Landlords Wanted
Bargain-hunting Britons target ‘cheap’ holiday homes as Spanish property prices continue to fall.
Bargain-hunting Britons are jumping on to the Spanish property ladder as house prices continue to fall, a specialist mortgage broker has reported.
It says there has been a surge of interest in Spanish properties, which have suffered their biggest slump in value over the past year since the onset of the financial crisis in 2007.
The country’s economic woes and banking problems have left properties struggling to sell in and across Spain, but overseas mortgage specialist Conti has seen a 33 per cent rise in Spanish mortgage enquiries.
That comes despite the monthly house price index from appraisal company Tinsa, showing that Spanish property values were down by 10.8 per cent year-on-year.
Claire Nessling, director at Conti, says there is a combination of factors which are contributing to the boosted budgets of buyers. She said: ‘The Spanish market has reached a low point, so buyers are using it as an opportunity to shop for a bargain.’
Meanwhile, the growing strength of the pound against the euro and historically low interest rates are making holiday homes attractively affordable. ‘It ticks a number of boxes that Britain doesn’t; including the weather,’ she added.
As a provider of mortgages in 45 countries, Conti says there is a healthy appetite for lending in Spain. It adds that figures from the Spanish National Statistics Institute, INE, show that the annual decline in property sales in May was 9 per cent, a lot less than the declines from January to March this year, which were between 21 and 33 per cent.
BEWARE THE PAIN IN SPAIN
Those considering a move to Spain or buying there, however, should consider the country’s economic plight.
Expats who moved to Spain are suffering, as the country struggles with its banks problems, high unemployment and the Eurozone debt crisis. One such expat, Tara Ghale, 44, has seen profits from her catering company tumble with the country’s economic crisis. She now supplements her monthly income with help from her parents and has missed some of her £640-a-month mortgage payments to make sure she can afford other essentials.
Miss Ghale bought her three-bedroom house in the village of Alhaurin el Grande, near Marbella, for £217,000, but 12 months ago she put it on the market for £192,000 to try to move back to Britain. She has had scant interest. ‘Things have gone downhill so fast,’ she said. ‘The situation at the moment is very worrying. I never dreamed I’d be living the life I am now when I moved out here seven years ago. ‘I know lots of Brit expats who were doing really well a few years ago but are now in dire financial straits because of the economic downturn in Spain.
Source: This Is Money.