[katy]

http://www.diariosur.es/20081129/marbella/todas-subastas-pisos-tras-20081129.html

Summary translation of the main points.

Marbella Courts are auctioning around 5 apartments a month and there has been absolutely no interest. Average price for 25% less. Embargoes have tripled and is believed to be only the tip of the iceburg as these cases will have been in the system for a long time. The properties are mostly the second homes of Foreigners. Judges say the worse is yet to come. People are ceasing to pay as some owe as much as 250’000 on a property worth about 170’000.

Many banks do not bother to go through the courts as it is time consuming and costly. Instead they turn into small REA’s and sell them themselves.

(which is what I have been saying previously as we bought direct from a bank in the 90’s)

[Inez]

Not suprising as once properties are embargoed there is a lot of interest charges and costs added, as well as the possibility of unpaid community fees etc!

Plus anything decent is taken by the notary, lawyers and other officials as well as their freinds family etc, so its not the best properties that finally come out the other end.

Any banks list that has been sent to me has always been at a higher price than I have them privately, which makes a mockery of the whole idea.

I doubt this will be the case in the future though!

[katy]

Yes, I don’t think a reduction of 25% is very low on the newish probably overpriced properties. Yes, any decent bargains will be cherry picked…until they have too many for all their cronies.

During the last recession we were playing golf and just off the course we saw a largish villa, newish but peeling paint, massively overgrown garden, rats in the dirty pool etc. Peeked in and all looked fine except no kitchen. I asked the community office for info and was given the name of the bank who owned it. After being passed around for a week I finally got the name of the person in charge of this. About 10 days later was given a price which sounded Wow…cheap! Contacted Lawyer to iniciate the buying process and said we could complete immediately. A few days later we were contacted to say the bank had made a mistake…they had already sold it 🙄

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