Brit buyers voting with their feet

It should be a good year for property purchase in Spain and already the Russian, Scandinavian and Benelux buyers are bagging most of the bargains, priced at levels of at least five years ago.

The British, who have been sitting on their hands during the recession, seem more likely to buy in 2010, as they now realise their country is going nowhere soon, thanks to the trillions of pounds of debt incurred by the UK government that needs to be repaid over the next decade. They now accept that voting out the incompetent Labour Government isn’t likely to improve the position of most British families as fiscal hardship, increased taxes and job losses take their toll.

They see Britain’s busted economy, collapsed currency, Governmental mismanagement and lack of inward investment and realise the country is at the bottom of the G20 pile and regarded internationally as a basket-case. There has been few products to export as manufacturing has left these shores in waves, to be replaced by now disgraced banking and financial services. Profits from making cars and other consumer goods goes to overseas corporations and the associated danger of losing jobs to cheaper factories in Eastern Europe.

All this means many Brits are more likely to vote with their feet, putting a big X for Spain, their favourite destination for decades and snapping up quality holiday properties at bargain prices as bolt holes away from the ongoing economic rigours of Britain or for full-time living in the sun.

The property market may have collapsed and the Spanish economy may be in tatters but people are still interested in setting up a new life-style for themselves in Spain? They have done their research, logged the market trends and compared the results with the prospects of staying put in the UK.

Conversely, we see many people now leaving Spain and returning to the UK. They are mainly unable to make ends meet as active workers or retirees and want to get back to friends and family in the UK, where they hope their prospects will improve. For many the decline in Sterling will mean a good return on their property investment, or at worse getting all their money back if they bought in the peak years of the Spanish property market.

Specialist brokers like PropertyInSpain.Net is getting one or two of these returnees a day listing their properties on their website which is ranked by Google as the number one source for Spanish bank repossessions and bargain property in Spain, attracting 1,000s of bargains hunters every day]

Most bargains are coming from Spanish banks, who were not allowed by the Bank of Spain regulator to go anywhere near the toxic assets that blighted the US and UK banking industries. However, Spanish banks over-invested in the country’s booming property market that, at its peak, was turning out 600,000 units a years, more homes than being built in the UK, France and Germany combined.

They funded over confident developers and house-builders and together they created a housing bubble that burst within a decade, accelerated by greed, graft and corruption within many town halls. This left many buyers in legal limbo, having been lured into offplan sales of illegally built homes in places like Marbella, Costa Almeria and Costa de la Luz.

Central Government has moved quickly to resolve many of the problems, jail the conmen and to tighten up the planning regime. In Marbella, for instance, there are now volumes of records showing clearly which properties are legal and which are not and developments that are likely to become legal in the near future. Buyers and their Spanish lawyers can consult the lists and buy with new-found confidence.

Likewise the bank-owned bargains are fully legal, are discounted by up to 50% of the last valuation and come with generous mortgages built-in. A worthwhile combination for buyers wanting a great holiday homes or a fulltime move to sunny Spain…an opportune moment to make the move to secure a bargain.