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October 2008 - Preparing for Change |
10/2008 – Preparing for change…written by Martin Bright of Tropicana Properties, Almunecar
Almuñecar town hall is in the process of moving the office of local tax payments from its present location in Avenida de Andalucia to directly within the town hall itself. This move, with the consent of the Granada provincial authorities, will not only mean that the office closes at the end of the year but also that the staffing levels will be reduced by more than 50%; consequently adding further to the present growth in the towns unemployment. However, the town’s Major says that the closure is largely due to the growing number of residents and owners who now pay their taxes by direct debit.
The controversial, Hotel Playa Cotobro, is due to be open to the public for March 2009. This 4 star, 64 room hotel was originally projected in 2005 and despite local objections to planning additional floors has remained just 4 storey’s high – and consequently no longer obscuring the views of villas and private homes on the hillside above. During excavations, the hotel was also discovered to be located on the site of an ancient well where many Roman remains were found and duly protected.
Visitors returning this winter to their holiday homes, escaping the higher winter fuel bills in their home countries, should not be surprised to see fuel costs here in Spain increased since they left. On average since March 2008, butane (bottled gas) has increased by over one Euro to 13.94 – and a further increase is expected by the year end. Petrol, diesel and electricity costs too have increased. But, hey, lets keep this in proportion; while the UK announced 5,2% inflation on October 14 2008, here in Spain that same day, we were told that inflation has fallen below expected trends to just 4.5%.
As property prices in Spain begin to fall (2.5% to 3% being the general trend throughout the country); Spanish property portal Kyero reports third quarter figures of a 0.5% rise (!!!!) in house prices for Granada province. Our experience has seen a very different trend. While locally we are seeing a growth in the Spanish buyers looking to move their cash in to bricks and mortar, other nationalities seem to be more prudent. Are they still waiting for the 20-30% Spanish property price falls predicted late last year? However, they may have to wait very much longer to watch this kind of plunge.
It now appears that many Spanish banks are less exposed to sub-prime markets than was originally claimed by the worlds financial experts, and further it has been reported that Spain has more properties without a mortgage than in many other countries in Europe. This has certainly contributed to a fairly stable Spanish property market in 2008 – while other nations with greater exposure to the credit crunch have seen their house prices fall by greater amounts more quickly. There is evidence that some movement is occurring in the Spanish property market; especially for cash buyers and investors who can move quickly to take advantage of accepted offers as much as 30% below the present asking price. A trend which is not true in all cases as much depends not only on the vendors nationality but also their personal and financial situation – nevertheless there are still some great bargains available.
Martin Bright moved to this area in 1995 and has more than 30
years experience in the service and tourism sector. He joined the team
at Tropicana Properties in Almunecar in January 2000. For more
information on property sales contact Martin on 0034 958 630 320 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
. His website is www.tropicanaproperties.com and http://www.spaincostatropical.com
Click here to see Martin´s Latest Article
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