referred to ecologically sound architecture using wood and insulation as ‘gaseosa’, ie, fizz water. Of course he was in collusion with brick and cement vendors and giant contractors, and had enough influence to prevent any tecnico (aparejador) from signing off on projects not built with blocks and stucco under threat of black-balling by the Colegio mafia. Our local Alcalde knew him well and wanted to introduced modern materials via architects trained in North America and Scandinavia, but was totally thwarted by threats of prolonged legal cases meant to protect the absolute powers of the Colegio.
..
No, we would never have come to Spain had we more information, though things didn’t seem so bad 20 years ago. Construction corruption here isn’t visible till you get into a project. So, I doubt more research would have reveled those problems. A politically savvy Spanish friend referred to our area as the Appalachia of Spain. Indeed, it reminds me of visiting West Virginia and Arkansas: its beautiful, but who do you talk too. At least it discourages the drunken colonies of foreigners from moving in. ‘Yobismo’ is not tolerated, though people don’t much care what you do on your own land. We mainly have Whole Earth Catalogue (semi) off-the-grid people with big gardens and chickens here, and with good satellite internet connections.
Yes if the local School of Architects thinks you will cause them problems by presenting sound plans that include real thermal/acoustic insulation, intelligent layout and optimal foundations then they can and do reject them and there is sweet fa you can do about it.
I’m looking now at the cost of building plots in Scotland, frightening in comparison to small town/country France. |I’m beginning to think that if and when Brexit happens there will be a huge backlash of hubris and chauvanism in both France and Spain against the Brits.
I would’nt expect either country to think rationally about chasing the expats away. It simply is an economic fact that if the EU tries to hurt the UK it will find out pretty soon that it will lose far more than the UK and once it loses out on the lucrative greenhouse crops, wine and meat trade it will never get them back. The luxury goods market is another that France and Italy need to be mindful of. Top of the range car sales in Italy and Germany could take a big hit, it goes on and on.
Sooner or later the whole Nasty class has to be dealt with, sort that and the EU madness and it could mean real and positive change for the UK. Staying in will mean that one day, somewhere in the UK a bunch of Brits will say enough, the Nasties and their uniformed goons will over react and the whole thing will kick off – bring it on.
The Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Asturias is the professional association, ie, ‘fuero’ for architects and tecnicos that serves as their union. They over-ride university trained architects and local politicians on any and all architectural design and technology decisions. Most are petty tyrants, but make a fortunate from pay-offa from clients.
Chas,
succinct and precise description of Spanish corruption. In Ortigeuria we were told by the ayuntiamento architect that no construction was allowed within 500 metres of the ria.
When we left a big ugly apartment block was going up 5 metres from the ria – francistas and their friends can do what they like.
As it happens Chas, most Brits only know the blighted and destroyed Med coast, if they saw the incredible rias of Galicia and the fascinating NW coast they would realise just how ugly the East of Spain is in comparison. I look at the mountains in Andalucia and weep when I think of the vast beautiful oak forests that used to be there. Compared to the Picas de Europa, Andalucia is just plain ugly and burned out in comparison.
The semi tropical coast of Cantabria sheltered from the continental winter is beautiful and mainly unspoiled, the secret Spain, A pleasure to travel through now that the autoroute has replaced the RN. If your into converting old houses, the place to go.