Tonight with Trevor McDonald 1st June 2007. Spanish House Price Crash. The property market in Spain is crashing at full speed and British holiday home debtors are facing up to heavy losses.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6227716980817152169&hl=en-GB

I have just watched the program which as usual was full of mis-information, glibly quoted figures with no information regarding their source and a selection of British buyers, who again as usual, were driven by greed, lack of accurate market information and obviously little or no professional advice (otherwise they would not have got into the mess in the first place). However it makes great TV. Funny how they never mention the 1,000s of people who have bought sensibly and are very happy with the weather, cost of living etc. here in Spain. Maybe thats not such great TV?

Yes sales are slower and yes probably to much is being built at the moment. All markets have cycles especially property - have we not seen price cycles with fast and then slow sales in the UK ? You cant totally blame the Spanish many people could not wait to buy here at what they thought were ridiculously low prices and now maybe they cant sell at huge profits. Another factor the program failed to mention which is affecting sales is the higher mortgage rate over which Spain has no direct control being part of the Euro system.

Anyway watch the programme yourself - is not it time for Trevor to retire?

Hi Robi

Just watched the tonight programme and I totally agree with you, I have just bought in Murcia in January, got a slightly better deal compared to others who bought off plan a couple of years ago. I am not planning to sell in the near future and plan to live there.

The jist of this programme shows people hoping to make a killing, which is fair enough but these people where too late in entering the market, probably five years to late. If they can hold there nerve they will make a small but nice profit along with everyone else in about five to seven years. Uk is about to have the same problem with property there are going to be a lot of reposessions in my area of uk as prices rose fast and people dived in. Now the interest rate is going up and the bargain period part of their mortgage is due to finish soon, mortgage prices are now jumping up and people are struggling. Hence reposessions, more houses for sale at lower prices re reposessions and loads of people looking for smaller houses. Selling houses at profit will be hard.

So the same here as in spain people have to wait it out. It is every where, as for the land grab that is totally appalling and i feel so sorry for the people who are in this situation.

Just my thoughts

Hi Megmerlin

Thanks for your reply - well done sounds like you have a good deal down in Murcia and I wish you luck in your new surroundings.

Yes people will have to wait a while before they sell at a huge profit. Maybe they could rent in the meantime the Spanish government is now offering schemes to encourage more landlords to rent their properties out.

Rob

Could you point us in the direction to find out more about these governmental schemes for landlords?

Thanks

We are still researching it but in overview:

- Agreement lasts for 5 yrs.
- Rental set by government valuation
- Property condition report made before commencement of rental and property returned in the same state at end of agreement
- Grants available for property refurbishment
- They will place the tenants and manage the agreement

You can research yourself via entering into your search engine SPAVIV and/or BOE 166