Prices down 35% – the crash has only just started..

[Anonymous]

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/property-home/2008/08/11/house-prices-have-crashed-by-35-here.aspx

[Anonymous]

Hi Sarah,

I had an email yesterday for a site on the Costa Del Sol called Casares. The prices were 427,000 Euros and now they can be picked up for 250,000 which would make me fuming if I had bought at the original price. Thats a huge drop in price. I dont know anything about the place but they are advertising it with everything finished including golf, shops etc.

The problem with this type of discount is that those that did buy at 427,000 Euros will never have a hope to sell, and in many cases will have a mortgage bigger than todays sellng price.

Maybe we are into a phase of finding out the true value of the properties and not the crazy prices they went to.

Best wishes

Bernard

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

All this ‘pain in spain’ rhetoric is not-surprising in the over-developed Costas.

But does anyone have any ideas / information as to what is happening to property prices in Barcelona at present?

I’m not interested in 2 bed holiday apartments for Brits / Germans etc in Benidorm. I’m more interest to learn what is happening in the central areas of main city centre locations, less affected by the holiday / retired market?

I’m guessing that prices have come down only marginally. Remember the old adage – location, location, location.

All BCN info welcome.

Many thanks
M

[Anonymous]

Bernard was that info from “Your key to Spain” ? If so, I was sent that 3 times yesterday! There did look to be some bargains, for anyone brave enough to buy just now.

[Anonymous]

Hi Claire,

Yes it was from them.

There seems to be some good prices on there, but there is still not many buyers anywhere.

I wonder where the bottom of all this is?

Best wishes

Bernard

[Anonymous]

marcoloco10

I was talking to a bank manager the other day who said one of his clients couldn’t sell a nice flat in the smart Eixample for a discount of more than 20%, or several hundred thousand Euros.

Other people in the business say asking prices are down 20%, though that is not reflected in the Barcelona asking price index published by idealista.com.

Barcelona province is one of the areas that has been hit hardest by the market downturn, with transactions down close to 50%. That’s a calamity for any market. The big problems are in the working class suburbs, but I don’t think Paseo de Gracia has escaped unscathed either.

The property market in Barcelona, like Madrid and the costas, was a bubble. Now the banks aren’t lending and the bubble has burst. Smart districts of Barcelona are definitely feeling the pain, because prices were unrealistic in the boom.

Having said that, I think smart property in Barcelona is a good buy if you can get an attractive price in this market, or maybe in 6 months time when vendors can’t hold out any longer. There’s nowhere like Barcelona…

Mark

[Anonymous]

can anyone recommend a good agent (not one working from a back bedroom) in the Eixample area please?. I was there in january and noticed that there was a lot for sale with many commercial premises coming up for rent/ sale??……..

[Anonymous]

I saw a 2 bed ground floor apartment advertised the other day between Estepona and Casares for 280,000 euros. I’ve been there several times
(and inside 5 apartments) and it’s just one classic example of what’s in store. It’s 244 apartments in the middle of nowhere with other, unfinished construction nearby and just one of many tens of thousands of other similar developments in Spain/Canary Islands

In the very cold reality when you look at net incomes, rising food/ prices fuel and the cost of a mortgage and service charges (3/4 pools etc), the apartment is worth no more than 80,000 euros at best

Unless a severe dose of reality sets in, three quarters of those apartments will be empty in 2 years with not enough service charges being paid to maintain the pools, gardens and security. The development will start to decline, devaluing further the remaining apartments. In 3 years it will be vandalised and burgled and will be write off.

[Anonymous]

Looking at fotocasa.es, there have been lots of properties that have been reduced recently. Many of the properties that I am looking at are in Valencia City which is largely immune to the Costa effect.

It seems that a lot (which now state “Ha bajado”) seem to be reduced around 10%.

[Anonymous]

Mark,

Thanks for your note.

I’m interested to learn that your bank manager has a client who couldn’t sell a flat in the Eixample for a discount of more than 20%. Its good to have an insight as to which are robust sale prices rather than focusing on an advertised asking price.

Its my intetnion to keep monitoring the situation in Barcelona as i’ve got aspirations to dip my toe into the property market… though not for another 12 months.

I’m over at the begining of September so i hope to get an opportunity to see first hand what is on the market and what prices are being asked.

And agree whole-heartedly with your sentiments… there’s no place like Barcelona.

Thanks
M

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