{"id":310,"date":"2010-09-17T13:43:51","date_gmt":"2010-09-17T11:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/taylorwimpeyspain.com\/?p=310"},"modified":"2012-06-12T13:47:52","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T13:47:52","slug":"spains-bargain-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/taylorwimpeyspain.com\/blog\/spains-bargain-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain’s bargain homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discounts on Spain’s Costas are breathtaking for a reason. UK buyers MUST know where to look for true bargains, says Cathy Hawker.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Spain's<\/a>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

British tourists heading for a sun-soaked Spanish holiday this summer were probably more concerned with the temperature of the sea than the heat of the local economy. But all is not well on our favourite Costas.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s unemployment rate is now nudging 20 per cent, making it the highest in Europe; there\u2019s a budget deficit of 11.2 per cent to plug, and the El Economista newspaper is claiming that a third of Spain\u2019s local councils will soon be so broke many will be unable to pay their wage bills. And in the property market the bad news just keeps on coming.<\/p>\n

Three-quarters of Spain\u2019s estate agents have gone under and 170,000 construction companies have collapsed in a little over two years. Low interest rates and loose lending helped drive property prices sky high, but now the bubble has burst and finding eye-watering discounts is easy.<\/p>\n

\"Spain's<\/a><\/h4>\n

A tale of two markets<\/h4>\n

As for the banks, they have so many bankrupt stock properties to get off their books, they will sell them at bargain basement prices and give you a 100 per cent mortage to take one of their hands. But it\u2019s a case of buyer beware, warns Barbara Wood of The Property Finders. \u201cSpain is a market of two halves,\u201d she says. \u201cThere is the well-located, quality product and then there is everywhere else. For the stack-it-high and sell-it-cheap brigade, the predominantly British and Irish buyers who piled in to dreary resorts miles from anywhere, the situation is dreadful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood highlights parts of\u00a0Murcia<\/strong>, Southern Costa Blanca<\/strong> and\u00a0Almeria<\/strong> as typical examples. \u201cI have heard of 50 per cent discounts and can easily envisage them going to 75 per cent,\u201d says Wood. \u201cBut frankly some property and locations are so bad that discerning European buyers wouldn\u2019t touch them at any price.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good areas, says Wood, include the six miles around\u00a0Marbella<\/strong>, the Northern<\/strong> Costa Blanca<\/strong> and the niche markets of\u00a0Sotogrande<\/strong> and\u00a0Tarifa<\/strong>: traditional, stable markets where prices have fallen 30 to 40 per cent from their peak and which Wood believes have now bottomed out.<\/p>\n

Smadar Kahana, of Engel & Volkers Marbella, agrees that away from prime Golden Mile locations, over-supply is the issue. \u201cIn\u00a0Calahonda<\/strong> or\u00a0Benalmadina<\/strong> east of Marbella and around\u00a0Estepona<\/strong> and\u00a0Manilva<\/strong> to the west, 200,000 apartments came on the market around the same time,\u201d says Kahana. \u201cWho was ever going to buy them all? Many of the complexes are now empty, the community charges are unpaid and gardens are not cared for. Even with 50 per cent off, buyers don\u2019t want them.\u201d It\u2019s a backlog that will take many years to clear.<\/p>\n

\"Spain's<\/a><\/p>\n

Too much to handle<\/h4>\n

Ratings agency Fitch estimate that there are one million unsold new-build properties in Spain, most near the coast. Chris Mercer of Mercers Property stopped selling off-plan property last year. \u201cThere\u2019s no point when buyers can get good resales for the same price or even lower,\u201d says Mercer.<\/p>\n

Mercers operates in one of the worst hit areas around\u00a0Torrevieja<\/strong> in south eastern Spain. Most residents there are British, Mercer admits, though he has seen a marked increase in Spanish bargain hunters.<\/p>\n

Further north, close to the desirable towns of\u00a0Denia<\/strong> and\u00a0Javea<\/strong>, Taylor Wimpey de Espana has three-bedroom houses at\u00a0Montesol<\/strong> in Calpe reduced from \u00a3277,310 to \u00a3182,115,\u00a0a 35 per cent price drop. The new homes, 40 miles north of Alicante airport, are set around communal pools and gardens.<\/p>\n

\"Spain's<\/a><\/p>\n

Where once British buyers accounted for 60 per cent of sales, through Engel & Volkers Marbella office, they are now 10 per cent at most. It\u2019s the French, Scandinavians, Swiss and Germans who are bagging the best buys now. \u201cWe have a saying here,\u201d says Wood. \u201cThe British buy when the Germans are fearful and the Germans buy when the Brits are fearful.\u201d Caution is clearly necessary, but there are good buys to be found from realistic sellers and it is Euro buyers who are grabbing them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discounts on Spain’s Costas are breathtaking for a reason. UK buyers MUST know where to look for true bargains, says Cathy Hawker. British tourists heading for a sun-soaked Spanish holiday this summer were probably more concerned with the temperature of the sea than the heat of the local economy. But all is not well on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[19,7,8,4],"tags":[1387,1376,1377,401,499,644],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-calpe","category-costa-blanca","category-costa-del-sol","category-spain","tag-calpe","tag-costa-blanca","tag-costa-del-sol","tag-montesol","tag-retiring-to-spain","tag-taylor-wimpey-espana-more-stats"],"yoast_head":"\nSpain's 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