HOW HEALTHY IS THE PROPERTY MARKET?

HOW HEALTHY IS THE PROPERTY MARKET? Having had many years of booming sales,Spain, like the rest of the world has hit recession. The buildingsites were put in mothballs, the men layed off and the banks shutdown the lending facilites. Promotors sat with lines of completedhouses but no buyers. All was doom and gloom and 2008 was a very badyear for estate agents. The question is where do we go from here? Lesley McEwan of Cadizcasa says” 2008was undoubtedly a very difficult year and we saw many estate agentsclosing down. The early part of 2009 was likewise poor. However, inthe second half of this year we have seen a slight upturn in theavailability of lending facilites from the banks and this has givenus an increased number of especially young Spanish couples looking tobuy their first home. Prices are still low and it is going to taketime for them to rise but we are selling and the market has startedto move. It looks like recovery will be slow and very painful formany as we have large stockpiles of houses complete and ready to moveinto so the construction industry is going to be in limbo for sometime but we are off the starting blocks.” When asked about pricesshe said “ prices are still low compared to previous years andthere are a lot of bargains out there for people looking to buy. Inthe case of UK owners who are taking the money back to the UK thecurrent exchange rate is helping pad the lower sale prices. Afterthe appropriate costs and taxes many are breaking even or making asmall profit. The industry is far from perfect but we are on theroad again and we just need to keep moving forward until the naturalmomentum is restored”.

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