Sotogrande Property Sales

RUSSIAN FIRM TO BUILD €800M DISNEYLAND RESORT IN CYPRUS Cyprus, Disnelylad, Larnaca, marina, airport, Morpheus Investments

A Russian conglomerate called the Boema Group is applying for planning permission to build a €800million Disneyland holiday resort in the town of Pyla, in Cyprus.

Scheduled to be the largest ever single investment made on the island, creating around 3,000 jobs, according to Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis, the project is likely to be built on leased state land near the UN buffer zone between Turkish and Cypriot lines around the Larnaca – Famagusta boder. The investors were reportedly looking at Serbia to locate the project, but changed their mind after a Cypriot delegation highlighted Cyrpus’ political stability, EU membership and year round sunny weather.

Despite the cautious nature of some Cypriot government ministers about giving the project the final seal of approval, Christodoulos Papadopoulos, director of Boema in Cyprus, believes that the deal his company has struck with Russian tour operators, which plan to deliver an extra 500,000 holidaymakers from Eastern Europe alone, will be enough to get it across the line. The investors are also planning on involving both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot workers across all levels, after TRNC complaints over the decision to build the resort in the south instead of the north.

Alongside this, analysts believe the government is likely to speed up the approval process to complete the ‘Disneyland of the Mediterranean’ project ahead of Cyprus’ six-month European presidency in 2012.

Derek Hatton, director of Larnaca-based agency Morpheus Investments, welcomed the news and believes that this, if approved, will add an invaluable boost to property professionals in the region.

“A great number of buyers are rightly being cautious at present, and making sure that before buying a property, for whatever reason, that the area is sustainable and has plenty going on to ensure its resale potential and capital growth in the future,” he said. “Fortunately for us, who are marketing the Larnaca Golf and Country Club which is currently under construction, there is the new marina being built here, which will handle large cruise ships and the airport is also upgrading its capacity. If this receives the final stamp of approval, I expect sales to rocket here.”

real estate web portal rightmove has announced that last january 5, the first working monday of 2009, 44,000 emails were sent via their website requesting information on properties, 121% more than on the same date in 2008. miles shipside, the commercial manager of the portal, indicated that last year’s price fall is awakening the interest of bargain hunters.
generally, the interest is expressed by persons with liquidity, without much need for credit, or who are free of mortgages and have been waiting for months for a price fall in order to enter the real estate market

professionals in the construction industry are those who are most suffering from the vicissitudes of unemployment. the figures reported by the government show that this is the sector of the economy that suffered most in december. the increase shot up by 13.6% or 70,701 people. the growth percent in this sector (13.6% monthly) was the worst figure published by the labor ministry ever, and puts the overall total figure at 590,730 people. this figure duplicates the number of unemployed in construction as of a year ago
(283,867)

spanish builders and real estate companies begin the year with strong increases on the stock exchange

in 2009 the euribor will fall more sharply, according to the experts consulted by idealista news [idealista.com is the company that produces this bulletin]. all of them coincide in affirming that this indicator, the primary reference for mortgage calculations in spain, will continue to drop back until reaching around 2% or even less. this will occur as interbank markets relax, financial entities begin to trust one another again and the european central bank (ecb) lowers interest rates. the survey carried out indicates that the most pessimistic analysts anticipate a reduction by year’s end of 2.5% at most, but the optimists are in the
majority and estimate it will be about 2% in 12 months

sales of new homes fall 9% in spain and those of second-hand homes dive 43%

Rentals rise in Dubai property market as owners seek liquidity
14-11-2008 - Concern about the credit crunch has created a movement in the Dubai property market away from sales towards rentals, according to industry experts.

More and more properties are being marketed for rent rather than being sold on. 'Speaking to brokers, we have noticed a shift in the market. Now that more and more properties are being completed, property owners are looking to rent their properties to manage mortgage repayments,' said property event director Pooja Rajani.

The trend has also been noticed by Riad Kamal, the chief executive of construction giant Arabtec Holding. He said that more developers would become more reliant on income from property rents as the housing sales market continued to slow.

'There is a huge demand for rented accommodation and that's what is escalating the rent prices. What we are going to see is a healthy correction as more accommodation becomes available, helping to reduce the rents which today are just very unreasonable,' he added.

Headlines may have painted a confusing picture of Spain, but the country remains the UK’s number one destination for an overseas home and 2009 will see many more of us heading there this year.

Parts of the coastline may be over priced and over saturated but there are still bargains around for the buyer who knows where to look and at this time of year there are plenty of bargains around.

Brand new homes which are low maintenance are an ideal choice for anyone searching for a stress- free ‘lock up and leave’ bolthole in the sun. Yet, if you don’t mind a spot of DIY, buying an established property can be a great way of getting yourself a bargain, and finding a unique property at the same time.

Buying an established home has several advantages, including the fact that you can move into your chosen property quickly, sometimes within weeks. The property will also be up and running, with running services and mature, established gardens.

If you prefer an established property, be prepared for some legwork. Estate agents often let a vendor set their own sales price, but how do you make sure you’re not paying over the odds? There is no short cut method, and doing your own research into the market is vital.

Look at as many properties as you can and make sure to take notes on key points such as floor size, location, closeness to amenities and even views. Try and find out what market conditions in the area you have chosen are like. Are properties selling quickly or are they hanging around?

Remember that a vendor will also be influenced by the time of year, it’s easier to negotiate out of season, and don’t be afraid to bargain hard!

Mark Stucklin

Has your dream of a holiday home in Spain turned into a nightmare? For many Britons who borrowed heavily during the years of cheap credit to buy on the costas or beyond, the answer, unfortunately, is “yes”.

Those persuaded to finance their purchase with a Spanish mortgage are being hit by a triple whammy: rising euro-mortgage interest rates, a surging euro that makes their monthly repayments even higher in pounds, and falling house prices that threaten to push them into negative equity.

Furthermore, even when they succeed in letting their properties, the rental yields often bear little resemblance to the exaggerated claims made by estate agents when they bought.

And that is not to mention the thousands of people who own homes that, it has transpired, were built without proper planning permission and could now be demolished following a clampdown by the authorities.

Patrick Cassidy, 58, and his wife, Joy, 61, are among those ruing the day they bought in Spain. In spring 2006, at the peak of the market, they paid €375,000 (then worth £262,000) for two flats near La Manga, on the Murcian coast in the southeast of the country, with a deposit of just £6,000 and a 125% mortgage. Things rapidly began to go wrong.

“At first, our mortgage payments were about €740 [£510] a month for each apartment, but that went up to €940 [£660] a month in late 2007, when the interest-only period expired and interest rates went up,” says Cassidy, a taxi driver. “We had one tenant for seven months, but his rent didn’t even cover the mortgage. Now, with the exchange rate going bad, the apartments are costing us about £2,000 a month. We are taking a pasting and we can’t afford it.”

Several months - and several thousand pounds - in arrears on his payments, Cassidy has handed back the keys to the bank. Because of what appear to have been irregularities in the way he was sold the mortgage, the matter will probably end there. Other British investors caught in negative equity may not find it quite so easy to walk away from their debts - which have been exacerbated by the pound’s 15% slide from just over €1.50 early last year to the current €1.27.

“Under EU regulations, Spanish lenders can pursue outstanding mortgage-related debts against assets in the UK,” says Susana de las Cuevas, a dual-qualified Spanish and British solicitor with Irwin Mitchell in London. “Ignorance is no defence, so you can’t argue you didn’t know you would be liable in the UK.”

So, what do you do if you find you can’t keep up with your payments? The important thing is to act sooner rather than later. “Don’t ignore the problem, and talk to your lender as soon as you can, preferably before missing a payment,” de las Cuevas advises. “You may be able to negotiate a solution - and, even if you can’t, burying your head in the sand will only make it worse.”

Going into denial and hoping your debts won’t catch up with you back home is a big mistake: it drags out the process, which drives up the final cost to you. “All missed payments are added to the debt, as are any legal fees the bank incurs, and you start paying a higher penalty interest rate, so your debt escalates the longer it takes,” says Lee Lyons, who runs The Spanish Mortgage Company, a home-loan broker.

Fortunately, the last thing mortgage lenders want to do is repossess your property, especially if they have to pursue you in Britain, so your negotiating power with the bank may be stronger than you think. “They are likely to give you every chance to negotiate better conditions - perhaps a longer term or an interest-only period,” Lyons says. “If you can get your payments down to a manageable level, and make a bigger effort to get some rental income, it may give you breathing room to survive until the market picks up.”

For many overextended Britons, however, better mortgage terms might not help much. In this case, damage limitation is required, and a quick sale at a loss is likely to be the least bad solution. Dropping your price might mean having to pay more to clear your mortgage debt, but in the long run it could work out cheaper than repossession.

If all else fails, your mortgage lender will repossess the property and sell it at public auction, which could take up to two years. If the proceeds from the sale are not enough to pay off your mortgage, along with the penalty interest and all other expenses incurred, then the bank will have to decide whether to pursue you in Britain. If your outstanding debt is small - a few thousand pounds, say - then they may decide that it isn’t worth it, as debt collection is not cheap. If your debt is sizeable, however, don’t be surprised if you hear from the bank’s UK-based lawyers.

What if you are in the happy position of being a buyer in this market? Can you take advantage of rising foreclosures on holiday homes in Spain to snap up a bargain at auction? Probably not, is the honest answer. Really great opportunities still get snaffled up by insiders long before auction, and those that do make it through may be earmarked by the “auction mafia” - who are people you don’t want to cross. If you bid against the wrong person in a public auction in Spain, there is no telling what might happen to your property. Your best bet is to let bank managers and estate agents in the area know that you are a solvent buyer in a position to move quickly. That way, you might find a distressed vendor who is prepared to take a big hit for a quick sale to avoid the costs of repossession.

One final word of warning: anyone struggling to pay their Spanish mortgage should be wary of refinancing solutions that sound too good to be true. In times like these, scams that prey on desperation abound. They nearly always leave you worse off than you would have been dealing with your original lender

Karen Robinson..

The blonde goddess in the flowing white dress plucked serenely at her golden harp, oblivious to the teeming flow of humanity around her. Her presence on the stand of Ferragamo penthouses in the inventively named Pentominium tower was doubtless intended to emphasise their classiness, but, like most things in these parts, the show was really all about the numbers.

Men in shirtsleeves, business suits or crisp white dishdashas with flowing headdresses, and women in everything from burkas to minidresses were all intent, in this 21st-century souk with products and price tags on a mind-boggling scale, on the biggest game in town: the Dubai property market. An estimated 60,000 visitors from 150 countries surged through the world’s biggest property exhibition last week – and, even as the stock exchanges in Dubai and neighbouring Abu Dhabi reflected the global financial unrest, the atmosphere inside showed no signs of flagging.

“The UAE is well placed to weather the storm and will rebound faster than most other economies,” declared Ali Kolaghassi, vice chairman and CEO of Jordan’s Saraya Holdings. “I don’t see real estate going down in value.” His words might be seen as an exercise in damage limitation. On the show’s opening day, The National, a high-profile English-language daily, ran a front-page story, purporting to be based on a report by the property consultants Colliers International, announcing that property prices in Dubai had fallen by 16%. The following day came a sheepish apology: Colliers had actually said that the rate of growth had eased to 16% in the second quarter, after a blistering 43% in the first three months of this year. In other words, the trend was still upward.

From its huge stand at the show, rumoured to have cost almost £6m, Nakheel, Dubai’s largest developer, launched the world’s tallest tower. At more than 1km high, it will dwarf the current title-holder, the Burj Dubai, which has almost been completed and is expected to top out at 819 metres. The glittering scale model at the centre of the stand showed it rising proudly from a nest of more than 40 towers, on a site set in a network of canals.

Another fabulous launch was the modestly named Falconcity of Wonders, which will feature, among its villas and apartment blocks, not just a theme park, but replicas of what its developer has decided are the eight wonders of the world – among them the Eiffel Tower, the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramid, Venice and what the sales girl confided was the “Leaning Tower of Pizza”. It will have 3,000 units; phases one and two have sold out, with prices set at about £1,650 a square metre, and prices for the third phase will be announced next week.

Meraas Development launched a “master planned community”, Jumeirah Gardens, a £55 billion scheme, the size of a small city, that will include three towers linked by sky bridges. Damac Properties offered an incredible 40% guaranteed rental return on its new Executive Suites project in Business Bay. Dubai Properties, meanwhile, launched its Cairo villas as part of Mudon, a development set back from the coast that will house 50,000 residents in five “cities” named and supposedly styled after leading Arab conurbations: Cairo, Damascus, Marrakesh, Beirut and, er, Baghdad.

Elsewhere at the show, Michael Schumacher, the seven-time Formula One champion, introduced his own branded tower in Abu Dhabi. Another developer, Hydra Properties, touted its range of skyscrapers, including one marketed exclusively to female entrepreneurs.

The expo’s official paper summed up the prevailing optimism with the front-page headline “No sign of a slowdown”. Yet there are indications that the property boom, which began in 2002 when Dubai became the first of the emirates to allow foreigners to buy property, may be brought to an end by oversupply. The Colliers International report predicted that about 140,000 new homes would be completed in Dubai by the end of 2010, adding to the existing stock of 300,000.

For the time being, at least, prices are not dropping and developers are not leaving the market – although it’s becoming more expensive for them to fund their projects. In addition, new regulations on off-plan selling, introduced in an effort to prevent rampant speculation, as well as the merger of two mortgage providers, mean that the market is not slowing, but rather “maturing”, according to the optimists.

Andrew Chambers, managing director of Asteco, a Dubai-based property services company, is among those who see property prices as more likely to level off than fall. “People come to Dubai because of many factors – the working environment, job opportunities, safety and security, and the fact that there is no tax,” he says. “All these keep demand high. In America, 180,000 jobs have been lost. Here, it’s the opposite: there is a shortage of skilled people.”

A new service called the International Development Registry ( IDR ) has launched to capitalise on the lack of data and security in the international market place, by providing independent legal certification to create a global register of international property developments.

Formed as a joint venture partnership between consultancy First Phase Ventures and Richmond Green Marketing, IDR will collate title deed information, planning permission certificates, construction licences and partner contracts on new and existing developments, through its team of independent lawyers in over 50 countries and plans to be FSA regulated by 2009.

The company hopes that by answering some of the concerns that have surfaced over ownership rights in some of the key markets around the world, it will attract a variety of global developers to use its service and will be officially launching at OPPLive 08.

“This is a tool that will help developers attract the best agents to market their project as it will be clear to buyer and broker that a full check has been done on the project and the people behind it,” said Michael Masterson, managing director of IDR . “The international market place is unregulated and there has been no attempt before to provide a single standard on what is constituted as required information for best practice in the sector.”

IDR has a range of products and services from putting developers in touch with independent escrow agents and title insurance companies, through to full financial reports that can be tailored and used when submitting applications for finance globally.

The registry will also be conducting a trade and consumer marketing campaign in Q1 2009 to highlight its creation and is aiming to partner with “key portals and agents” from around the world in an effort to become the global standard for developer due diligence.

Masterson added: “You wouldn’t buy a car without checking to see if it had money owing on it, and buyers are becoming more savvy and taking the same approach to their overseas property purchases. After a media campaign, partner websites and their developments will carry an IDR logo for consumers to check if a project they are interested in is has had its checks done and we believe that this marketing aspect will drive developers to get on board with this service very quickly. It is a win-win for the industry and will be the worldwide industry standard for transparency and investor security.”

Low cost carrier Ryanair has just opened up four new routes between Málaga and the UK, making the Costa del Sol accessible to even more potential homebuyers each year.

Ryanair already flies to 10 UK destinations from Málaga and will now add Glasgow Prestwick, London Stansted, Birmingham and Edinburgh to that list. The airline predicts there could be an extra 240,000 passengers a year on these new routes, including an extra 100,000 from Birmingham alone.

Ryanair has reported that just days since announcing the new routes 5,000 tickets have already been sold for Glasgow, 6,000 for Londn Stansted, 5,500 for Edinburgh, and 13,000 for Birmingham.

Spanish Property Insight reports that these routes are good news for the Costa del Sol's struggling property market. Despite the temporary slump in British demand for Spanish property, with buyers turned off by high prices, unattractive developments, and property scandals, Brits are still the Costa del Sol's most important export market.

Greater flight availability from more regional airports should help stimulate demand as the coast cleans up its act and prices begin to go down in response to the current market conditions, offering good value for money.

The new flights will also attract an increasing number of holidaymakers, boosting the buy-to-let market as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG7y_CD9rMg

Although Segovia died over 20 years ago, one week, once a year, in the sleepy seaside village of La Herradura (where virtually nothing happens for the other 51 weeks), budding musicians from all over the world descend to compete for the title of best international classical guitarist.

Due to a spectacular lack of administrative ability and a similar deficit of commercial flair on the part of the local town council, almost nobody has ever heard of this event. You can't even buy tickets - it's free to soak up the entire week of the world's best classical guitar players performing their own original pieces.

But now you know - just show up at the civic centre in La Herradura between the 17th and 22nd of November. If you need another reason to visit this part of the Granada coast, I had the best-ever grilled fish for lunch at the weekend, sitting on La Herradura beach, sun cream still mandatory.

WWW.SOTOGRANDEPROPERTYSALES.COM

The residential Spanish property market shrank by 36.8% in August compared to a year ago, to 37,744 transactions, according to the latest data from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE).

On a year to date basis, the Spanish property market has declined by 28.4% compared to the first 8 months of last year.

Back in July it looked as if the rate of decline in Spanish home sales had started to slow, with sales in July falling by an annualised rate of 26% compared to 30% in June, and 34% in May. The 37% decline in August has sent that trend into reverse.

In keeping with recent months, the resale market was hit hardest, with sales down in August by 47.3% to 17,747 compared to the same period last year. This means that, for every 2 properties sold in August last year, only 1 was sold this year.

In comparison first time sales of newly-built properties fell by only 23.4%, to 19,997, though these figures do not reflect the recent collapse in new sales contracts signed by developers, which are down by more than 60%.

By region, sales fell the most in Catalonia (-50.63%), followed by the Balearics (-44.48%), Aragon (-43.6%), the Basque Country (-43.42%), and Andalucia (-40.02%). Sales also fell in the Canaries (-20.85%), the Valencian Community (-37.63%), Murcia (-22.01%), and Madrid (-38.38%).

Mortgage activity is down in line with the fall in property sales, according to the INE’s figures. Mortgage approvals were down 37.2%, whilst the average mortgage loan fell by 9.6% to 137,657 Euros.

The number of planning approvals in Spain fell by 59% to 199,146 in the first 8 months of the year, according to new figures from Spain’s Ministry of Development. This means that housing starts this year will drop to a level not seen in Spain for close to a decade.

Looking just at August, planning approvals slumped even further, by 67% compared to August 2007, and by a staggering 80% compared to August 2006.

The good news is that the dramatic reduction in planning approvals will reduce the pipeline of new properties coming onto an already saturated market, though unfortunately it will take between one and two years for the impact to be felt. That said, housing starts in Spain are still high compared to other European countries. In the UK, for example, there are around 120,000 housing starts per year.

The bad news is that falling planning approvals will drive up construction-sector unemployment even further, reducing demand for new homes.

And whilst planning approvals have collapsed, the number of new homes finished has carried on rising, though at a lower rate than before. According to the Ministry of Development there were 399,381 construction completions in the first seven months of the year, compared to 398,244 in the same period last year – a rise of 0.3%.

At present there are 650,000 unsold homes on the market, and the figure is expected to reach 1 million by the end of the year, say developers. Beatriz Corredor – Spain’s Housing Minister – estimates that it will take up to 2 years for the market to absorb the excess supply, but rules out any government intervention to reduce the glut by buying up properties.

Spain's economy contracted 0.2 percent in the third quarter compared with the previous three months, suffering its first quarterly decline since 1993 as a global financial crisis pushed the country towards recession.

An estimate from the Bank of Spain showed gross domestic product expanded in annual terms in the third quarter, rising by 0.9 percent year-on-year, but the central bank was downbeat about the outlook as it flagged the growing risk of a deeper, more prolonged downturn in the world economy.

Spanish "indicators from the third quarter of 2008 show the correction intensifying, in the context of a profound deterioration in financial markets since mid-September," it said in its monthly report.

Spain, whose decade-long boom fuelled by construction and consumption ended abruptly this year, is now paying the price for overreliance on property and high levels of private sector debt and will slip into recession this year, economists said.

Growth was down from 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in April to June. In all of 2007, the economy expanded by 3.7 percent.

Spain will likely have plenty of company in the economic slowdown, with negative quarterly GDP data already announced by countries including the United States, Britain and Ireland.

Spain's property sector in particular has slumped fast, with developer Martinsa Fadesa going into administration and high profile building and infrastructure companies like Sacyr and Ferrovial weighed down by debts worth many times their market capitalisation.

Falling house values, with prices down 7.5 percent over a year for existing homes according to a major property website, are also squeezing banks, who cut mortgage lending by 42 percent in September from a year earlier.

"We were expecting a decline (in GDP) of 0.1 percent and it came out as negative 0.2 percent. It's bad news but we have to see the sector breakdown and we think that consumption is going to give some pretty bad news and show a contraction in the third quarter," said Diego Fernandez of Fortis.

The government is set to announce its own preliminary GDP data on Nov. 14, with more complete data a few days later. The government, which has launched a 38 billion euro fiscal stimulus programme, said the poor quarterly data was the result of external factors.

"We're going through an economic situation, as everyone knows, which is due to the international crisis and is affecting all countries," Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told a news conference.

Fortis' Fernandez said the economy could decline by 0.1 percent in the second quarter and barely grow by 0.1 percent in 2009. "It probably won't be until 2011 that we see a clear improvement," said Fernandez, who said unemployment, which has already risen to 11.3 percent from 8 percent in 2007, would hit 13 percent and perhaps even 16 percent in next year.

"As Spain cannot adjust its exchange rate (because of its euro membership), it is going to have to adjust internal prices .. It is going to have to lower wages and increase competitiveness significantly," Fernandez said.

Spain's heavy reliance on external financing, due to a current account deficit running at roughly 10 percent of GDP, means that the global financial crisis is biting here hard. "Here we have the same problems as elsewhere, combined with our external financing needs, which is a problem in the current liquidity drought," said Alfonso Garcia-Yubero from Banif, who saw more vigorous economic growth returning by the second half of 2010.

The Bank of Spain said domestic demand growth slowed to 0.3 percent in annual terms in the third quarter, weighed down by slowing house construction and consumption. It did not give comparative data for the second quarter, but separate government statistics showed growth of 0.1 percent for this period.

Year-on-year Spanish third quarter economic growth fell by 0.9 percentage points from the second quarter, the bank said. While inflation risks are ebbing in the euro zone as commodity and energy prices ease, the financial crisis posed grave risks to the world economy, the Bank of Spain said.

"This all means that the world economy faces maximum uncertainty over the next few quarters, and increases the risks that the downwards phase of the cycle is deeper and longer," the bank said.