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Daily news from Spain

Kyero Live
last updated: Feb 04 2012 2:19 PM
  • Non-hotel overnight stays increased by 5% in 2011
    Overnight stays in non-hotel tourist accommodation (apartments, campsites and rural tourism) exceeded 102.8 million in 2011, representing an increase of 5.2% over 2010, according to figures released by the National Statistics Institute. The rise experienced in overnight stays in non-hotel accommodation last year was as a result of a 7.5% increase in stays made by [...]
  • Cold Snap Heading for Malaga
    Europe is freezing, with the wave of cold weather hitting several countries, mainly in the East, leaving many dead, according to recent reports. Temperatures plummeted to -33ºC in the Ukraine, -31ºC in eastern Bosnia and to similar figures in Poland, Romania and Bulgaria, and this drop in temperature is likely to be felt in Malaga [...]
  • Demise of Spanair Good News, Says Ryanair
    The Chairman of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, believes that the bankruptcy of Spanair is “good news for tourism and employment in Spain”, because, in his view, “it will allow the arrival of new airlines to take its place and, at the same time, increase traffic by offering lower rates and a more efficient service”. In a [...]
  • Moody’s Believe New Spanish Bank Mergers Will Affect Their Credit
    The rating agency Moody’s anticipates a significant deterioration of credit due to the second wave of mergers in the Spanish financial system, a process that “will not be financed with public funds,” although the Bank Restructuring Fund (FROB) remains in force. “The Government has clearly expressed its intention to limit public support to banks,” warned [...]
  • 2011 Closed with Highest Unemployed Rate Since 1994
    The number of unemployed in Spain has surpassed the 5 million mark for the first time, ending 2011 with 5,273,600 unemployed, according to the Labour Force Survey (EPA), released on Friday by the National Statistics Institute. The unemployment rate increased by 1.33 points to 22.85%, which is the highest it has been since the first [...]
  • Facebook Generates Jobs in Spain
    The world’s largest social network is more than entertainment for its users. According to a report by Deloitte, Facebook generates 232,000 jobs in the European Union. The same study, which measures the employment and economic impact of Mark Zuckerberg’s company, said that this accounts for 15,300 million euros of the EU’s GDP and 1,400 million [...]
  • IMF Calls for Increased Funding
    The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, has called to “increase” but not “double” the European bailout fund, so that countries like Spain and Italy are not drawn into a liquidity crisis. At a conference in Berlin before the German Society for Foreign Policy, Lagarde said that “stronger firewalls” are essential [...]
  • Electricity Bills to go back to Bi-monthly
    The invoicing for electricity is to go back to being bi-monthly. This was proposed by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism as a draft royal decree establishing that the billing of domestic electricity consumers should be based on actual meter readings, taken every two months. With this new law, El Mundo reported that the [...]
  • Iberia Flight Strikes Called Off
    The main trade unions of the 16,000 Iberia ground staff, the CCOO and UGT, along with the TCP, the union of the 4,000 cabin crew, on Friday reached an agreement with the heads of Iberia to extend the guarantees of employment for both groups until 2014, with automatic extension until 2015. This agreement has resulted [...]
  • Japan Calls for “Greater Efforts” from Europe
    Before attending the G20 meeting to be held in Mexico over the weekend, Japan reiterated the need for Europe to make its “best efforts” to resolve the debt crisis in the eurozone. “As we have said many times, Japan is prepared to support European efforts to stabilise the financial markets, including the loans from the [...]

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last updated: Feb 04 2012 8:33 AM

The Wisdom of Four Years of Spanish Property News

All News
Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jul 14 2008
News >> All News

This week, I received another comment on my original Vicios Cultos article. Just as I mangled the 'ocultos' part, it seems I also corrupted the translation of ‘vicios’. Thanks to Roger Cooper who kindly set me straight (again) with these words:

“Vicio does, of course, have the same primary sense as English/French ‘vice’. But, in context, the meaning can be quite different. Just as our ‘vicious’ has moved away from any strict link with ‘vice’, so, in modern Spanish, ‘vicio’ can mean simply ‘defect’, ‘fault’, with no suggestion of moral turpitude."

"A speech defect, for example, is ‘un vicio de diccion’, without any suggestion that, say, a stammerer is immoral. It even has an ironic slang meaning, so that ‘de vicio’ usually means ’’brilliant’, ‘phenomenal’, just as ‘wicked’ does in our young people’s slang, without any suggestion of evil”

Phew, it’s good to finally get that moral turpitude out in the open.

With this 190th newsletter, we’re getting close to the 200th issue of Property Pulse – hard to believe I’ve been sending this out for almost four years now. The actual 200th issue is scheduled for October 21st – due to the summer holiday break.

It’s interesting to take a quick look back on four years of news articles. For example, there were very clear signals a long time ago that the Spanish property market was all set to change. As early as the middle of 2005, we had good cause to suspect the hype around the property market boom.

Also in mid 2005, the Valencian Land Grab Law was all set to disappear. To be fair, the name of the law has changed but we’re still suffering from some underhanded behaviour in that region of Spain as this long list of articles demonstrates.

It was in early 2006 that corruption in Marbella first hit the news. Even though that particular location seems to be addressing its issues, it is, of course, still coping with the fallout from that spate of publicity. Just last month, a similar set of circumstances hit the news concerning Estepona – just 20 minutes down the coast from Marbella.

Still on the subject of illegal building and corruption – this time in Catral, it’s easy to see how today’s story is linked to similar articles stretching back to the middle of 2006.

The perspective I gain from this quick excursion down memory lane is that it will take a while yet for Spain to clean up it’s image – at least as far as property is concerned. Despite moves to operate more transparently, Spain’s system of funding local councils via the process of granting building licences is doomed to perpetuate the current cycle of corruption.

Similarly, the election process in Spain often places opposing political parties in power at regional and local levels. When a regional government instigates a witch-hunt into corruption at the local level, it’s a safe bet they won’t be concentrating on towns where their own political party is in office.

Long term, I am optimistic that Spain will get the better of these vices and defects in their political and legal machinery – because they are doing more than simply paying lip-service to the ideals of transparency. Now that its property market is taking a beating, this would be an ideal time to push through new legislation to systematically eradicate corruption and inefficiency in the housing system.

I’d increase tax revenue with a massive clamp-down on black money deals. This would also produce a core of believable data about the actual value of housing in Spain. With less money changing hands illegally and an official handle on house prices, my guess is that the market would recover more quickly and more predictably.

In the meantime, don’t think of Spain as the accident black spot of Europe – it’s not, not by a long stretch. The issues Spain is tackling are the same in all ‘developing’ countries – they take years to solve and move beyond. If you’re thinking about buying property in Spain, use an independent lawyer and an independent surveyor, take your time and do your own homework.

This approach was true 4 years ago – and it will probably still be true in another 4 or 40 years from now. Let’s hope by that time I’ve found something new to write about in Issue 2,000 of the Kyero.com Property Pulse Newsletter.

Martin Dell, Kyero.com

Last changed: Jul 15 2008 at 4:09 PM

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