This is a website for buyers, owners, and sellers of property in Spain, offering reliable information and resources to help you get things done with confidence. It is run by Mark Stücklin, author of the Spanish Property Doctor Column in The Sunday Times (2005-2008), and the book ‘Need to Know: Buying Property in Spain’ published by Collins.
Developers in Malaga province sold half their stock of new homes in 2011
Developers in Malaga province (home to the Costa del Sol) sold 10,000 new homes in the course of 2011, almost half the stock of 25,000 new homes on the market at the start of the year, according to the Association of Builders and Developers of Malaga (ACP).
Lower house prices have helped boost sales, and a huge drop in housing starts over the last 3 years, most acute in popular tourist resorts like Marbella, means that the housing glut is shrinking fast.
Given the long lead times in the building industry, there could be an acute shortage of new housing a couple of years from now.
Shortages will be made worse if demand recovers to its normal level of around 22,000 new homes a year, based on the size of the population. Unemployment or fear of unemployment is keeping many potential buyers out of the market.
45pc of Malaga’s 200,000 unemployed are young adults who be first time buyers looking to start a family if they could afford to.
Much of the blame for this sorry state of affairs lies with politicians says José Prado, President of the ACP. “In recent years they’ve done nothing but earn a fortune from construction and made no effort to attract investors.”
halvenon says:
Please always give source of information. Is ACP as source or Spanish acronym for the Builders Association?
Please keep up your excellent coverage.
Mark says:
Source is the ACP of Malaga province, as stated:
http://www.acpmalaga.com/informacion/home.asp
lee chappell says:
This is positive news – maybe the first of more positive news for 2011 – very welcome news!
Campbell D Ferguson, FRICS, www.surveyspain.com says:
Only 25,000 on the market? I have my doubts regarding that number. And who has bought these new homes? Some brave investors have bought whole urbanisations at deeply discounted prices and are having to complete or remodel them to bring them to acceptable standards. They are then offering the properties as individual units through slick experienced marketing, especially to Nordic countries, Germany and the like where the fall in the value of the Euro has made the properties relatively cheaper and/or the economy is still strong. Only when these units can be sold on by individuals who get their price and costs back at least will there then be proof of any change in the market.
Hein says:
Developer sells property to bank at inflated value.
Bank takes money and offsets it against the developers interest payments. Bank has property and developer has 2 years more before being insolvent.
This is what the new government is trying to stop. Force banks to mark property values down.
Keith McCann says:
Does anyone please know if the spanish building firm Explotaciones Inmobiliarias Alcazaba,who built “Horizontes de Riviera Golf”, on Costa Del Sol is still in business, handles private rentals etc? Anyinformation would be appreciated.From England, Thankyou, Keith & Pat McCann