Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Dreams of a life in the sun - over!
BBC News: UK expats face Spanish troubles
The hundreds of thousands of Britons who have moved to Spain in search of a better life have been hit by falling property prices, sometimes with devastating consequences.
Posted by landedgentry @ 06:39 PM (474 views) Add Comment
6 Comments
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1. paul said...
Oh dear, she's been ditzy. Buying at the top of the property boom in a country where she doesn't know the lingo, and has no transferable skills other than parenting her baby son. I do have sympathy that her husband died but this is priceless:
"There just aren't the people out there who are buying at the moment," she says. "Some are but they want a real bargain. Which means that I'm losing an awful lot of money."
Ooh those cruel nasty horrible buyers wanting good value for money.
Why can't they just shut up and pay what she asks? questions the BBC rhetorically.
Sorry love, you fail at property speculation. Holiday's over, back to Hull or Barrow or Walthamstow or wherever you actually live.
2. plato said...
Many,many more sorry stories to come yet. On my travels I have met many people who have bought property abroad with a mortgage.
That's the first big mistake for ordinary folk.
Others include :- Not understanding the Country.Not understanding the legalities of that country,not being able to genuinely communicate through language or a lack of reliable contacts that can do that, if needed. A basic ignorance of financial matters and a basic belief that those that you as a buyer are dealing with, are simple.
Believe me, you are almost guaranteed to lose out.
A country such as Spain has an inherent problem in supplying work for its own people, so in the event a buyer needs to work, basically forget it. The streets then beckon.
PM Brown better buy lots of social housing, because he's sure going to need it.
3. enuii said...
Don't forget the nigh on 20 percent income cut some of these people will be experiencing courtesy of pensions and investments held in UK Pounds.
4. dude said...
"Mr Solbes says the underlying cause of the slowdown is that the economy became too dependent on a construction sector that got overheated." Sounds like Leeds.
"As a result thousands of homes have been built, or are still under construction, for which there are not enough buyers." You sure this isn't Leeds?
"We were insisting that the construction of 800,000 a year had no sense that we had to we had to come back to a more normal production of houses, around 500,000 houses and this is what is happening today." Our erstwhile Mr Brown wants more houses. Many are (unjustly in my opinion) saying we are short of space in the UK, well if the government were to subsidise more frequent flights to Spain, he can offer the British public the houses he's promised. Winner!
5. it_is_going_with_a_bang said...
"Spain is like Ireland and the UK. We have to face a new situation: what is the source of the economy without the real estate market?"
The penny is beginning to drop with some people. Give it another year and see what happens.
6. alan said...
Growing the real estate market has been a big thing over the last 10 years. High prices have allowed people to MEW their homes and buy nice block paved drives, smart fitted kitches and lots of German cars.
Pity the party had to stop - no more living beyond our means!