[Anonymous]

This episode of Comando Actualidad is all about who is buying and selling homes in today’s market. No mention of holiday homes and foreign buyers – just Spaniards and main homes. A lot of desperate vendors, but also canny buyers taking advantage of the market.

You also see how Seseña suits some buyers. It’s difficult to believe today, but one day Seseña will be sold and occupied.

http://www.rtve.es/noticias/20120105/comando-actualidad-quien-compra-casa/487439.shtml

[DBMarcos99]

Many thanks for posting that, Mark. I’ve only had chance to watch the first 15 minutes so far but it was very interesting. I often like to find out how the younger people can manage to buy property when it’s so expensive yet jobs are hard to come by. The young lady who was looking to take advantage of the recession had a husband who was a plumber (fontanero) and had plenty of work, so it shows again “where there’s muck, there’s brass”.
I have to admit I am surprised that people (as shown in the video) are still interested in buying a place on a development not yet built. Makes sense in a boom and when there are few unbought finished homes, but in the current climate? What puts me off those new developments is that it can be years before relevant services (eg pharmacies, public transport, restaurants) are up and running. I suppose for familes wanting to buy properties close to each other, and thinking of the long term, it makes some sense.

[Chopera]

Yes I saw that the other night. Well worth a watch. It mentions “Valdebebas” which is a huge new development near Madrid’s airport where people are buying off plan (usually via cooperativos) and makes a passing reference to “Los Berrocales”, which was another large development that was “put on hold” after many people had already put down large sums of money (which they now can’t get back).

[Chopera]

@DBMarcos99 wrote:

Many thanks for posting that, Mark. I’ve only had chance to watch the first 15 minutes so far but it was very interesting. I often like to find out how the younger people can manage to buy property when it’s so expensive yet jobs are hard to come by. The young lady who was looking to take advantage of the recession had a husband who was a plumber (fontanero) and had plenty of work, so it shows again “where there’s muck, there’s brass”.

The young lady claimed her husband earned €18000 a month as a plumber 😯
Yet she was looking at flats for about €150k IIRC – I think she said that she didn’t want a big mortgage so she could enjoy her large disposable income. I found it all a bit suspicious.

@DBMarcos99 wrote:

I have to admit I am surprised that people (as shown in the video) are still interested in buying a place on a development not yet built. Makes sense in a boom and when there are few unbought finished homes, but in the current climate? What puts me off those new developments is that it can be years before relevant services (eg pharmacies, public transport, restaurants) are up and running. I suppose for familes wanting to buy properties close to each other, and thinking of the long term, it makes some sense.

Yes that was the Valdebebas development I mentioned above. It’s a bit of a cultural thing in Spain: many young people are happy to live with their parents and then wait years for their brand new flat to be built. The lucky few who have decent jobs can happily live with their parents saving say €10k a year and by the time they are 35 they have well over €100k to put down, along with whatever their parents put down as well. The longer it takes to build the more they save by living with the parents.

To many Spanish people it’s worth the wait to get a new build as they tend to place much more value on things that are new: new cars, new houses, new shopping centres, etc, whereas for many British the older the better.

Also as I mentioned above, in Valdebebas many of the developments are cooperativas. These tend to be cheaper since the price reflects the cost of building only, but they can take much longer to finish as everyone has to agree on the final details, and they often have to refinance before continuing with the building work. It’s not for the faint hearted but if they go well you end up with a lot more house for your money. Also the price is not fixed – if the other partners in the cooperativa are loaded they might demand higher quality finishings, etc and the final price can increase considerably.

[Anonymous]

@Chopera wrote:

The young lady claimed her husband earned €18000 a month as a plumber 😯
Yet she was looking at flats for about €150k IIRC – I think she said that she didn’t want a big mortgage so she could enjoy her large disposable income. I found it all a bit suspicious.

Yup. I couldn’t work that out either. At first I assumed I had heard wrong. Maybe he is not just a plumber but owns a plumbing company. Why she would lie?

She was after gross rental yields of 6%. That sounds possible in today’s market.

[DBMarcos99]

@mark wrote:

@Chopera wrote:

The young lady claimed her husband earned €18000 a month as a plumber 😯
Yet she was looking at flats for about €150k IIRC – I think she said that she didn’t want a big mortgage so she could enjoy her large disposable income. I found it all a bit suspicious.

Yup. I couldn’t work that out either. At first I assumed I had heard wrong. Maybe he is not just a plumber but owns a plumbing company. Why she would lie?

She was after gross rental yields of 6%. That sounds possible in today’s market.

Another possibility comes to mind. She (or her partner) does earn 18k a month, but it’s something she doesn’t want making public, so the “plumber” story fits. 😉

[Chopera]

There was another good episode of Comando Actualidad tonight – about how “la crisis” is affecting various pueblos in Spain. It was shocking to see so many small companies being owed money by the local council, or having to pay the electricity themselves in council buildings so they can keep their business going.

[Author]

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