[angie]

😥

Another damning article in the Sunday Times magazine last week-end saying that over the:

‘past 4-5 years the demand for a place in the sun has turned Spain into the money-laundering capital of Europe. Vast sums amassed through arms-smuggling, drugs and prostitution are being recycled into holiday homes for Brits and north Europeans’

Spain says it is clamping down on Black money payments yet the article says ‘almost every property transaction involves a degree of black money as they settle in cash’, ‘while the notary visits the lavatory’.

Spains inland revenue is trying to recover tax on 11 billion euros worth of property that changed hands in just 9 months of one year alone and in 2005 the police investigations led to confiscation of 4 billion euros of money and property which was a hundredfold increase on the year 2000.

Presumably a lot of property on the market now is down to this fact alone that people are trying to get out before being collared.

Not a good picture when the Bank of Spain says that property is some 30% over-priced anyway.

angie

[Anonymous]

http://www.spanishpropertyinsight.com/spanish_property_articles_ST_marbella_scandal_090406.htm

Well I guess that such scandals will lead to a loss of confidence in the Marbella property market for a while, and a corresponding softening in the pricing structure.

[Paul]

Maybe it would help if the Spanish Gov’t. and it’s regulatory bodies were actively regulating and issuing fines or imposing cessation of trading on those companies who continually flaunt rules within the property industry.

You hear occasionally that the B. money thing is being sorted yet nothing happens quickly, and having looked at the article it goes further by saying that Spain’s economy would crumble if their construction industry slowed dramatically because the economy gets 10% stamp duty on each property sale with other taxes too.

They seem to just turn a blind eye to all the scams. 😕

[Author]

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