Two new truths boost Spanish property

Two new truths on the same day might be a shock to the system, but there is a link between them that British over-50s and retirees will be quick to spot.




Shock one came when McBroon, having denied for years that he was the architect of the UK’s fiscal meltdown as Chancellor and then Prime Minister, finally admitted he’d been too soft on the bankers and their antics caused the crisis.




Shock two was when Spain’s ultra conservative National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed the first double digit growth in Spanish property sales for three years. Sales increased by 20% in February after a marginal 2% in January, a great boost for Spain’s main engine of economic growth.




As 60% of the sales were in second hand properties, it seems like the many Spanish bank repossession bargains are the main driver of this new-found market recovery. Other indicators also seem to point towards a slow but clear and steady recovery of the collapsed real estate market. Analysts expect the activity in the main second home markets to spread across Spain in future month.




So if McBroon was the architect of Britain’s fiscal disaster and ongoing hardships for families and the over-50s that’s not going to endear his party to the voters. However, the Cameroons haven’t announced any plans to help the over-50s recover from McBroon’s pensions raids, so a move to Spain remains a good hedge.




The high level of property sales in Spain suggests the prices are ripe and tempting for many 1,000s of buyers and specialists PropertyInSpain.Net claim current prices remain at their lowest for a decade in Spain.




Right now might be the opportune moment for savvy investors to grab a bargain property in Spain before they are snapped up by the more derring-do Scandinavian, Russian and Spanish buyers, who have pushed the sales to record levels so far this year…

Escape to Spain, Escape from McBroons

The summer has seen the ruling, bungling McBroons crash from crisis to disaster as the economy went south and the national debt northwards.

Over 50s, struggling to hold onto their last jobs before retirement or supplement their pensions, have never seen anything like the level of incompetence shown by the McBroons. They say Ministers and departments of state lack credibility, a viewpoint reinforced by statements from McBroon Castle on the economy and the needs for cuts and belt tightening.

First, it’s no cuts in public services as spun all summer long, now, as McBroon himself realises no sane person in the land believes him, he finally admits there will be cuts as the national debt soars above £800 billion.

After the great Westminster expenses scandal, involving a succession of McBroon ministers, comes the scandal of the Chief Attorney getting her knickers in a twist over her illegal immigrant housemaid. Baroness Scotland forced through the law that caught her in its net, but she claims she didn’t keep copies of the documents she checked when offering the job. She didn’t say what those documents were, but was happy to cough up £5,000 for a fine in the hope it would all go away…

Many of the Over-50 loyal readers of this blog run companies that may start recruiting again sometime in the next decade. They now have a ready answer if they inadvertently fall foul of the McBroons laws on employing immigrants.

Tell the man from the Border Agency – the same dozy outfit that allowed illegals to hitch a lift on their private coach – that you are sorry if the originals of the documents you have photocopies of are fakes like the ones that so easily fooled the Bungling Baroness. Then quietly point out that the McBroons own Home Office issued thousands of national insurance numbers without checks…

It is no wonder that Spanish property websites are getting record numbers of inquiries from Over-50s – they clearly reckon that country is nowadays run better than the UK. Plus the weather is better and as the cost of living is much lower, the pension will go much further... and they will escaped the machinations of the McBroons.

Pensions go further in Spain

As the McBroon government faces a new Culloden-style battlefield of mangled egos and inept tactics and leadership among its chieftains and white flags among its troops, the over-50 residents of these islands turned their attention to far weightier matters…

No matter what the McBroons do before their final defeat and what the Cameron clan manages when they eventually march into Whitehall, the baby boomer over-50s remain buggered so far as their pensions are concerned.

In a decade McBroon has totally bankrupted what was the best pension industry in the world. In annual raids he has nicked five billion quid a time - current total 100 billion - and with the increasing deficits even the best pensions in the world will become even more decimated.

Another 10,000 workers have just learned their employers, supermarket group Morrisons, has became the latest company to close its final-salary scheme to existing members. It follows similar recent decisions by Barclays and BP. Despite Morrisons reporting a rise in sales, the 10,000 employees in its pension schemes will now have pensions based on their 'career average' earnings, rather than their final pay when they retire

Some baby boomers will retain their better pensions, but some over-50s and the following generations will be working extra hard – and years longer - to make sure they are paid while their own pensions will be diminished.

McBroon stealth taxed the pensions of the private sector but levied no tax on the public sector pensions, so the private sector is also subsidising the pensions of dodgy MPs and quitting ministers and the pension of McBroon himself, whenever he is forced back over the border.

His stealth taxes and fiscal policy caused the recession, which is now the main reason for the end of proper private sector final salary pensions, and he ruined the pensions of millions more with his £5 billion a year pension raids.

So much for McBroon’s “Fairer, more just society”.

Some over-50s say the McBroons have ruined Britain and it is not longer a place they recognise. They are looking for a haven in sunny Spain, where their pensions and their lifespans can go further because of the lower cost of living and stress-free lifestyle.

With property prices down by up to 40% many over-50s and pensioners are opting for Spain as a more secure future. Downsize into a 2-bed place near the beach and amenities, slow down to manana pace, eat healthily and have the family down on a regular basis to share the wonderful lifestyle.

That’s the new dream and more are making the move, according to http://www.propertyinspain.net/ where over-50s are becoming the majority of buying clients.

Spain, land of plenty for Over-50s

After the worse week yet for the ruling McBroons, they have gone back to Scotland for a gathering of the clan and to reconstitute the government’s credibility amid growing concerns from the public about their futures in what used to be the land of plenty…

Henchmen spin masters have been forced from the scene after leaks of their planned smear campaign against Tory politicians and the leaks from the Home office were not worthy of the prosecution of the mole and Tory mole master. The schoolmarm, turned minister at the Home Office stonewalls her way out of a corner that can only lead to her final demise and McBroon himself still hasn’t said sorry for the sorry mess he has led the country into.

The country’s Over-50s will find this all vaguely familiar and reminiscent of previous failed governments that promised much and delivered so little of benefit. They now have a new figure to focus on, £175 billion – the amount of dosh borrowed by the McBroons to get us out of the mess they have caused in 10 years of mis-rule.

Over-50s and pensioners now realise that their grandkids will still be paying of this monster debt and wonder if there is another way of softening the blow – like having a base in Spain, Europe’s last land of plenty of sunshine, friendly natives, relaxed lifestyle and a cost of living much less than in Rip-off Britain.

Spanish house sales are still running at 1,000 a day, as bargain hunters take advantage of the over-supply and recessional Spanish bank repossessions and distressed situations. There are generous bank mortgages and genuine developers, Spanish solicitors and agents who will provide help and advice for Brit buyers.

Avoid the get rich quick schemes like those of the failed Fast Track outfit in the UK that are emerging in the wake of the current bargains situation. Why hand over thousands to buy through these dodgy operations and give away some of the savings that go with bargain homes in Spain.

Remember it’s all about location, quality and price – not just cheapness. This leading website provides a free buyer’s guide and a good selection of genuine bargains

Investors return to the Costa del Crook

There are signs of life returning to the Costa del Sol property market, where crooked mayors, lawyers and developers got their come-uppance for the decade when they were kings of the Costa, handing out planning licences and largesse and helping themselves to millions of graft euros in the process.

They are disgraced and/or jailed and the new central government installed council running Marbella has cleaned out the stables and is now restoring confidence in the market, where there are many distressed bargains for savvy investor buyers.

Things are also looking safer and better in these nearby troubled areas:

Alhaurín el Grande – Where the PP party is at the centre of the Troya case.
Estepona – Where the Socialists face the Astapa case.
Manilva – Ballena Blanca money laundering case affects the local PDEM party
Gaucín - Ex Partido Andalucista Mayor banned from public office for seven years.
Cómpeta - Where the PP ex Mayor has been banned for seven years.
Tolox and Ojén - Prosecutor wants to see both Mayors from the Partido Andalucista and PSOE Socialist party serve two years in prison.
Ronda – Merinos case the left wingers IU have complained about the PA.
La Viñuela – The Socialist Mayor faces a possible 18 months jail.
Sayalonga – The Socialist Mayor is charged.

The investors are returning and some are seeking multiple buys at knock-down prices and this can help kick start the market again. One group, who have been in touch, will buy packages of ten 2-bed apartments and packages of twenty 1-bed apartments in prime locations along the Costa.

Any banks or sellers with suitable bargains should contact the main brokers involved.

They have spotted the very real opportunities to buy “distressed” property at heavily discounted prices coupled with the lure of the sun, the golf and crystal blue water. However, it’s clear that these informed buyers will hold their “Caveat Emptor” banner high in the air – they will not be conned, ripped off or mislead by a dodgy Town Hall official – they will do their due dilligence to satisfy themselves that the victim culture has ended in the Costa del Sol.

Construction juggernaut heads for Spanish shores...

The latest housing stats from Spain show that country’s construction industry is so big it can’t stop building. Like the proverbial juggernaut oil tanker that takes 10 miles to come to a halt from switching off the engines, property in Spain is at "full ahead", still a long way from a safe harbour… and could end up on the rocks.

Demand may be down, but the supply of new homes seems to just keep on rising, with nearly 2,000 a day coming onto a Spanish property market already saturated by over-production – and that’s an increase on last year, when the market started to fall away.

Jose Luis Malo de Molina, director general of the Bank of Spain, told an amazed audience in Valencia the other day he expected key ready homes this year to be an all-time high for Spanish developers.

The Tanker Syndrome means this year’s completions, which were started in boom peak years 2005 and early 2006, and their construction won’t stop until the last of them are finished at the end of this year.

Safe haven or simply ship-wrecked on the Costa shorelines, there are going to be some more rich pickings for savvy investors able to navigate to the right place at the right time…