Thursday, Jul 23, 2009
Take a look at what's going on in Spain
MoneyWeek: A warning from Spain about the property market
Almost every day, it seems, someone else wants to tell us the housing market's picking up. On Tuesday, even the taxman had a go. Apparently the number of British homes sold (for more than £40,000) was up 15% in June compared with May. That followed Monday's upbeat message from property website Rightmove that house prices are bottoming out. Don't believe it. If you want a glimpse of just how badly things can go wrong, take a look at what's going on in Spain...
Posted by damien @ 11:23 AM (1347 views) Add Comment
6 Comments
- If you do not have an admin password leave the password field blank.
- If you would like to request a password allowing you to add comments and blog news articles without needing each one approved manually, send an e-mail to the webmaster.
- Your email address is required so we can verify that the comment is genuine. It will not be posted anywhere on the site, will be stored confidentially by us and never given out to any third party.
- Please note that any viewpoints published here as comments are user's views and not the views of HousePriceCrash.co.uk.
- Please adhere to the Guidelines
1. uncle tom said...
The Spanish property market, being substantially over-supplied, is likely to decline to a point where homes and flats sometimes change hands for less than they cost to build.
If, as I think likely, the eurozone fractures, then Spanish property could become even cheaper.
With the benefit of the internet, many people in administrative jobs could work from Spain as easily as from the UK, and many UK retirees, faced with lean pensions; might find retiring to Spain even more attractive.
As for the Spanish, having previously built their economic revival on the back of construction, and not being short of desolate land on which to build; might find it attractive to encourage and even subsidise the construction of yet more homes, as a route to escaping the current recession.
This could result in a significant and prolonged downward pressure on UK prices.
2. quiet guy said...
Interesting to see Moneyweek complain about media ramping - something this blog has taken a bit of stick for in the past.
3. down wave said...
Today, I am so p***ed off with everything in the UK, If I did not have to shell out £600.00 for a HIP, I would put my house on the market. Please can anyone tell me: If I was to advertise the house on an Offshore website and use an Offshore solicitor, would I have to buy a HIP?
4. need-a-crash said...
@3. down wave
If you're a homeowner presumably you going to make about 20,000% profit on the sale of your home, so what do you care about £600 for a HIP?
5. gone-to-colombia said...
I think the Spanish crash is about to happen here. The skyline is full of vastly over prices apartments, and half built skeletons.
A three bed apartment here can fetch over half a million dollars, crazy for a third world country. Much of the bubble here was fueled by European, mainly Spanish, banks.
6. greenshootsandleaves said...
Does anyone remember the Channel 4 of Five documentary a month or so ago about the unsold properties on the Costas? A lady from the UK (Yorkshire, I believe) was being shown a few of them, tempted by the low prices. The agent was telling her that she should act quickly because he couldn't guarantee to hold the price at that level much longer. He'd probably suggest the same if he were selling ice cubes from a stall at the North Pole. That's the sort of person you want to compile your statistics if you're in the industry!
She decided to hang on to her cash.