Spanish property autumn boomlet forecast

 

With all-time record numbers of tourists visiting Spain, Spanish Government Ministers actively encouraging northern Europeans to buy bargain properties and banks under pressure from their regulator to reduce bad debt and improve reserves, there could a property sales boomlet this autumn. There are 420,000 bargains on favourite Costas, many of them with generous mortgages of 80%-100%, and many more in “Real Spain” locations, where 4-bed houses can be picked up for under EUR 30,000. Bank property specialists, PropertyInSpain.net are dealing with 3,000 would-be buyers from Scandinavia, Russia and the UK who have said they want to buy a property from Spanish banks or from developers under pressure to repay their construction loans. Sales manager, Ben Walker said: “All the signs are there for a big increase in sales levels this autumn – even a boomlet is possible because of the high interest we are getting. We are recruiting property professionals for key areas like Alicante and Ibiza to show the best of bank stock and key ready apartments and villas from developers.” 7.64 million tourists visited Spain in August (up 9.4% on August 2010) – a new all-time high for Spanish tourism data since statistics began. The latest report from Frontier Tourist Movement Survey (FRONTUR) and Institute for Tourism Statistics of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, shows 655,000 more inbound tourists help to beat the previous monthly record of 7.63 million tourists in July 2007. Nearly 40 million tourists have already visited this year - an increase of 7.8% (or 2.9 million tourists) on last year. Spanish Government Ministers are touring European countries again to persuade property investors to buy and help reduce the housing surplus, stressing the bargain prices and wide choice of locations. Beatriz Corredor, the Spanish housing minister, visited Britain in May to launch a "roadshow" publicising "a wide range of real estate at more accessible prices". She met British pension funds and other investors to encourage them to buy some of the country's 700,000 empty new homes and now she wants to give the same message to smaller investors and private buyers. She has halved the 8% key ready property tax until the end of the year. Spanish banks, struggling with badly performing property assets and 1,000s of repossessions, have been ordered by regulator, the Bank of Spain to merge their operations and improve their equity and reserves. They have been reducing prices all summer and giving mortgages of up to 100% where discounts have resulted in excellent loan to value ratios. But, warned PropertyInSpain.Net, buyers still need to be ultra careful where they buy and as an additional safeguard the company is offering a free affordability test to buyers uncertain whether they would be granted a mortgage and what it might cost. “Every bank has different criteria, including the all important Debt to Income ratio. Our brokers will provide this informally so buyers know whether they should pursue their dream of a property in Spain – that avoids the disappointment, wasted time and costs of visiting Spain and enables us to provide help to those who are most likely to get the mortgage they require,” said Ben Walker