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.
A stampede for the exit?
Vendors have been reducing their asking prices in record numbers, and by record amounts, according to the property portal idealista.com. Year-on-year, price reductions in May increased by 54pc in volume (green chart) and by an average of 12pc in value (red chart). Almost 9pc of vendors listing with Idealista dropped their asking prices in May. Looks a bit like a stampede for the exit.
Christine Lackey says:
Another point to make that if property is sold below its value as per the government banding, the 8% tax has to be paid on the government value and not on the selling price. Point worth noting for would be buyers.
william says:
I took a look at the site listed here at the properties that a bank was selling at 80% discount, in my honest opinion they still looked over priced so who knows how far prices will have to fall to attract a new wave of “a place in the sun mugs”
T Morrissey says:
I bought a house in Spain in 1999 at a low price (off plan). I did not buy it for profit but for a holiday home to get away from English weather every couple of months. The house value went up by an enormous margin and is now down by the same but I still have a place in the sun and I don’t give a monkey’s how far the pricese fall!
Fran says:
I love my little flat in Javea with its fireplace and friendly Spanish neighbours. I love the children trooping over in while their parents have their siesta. I have never had so much affection from folk as I do there. My flat was never worth more than the 90k euros I paid for it in 2001, and I knew it. This is just a reality check. The spivs will have gone back to Blighty and left Spain for lovers of Iberian culture. And good thing too.
Mexberry says:
We are prospective buyers, with our funds outside of the Euro. The Spanish government by denying any need for a bailout for so long, then asking for E125 billion makes anything the PM says in future to be taken with a grain of salt. Currency markets need stability and that is lacking at present. There must be many buyers waiting for the future of the Euro to have some assurance , before taking the property plunge.
Neil says:
I like hazel and T morissey finally people looking for a place to enjoy the sunshine . NOT make a fast buck .good on ya.
David Potts says:
It is the Banks and the gready Spanish Builder/Developers who have caused many of the problems in Spain, The developers saw the British buyer as mugs, selling property over valued and the Banks loaned them money to build those overpriced properties, then when the pound dropped and the Brits stopper coming to buy, the developers ran away leaving the Banks holding the baby. It would be better for us all if the Spanish Goverment shipped all the bad debt into one central pot along with all the properties the banks have for sale and then sold them to reduce the debt of the toxic properties. This would allow the banks to get on with the business of helping clients get back on their feet. The properties could be sold or used for social housing and the money used to pay off the debt and get rid of the houses. They are never going to sell half of what they have. If builder want to build in an area, they they should be made to take on unfinished properties and sell them before they are allowed to build anything else.
J Kelly says:
I dissagree with some of the comment from David Potts. It is simple economics. If the buyer is foolish enough to pay for an asset that is quite clearly overpriced in a heated market, as was the case in Spain and France, but less so in France, there is only one way the price is going to go. It was unsustainable. History will tell you that there is an economic cycle in propery and we are now in a period of correction that is likely to take longer than normal to come out of. It is only a problem if you are wishing to liquidate your assets. Hold on and enjoy what you have and just think of all that rain in Blighty!!!!
Mexberry says:
In many of the ‘rust belt’ cities in the US, where the property market really went down, the cities have made a deal with the banks – you transfer to the city all the houses which will never, ever sell for $1.00 each. The banks get rid of the responsibility for these run down houses, the city then flattens them, complete city blocks, and turns the area into parks, market gardens etc. Guess what – the exodus of people abandoning their homes has halted, as the neighbourhood suddenly has become a pleasant place to live. They have made the best of a bad situation – possibly Spanish cities could do something similar. All it requires is for all parties involved to be honest about the nil value of these run down houses.
Steve A says:
What any property is ‘worth’, its ‘value’, is nothing more and nothing less than what you can get for it on the open market at any point in time. Spanish properties were worth more, now they are worth less. Simples! Coastal properties today are worth (i.e will sell) for about E1550 psm. The market will bottom out in two years time at around E1200 psm. Slightly more than half the true peak sale price in 2007/08. (I say ‘true peak’ price because many scam artists, idiots and optomists wrongly believe that it was up to 50% higher even than that).
Resale Centre says:
From first hand experience, yes vendors have been dropping asking prices, however this only applies in the case of our clients – to people that can no longer afford to prop up two mortgages, one being their properties in the UK or where ever they are from and their mortgage in Spain.
Common sense really, so I disagree with comments that are solely fixed on the valuation of properties or the state of the economy as it is the same worldwide at the moment. Yes the property industry is not what it once was, but everything comes around in cycles, we have all seen it once, twice or three times before. This is no different, it just might take a little longer and we might see more of an effect. Everything depends on personal circumstances, and this article will most probably than not reflect the situation that many find themselves in today.