Over-50s can quit UK for just £25,000

Prime Minister McBroon is in a right pickle, having had his clapped-out New Labour saved by an £11M investment from clapped-out, seventies-style Old Stalinists in the Unite trade union, it’s now payback time.

McBroon is using the union’s cash to fight the next election and carry on with his crazy government of the Britain he has ruined. To make sure he toes the Militant Tendency line, Unite has set up a manned desk in Number 10 itself and hired McBroon’s disgraced attack dog publicist, Charlie Whelan, as their “political director”.

For many Over-50s it’s a clear throwback to the Seventies when Labour was controlled by the unions and strike-bound Britain ground to a halt. Only this time around the country owes billions more and the level of corruption is even greater. Cameroons posters show “Cash Gordon” hiding wads of Unite cash behind his back and wearing a pilot’s uniform with his cap badged Unite – even as British Airways fight off the union’s strikers.

Nobody got to vote for McBroon when he claimed the job of Prime Minister, nobody would have, if they’d known he was a stooge of militant trade unionists, back on parade after 30 years licking their wounds in the political wilderness.

Surely no sensible voter will vote for Labour Unite in May…but don’t count on it.

Over 50s are in pole position to quit the Britain that will be awash with soaring taxes, declining services, pensioner penury and aggressive trade unions claiming more desks in Downing Street. Brits approaching retirement can grab their assets and head out to a sunbelt country like Spain and take control of their golden years…

Staying in Britain, they are likely to face a decade of chaos, disorder, strikes and industrial unrest, causing Sterling to sink even lower against the Dollar and Euro and prices and interest rates to soar. Fixed incomes can’t cope with that scenario.

Things might be better if the Cameroons win, but they don’t have a magic wand to undo the knots of public debit that will strangle the future prospects of millions, specifically the Over-50s and pensioners.

There is an alternative... A small investment in a property in Spain can provide a useful bunker as the war of attrition rages in the UK and it can be occupied strategically or full-time.

PropertyInSpain.Net and a group of Spanish banks are planning to launch special deals for Over-50s and pensioners that needs only £25,000 from UK savings to own a two or three bed property worth £100,000 in a good location on a choice of Costas.

The scheme is expected to offer maximum flexibility over the next decade – breadline chaos in Blighty or laid-back, Med lifestyle in Spain…

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.

Final days for the McBroons?

It’s looking like the final days of the McBroons as they scramble from saving face in the hot Afghan desert and onto snowy Copenhagen to save the world from climate change. As they have got so little right in their 12 years of mis-rule, few would give them any odds on pulling something useful out of the fire at this late stage of their decline.

McBroon and his cohorts are allowing the busted banks to pay bonuses and fund the Krafty take-over of a British chocs company; Spend money faster than they can print it on some days, while cheating on promised pension increases; providing vital helicopters after five years of military casualties while whitewashing over the vainglorious Iraq invasion… offering Third World ragamuffins billions to squander on staying green while giving nowt to Britain’s greenest van maker - who’s now gone bust.

It’s a fairy tale world the McBroons have created for themselves, but surely without a happy fairy tale ending… Hans Christian Andersen lived in Copenhagen and like McBroon he liked to travel around the world compiling imaginative stories to tell, one of which, “Only a Fiddler”, might become McBroon’s tomb-top testimonial when judged by history?

The parlous and changed state of Great Britain PLC, now Lorded over by the mortgage fiddler with more titles than Idi Amin, Saddam Hussain, Robert Mugabe and Hazel Blears, is getting many people looking for a better country to move to.

A place where their meagre pensions will go further; where the sun shines 300 days of the year and their neighbours will be friendly and more respectful in their safer neighbourhoods. The nearest place is Spain, where they can now find a nice house for less than the average price of a flat in the UK.

Spain’s in the recession too and in trouble because they built too many second homes to cater for the never-ending demand from discontented Brits, bored Benelux bods and over-rich Russians. As Spanish banks were not allowed to stray into the twilight zones of dodgy lending and toxic assets they are still around to advance good mortgages to sensible borrowers.

As McBroon has done nothing to support Sterling, the pound has crashed against the Euro, making life difficult for Brits paying mortgages in Spain. Some have had their Spanish homes repossessed, but most will go without the Sunday roast before giving up their splendid lifestyle on their favourite Costa.

Scary for Brit pensioners

There’s been some scary pensions data this week for Over-50s thinking about retiring to sunny Spain and stern warnings of a Big Bang if something radical isn’t done…

Pensions are an accident waiting to happen, according to experts in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme,"Who Took Your Pension”

While the McBroon Government financial crisis, poor investment returns and inadequate savings have curbed our ability to finance an ever longer retirement, our expectations remain high. "If the pension system carries on as it is with no real change, it will explode," Ros Altman, governor of the London School of Economics, told the Dispatches programme.

Basic UK state provision is low by European standards, yet occupational schemes which should top that up are in crisis because of increased costs, poor investment returns and our extended longevity. Those who most need to make an early commitment for old age, the low paid, are those least likely to do so.

TUC figures show the proportion of "unpensioned" private sector workers has risen from 54.6% to 62.6% between 2000 and 2008, a period that included the pension raids of McBroon, the spend-thrift chancellor that got it all wrong.

"Low-paid employees are simply not earning enough in their working life to pay for a sensible retirement given that people are living so much longer," independent pensions consultant John Ralfe told Dispatches.

With McBroon borrowed billions to repay, taxes and cost of living increases on the way, Over-50s should be looking at ways of leaving these shores for a relaxed lifestyle on a favourite Brit-friendly Costa.

Ex-pat pensioners along the Costa del Sol were relaxed the other day as they watched the latest McBroon machinations on their Sky News widescreens. They seemed to be enjoying life to the full with Spanish mates and ex-pats from other northern European countries in favourite bars and golf clubs.

The wrecked Pound means they have less pension cash, but living in Spain can cost 30% less than the UK and with a sunnier, relaxed lifestyle to boot. Petrol now costs about the same, but fares on efficient trains are much lower, helping retirees to enjoy the seaside resorts and historic cities.

Housing costs are a fraction of those in Blighty, food and drink costs typically 25% less and heating bills are lower because of the Spanish climate. The health service is highly rated and there are few delays in seeing consultants and getting treatment. Private health payments are lower and dentists plentiful.

The McBroons are likely to be replaced by the Cameroons, but the borrowed billions and train-wreck economy can only be fixed by higher taxes, working longer and lowered standards of living. BBC News shows pension options.

McBroon’s fiscal porridge

The Spanish property market appears to have reached a watershed moment in time with reports that the collapse in prices might be bottoming out, based on sales of more than 500,000 properties in the last 12 months, and British buyers finally having to realise the once mighty Pound now only buys one now mighty Euro.

Despite the world recession property sales have dipped by only 20% thanks to heavy discounting by developers, Spanish bank repossessions and British vendors taking reverse advantage of the 30% exchange rate decline.

It’s been a buyers’ market for many months and 10,000 deals a week across Spain provide strong evidence that the more realistic prices and extra low interest rates have attracted the bargain hunters, but with many hesitating Brits hoping for further falls.

If September 2009 proves to be the watershed, then they will have missed out on the real bargains like 2-bed apartments for EUR 74,000 and 3-bed villas from EUR 140,000. While continuing to “look before they leap” 1,000s of British couples intending to buy a property in Spain, have suffered a double whammy as Sterling has plunged and is now unlikely to get better than parity for years.

The decline in the Pound is a direct result of McBroon’s fiscal porridge, that has brought Britain within a caber-toss of bankruptcy with savage budget cuts admitted for the first time by this patently dishonest bunch of incompetents…

It seems the Swiss, who know better than anyone how to manage the economy, are forecasting the continuing decline of Sterling as big corporations quit the sinking ship, now driven onto the rocks with the bungling McBroons at the wheel. They also point at the 800 billion pounds worth of borrowing to bale out the banks and the mismanaged British economy and pose the question: “Who would lend more money to this UK Government”?

Buyers who haven’t yet taken a view trip to Spain to select the last of the real bargains are unlikely to see house prices drop further, but extremely likely to see their buying pound shrink in their pockets. Over-50s need to move fast to secure a Spanish property investment.

The other half of their Hobson’s Choice is to stick with the McBroons fiscal porridge and watch as Spain follows Germany and France into better economic state, house prices recover from their 30% dip and life returns to normal with generous dollops of Med lifestyle and sunshine.

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.

Easier to buy bargain property in Spain

While mortgages is the UK are still hard to find, buyers of property in Spain have had it much easier to fund their purchase in the sun, with some recent sales going through on 80% loan to value deals.

The difference can be put down to McBroon himself, both as chancellor of the exchequer and, latterly as prime minister. His was the “light touch” on the banking tiller that allowed the Mad Men to take on toxic assets and venture into hitherto uncharted banking waters. This brought about the taxpayer emergency funding to keep the banks in business and much face saving for the McBroons.

There’s been none of this in Spain, where a single authority, the Bank of Spain regulates with an iron fist, laying down strong lending rules and no venturing into fringe activities. Result, just a single bank bailout of a minor caja in Castilla La Mancha.

As in the UK, the resultant recession has brought about many repossessions, with an estimate 74,000 properties being taken back by the Spanish banks (about 4.7% of total assets). Recent estimates put the value of property repossessed and unsold developer stock being swapped for debt by Spanish banks at about €16bn (£14bn).

Despite that, the Bank of Spain, in a further boost of confidence in the Spanish property market, has relaxed provisioning rules for lenders in a move that could help some banks avoid losses next year and allow others to strengthen their capital ratios.

The Bank of Spain told all banks that they would no longer have to set aside the full value of high-risk mortgage loans - those for more than 80 per cent of a property's value - after two years of arrears.

Instead, they would only have to provision for the difference between the value of the loan and that of 70 per cent of the mortgaged property. In the case of a mortgage for the total cost of a new home, for example, banks would provision for 30 per cent of the property's value.

The central bank also warned banks to "update" their Spanish property valuations, which means the current sales of repossessions will keep prices down for bargain hunting Brits and other north Europeans for about another year.

Banks and their specialist brokers are offering new or newly homes priced at 15% to 50% below current realistic valuations and registering buyers from across Europe and North America on a daily basis. Sometimes there are five bargain hunters chasing the same property – not surprising with such discounts and generous mortgages built-in.

Candles in the wind...

The green energy policy of the UK’s McBroon Government is blowing in the wind and future generations will finish up paying through the nose for their heat and light with over-50s reverting to candle power and peat logs... All those wind farms on hilltops and wave tops are costing the earth to construct and maintain as, meanwhile, the nuclear option still has many queries as to its future.

McBroon sort of admits “going green” costs more, but denies the bills will be picked up by the British taxpayer, as has been the case with most things he and his Celtic cohorts dream up. Like nationalising banks, railways and much else going broke in badly run Britain.

That is what you get with Socialism. Dreamers, not realists. It’s now the same in Spain where the prime minister Zapatero is a socialist dreamer with no sense of reality about the long term impact of his green policies on Spain and its people.

In the country with 300 days of sunshine a year, he has forsaken solar for wind farms and, like McBroon boasts of being the European leader in this method of power generation. As in the UK, the nuclear option is being downplayed, leaving nuclear leader, France to flog its spare output to both countries when domestic supplies cannot cope.

Both leaders are taking their countries back to a culture of reliance on the state for everything, with the taxpayers and corporate sector picking up the bill for this outdated idealism. Drive from Gibraltar into Spain's windy corner near Tarifa and see the environmental damage caused by serried ranks of giant wind propellers.

It’s a pity they don’t get together and exchange notes. Zap might then tell McBroon of the problems with contrary wind power they both currently subsidise heavily. Like, it doesn’t always blow to match peak output requirements; it’s electricity cannot be stored at times of low demand and it costs far more than nuclear generation.

Luckily both are likely to be relegated permanently to Dream Land next year when their policies are voted on by the electorates of both countries.

Why Brits are still quitting Britain

While Brits living in France and Spain are feeling the pinch because of the decline in the Pound, many others are still planning to move away from the declining state of once Great Britian.

An American correspondent in yesterday’s New York Times, commenting on Brit emigration, spoke for many over-50s when he wrote: “I can well understand why folks want to abandon Britain, where a person can’t smoke or own a gun or derogate a religion (even in private conversation), or spank one's child, or avert one's face from any of that country's 10 million CCTV cameras.

“I always thought Orwell's book (1984) represented a dystopia, but now the Brits have accepted it as their constitution.”

He didn’t mention the poor healthcare, inadequate education, ruined pension industry, unwanted currency, gun-toting teens, criminal under-class, corrupt politicians, open borders, nor an unelected leader deciding what the now angry populous wants.

But just as stoic, ex-pat Brits will sit out the currency and financial crisis affecting their lifestyles in continental Europe, those still to leave will go-ahead with their plans and take advantage of the downturn in house prices, that more than compensates for the currency losses.

In Spain they will find excellent value villas and apartments in established residential areas at prices 25% to 50% below valuation, buying direct from banks who have not had Government bail-outs because of mismanaged growth efforts.

Over-50s will notice that three ailing British banking institutions are going to carry the Santander name and be integrated in a 14,000 branch network across 40 countries. The boss of Santander was the only top banker not required to offer an apology to the Parliamentary committee investigating the banking collapse as no client money went into dodgy banking scams.

By contrast, Brit rivals have been bailed-out by the UK Government who failed to supervise their more dubious actives as they strove for world domination...

Along with sunshine, siestas and relaxed lifestyle, Spain offers stability, sound banking and good healthcare. What more could the over-50s or pensioners want for?

Their property search starts here, with specialist over-50s active life resorts, developments with guaranteed rentals, or heavily discounted repossession bargains from Spanish banks and and hard-pressed developers.

Brit over-50s bag Spanish bargains

The Spanish bit of the world recession may be easing – in contrast with the UK where the McBroon Government, slowly imploding amid expenses and other scandals, has failed to get a grip on economic matters.

The McBroons have been feathering their own nests and lining up nifty pensions for ministers and MPs while British families, the over-50s and pensioners feel the economic pinch and face the prospect of being highly taxed forever to repay the £750 billion debt mountain built up.

Those who are still able to do so are planning their futures on the basis that the McBroons have wrecked the British economy, will lose power and the Cameron Clan will still need a decade to clear-up the mess. The taxpayer, you might imagine, will be the biggest contributor…

Meanwhile in Spain, government action seems to be having a greater effect as the economic power driver, the property market, is becoming brisker. Buyers from Spain and northern Europe are taking advantage of the massive price falls and the many bargain Spanish bank repossessions.

1,000 sales a week is a lot better than the levels in the UK market and an increasing number of the buyers are Brit over-50s planning for their retirement and using savings to invest in a place in the sun sooner rather than later. Their families can enjoy holidays in a villa or apartment bought for a bargain price and then it can be used for part-time or fulltime living nearer or after retirement.

Leading Spanish property website, Kyero summed up the three latest reports on the local economy as follows:

• Things are still getting worse
• But they're getting worse more slowly than before
• This means we're nearing the bottom of the curve
• After reaching the bottom, the only way is up

Whether you prefer short term pessimism, long term optimism, says Kyero, the time is right for the EU to force Spain to repeal it’s “shoddy property laws” as this will help get the market back to normal much quicker.

Buying now would seem to be a good option and newly completed developments like Mojón Hills Resort in unspoilt Murcia offer unbeatable packages that include big discounts off current valuations, 90% mortgages and guaranteed rental deals for three years.

Blue movies corruption or Spanish blue skies

The daily wearing down of the McBroon Government credibility has reached a critical point for the over-50s and pensioners as they absorb revelations about ministers putting their digital TV subscriptions on their expenses paid by taxpayers.

The Prime Minister gets his football for free and the Home Secretary get bills for blue movies (and the kitchen sink) paid for, according to the latest media revelations.

At the time Scotland’s biggest building society collapsed, alongside those of the other local banks adding to the loss of the long-held reputation of the Scots for fiscal prudence.

The McBroons seem to be heading for further loss of street cred when the G20 bandwagon arrives in London, amid demonstrations and anticipated refusal of some European countries to throw away more tax payers cash on the banking and government follies that are at the root of the current recession.

They know the McBroons are living beyond their means, having already brought the UK to its worst fiscal state and now wanting to save their own skins by sharing out the blame on Germany, France and Spain - who are faring light years better.

Best of the bunch is Spain, where todate, just one minor bank has been bailed out by the Bank of Spain causing the first big drop in banking share prices. But because the country has more financial controls than any other, the banks there are not exposed to the toxic debts prevalent in so many other countries with inferior fiscal governance.

Their shares may have dipped but their credibility remains high. There are still generous mortgages to help Brits, other north Europeans and Russians snap-up the amazing property bargains and it is likely that Spain’s property market will recover soonest as a result.

In the longer term the country offers greater governance credibility, lower cost of living and UK pensions can be collected from the local bank on the way back from the beach or a round of golf.

So over 50s may consider that buying a bargain property while they are available as a smart move that offers a blue skies climate, laid-back lifestyle and culture that are going to be good for fulltime living.

Credibility in Spain, but not in UK

With car sales, mortgage loans and shares plummeting and jobless and house repossessions hitting the roof, it’s hard to see what the McBroon Government has achieved in the last six months that offers hope and salvation to any sane, rational UK citizen …

There are still no loans on offer for hard-pressed businesses and families as McBroon minion ministers fill our screens with platitudes and assurances they are going the extra mile to get cash into the economy – despite the billions they have poured into useless, not fit for purpose, banks.

It seems no-one has confidence in their utterances and, as a direct result, we are all keen to hang onto to every quid we have, despite the good shopping deals in the High Street, malls and showrooms.

McBroon himself has quietly abandoned his hilarious prediction that Britain was so well placed in the global recession that we would be starting recovery from mid 2009 and is now wasting his time trying to provide normal service to the world economy. What would impress more would be for him to get the vital loan cash into the British economy.

Meantime, there are reports that increasing numbers of Brits are voting with their feet and investing in property in Italy, France and mainly in Spain where prices are better than even the current rock bottom UK level and mortgages are available.

They will be encouraged by the most accurate figures on property prices in Spain that have ever been released.

Not the laughable stats from the Spanish Ministry of Housing nor the National Institute of Statistics, who until recently claimed that house prices were still rising, but from Tinsa, the valuation company with 3,000 highly trained valuers on the frontline of Spanish housing every day.

Tinsa accurately track prices to show that at the end of 2007, homes were still rising 5% year on year, but that in 2008 they dropped by 10% as the world economies went into freefall. Tinsa's reports are not focused on the actual price of a particular property - but on the overall trend in house prices. On the Brit-buying Costas prices are down 12.6% compared with 2007 and there are Spanish bank repossessions available.

Whatever their methodology is, it seems to be working well and other experts like myself are now convinced Tinsa price tracking is the most accurate and credible.

There is only one buy-direct, full service website in the Spanish property sector that publishes Tinsa valuations on individual properties against the asking price and in many cases supplies the 25 page valuations as part of the view trip. This vital, independent paperwork is as additional assurance and confidence builder to UK and north European buyers, puzzled by the many “big discount” claims of various vendors.

Realiable statistics, support valuations, published honestly - that’s another big step towards fuller transparency in the week when the EU has attacked Spain for lack of it where foreign buyers are concerned and is threatening financial sanctions if things don’t improve.

Spanish property winter warmers

While Britain feels the chill in every sector, including the weather that has knocked more billions out of the economy, Spain is now being widely seen as the best place for bargain properties among hard-pressed Brits.

With uncertain futures thanks to the McBroons blunders and little sign of recovery, many UK residents plan to vote with their feet and many of them before the next general election that might finally sweep away the McBroon legacy.

The Spanish economy is regarded by commentators as in a better state than that of the UK, the weather offers 300 days of sunshine every year and property bargains are up to 50 percent down on the peak and now at the level of 2003. Even factoring in the sterling exchange losses, that’s still enough of a bargain to go for.

Having a property asset in the world’s strongest currency can be beneficial and for savers being offered a paltry 0.75% by some UK savings organisations, the thought of a juicy 6 percent interest from stronger Spanish banks is already tempting some Brits. The first of these deals, from La Caixa, is about to become over subscribed.

Brit and other north European property buyers are doing their research carefully on the specialist online sources of Spanish bank repossessions and must sell property in Spain and cannot quite believe they can buy a modern apartment within walking distance of the sea for EUR 35,000 and have a panoramic view of the sparkling Med if they opt for another bargain at EUR 55,000.

Three bedroom villas with swimming pools on golf resorts start at EUR 190,000 as hard-pressed owners and developers join the dash for cash.

These are many other bargains can be found at the highly rated website http://www.propertyinspain.net/ where buyers are provided with honest answers and immediate access to Spanish partner banks willing and able to provide generous mortgages to Brits with an eye for these Spanish property winter warmers…

Boot sale property bargains in Spain

There might not be a better time to buy a property in Spain as today could mark the end of the price freefall of key ready new homes. That’s according to 30 developers having a joint boot sale in Malaga, capital of the Costa del Sol, where there are 24,000 sets of door keys being dangled in front of potential buyers…

Desperate real estate firm resorts were offering two-for-one deals on homes, others 30% to 40% discounts off their standard price lists and the developers stretched their imaginations to attract clients with the slogan: “When prices go down, opportunities soar.”

One firm, is even offering a two-for-one deal, although the “deal” requires investing €780,000 — VAT not included — for a four bedroom semi-detached house in the Málaga neighbourhood of El Palo. Whoever buys before the boot fair ends tonight, will receive a “gift”: a one-bedroom apartment near a golf course in Vélez, Málaga.

“Our prices are 20 percent lower than a year ago,” said one sales manager. Apartments that were priced at €400,000 are now selling for €320,000; there are rentals with a buyout option, and months’ worth of mortgage payments thrown in for free.

But one developer boss warned: “The price of new housing will not be reduced further because it already has been reduced on several occasions. People shouldn’t expect home prices to go down 30 or 40 percent, because I’d as soon give the houses away to the bank before doing that.”

Just as McBroon & Co plan to prop up ailing banks in Britain, the Spanish Government whose banks are looking safe, may instead put billions of Euros into the construction sector, which is more important than banking to Spain’s GDP. That would stabilise house prices which may then start to increase again because the country is still the property favourite of Brits and north Europeans.

With that level of support, discounts running out of steam, along with improved specs and other special offers, it could be a good time to snap-up a Costa bargain and specialist website www.propertyinspain.net have quite a few - right up to half-price million euro plus luxury villas.

Can property buyers bank on Spanish galleon?

With all front pages of the national press covered in “international banking crisis” stories and wall to wall coverage on the TV news, would-be property buyers thinking of a house move in the UK or even a place in the sun to get away from it all, may be as puzzled as the rest of us?

“Unsinkable” Lehman  Brothers sank at Titanic speed because of their own greediness – the boss’s pay topped 22 million – and forays in derivatives uncharted waters without a life raft. Other banks doing business with them could go down with similar Titanic timing, while others can pick up the juiciest remains. Regulators in the US and UK seemingly failed to stop what was going on and merely moved the deck-chairs around…

Not in Spain though, where it appears their banking galleons are in smoother waters . This is because the central Bank of Spain cracks down on uncharted and risky speculative investment, so Spanish banks have minimal exposure – in fact “practically non-existent” - to Lehman Brothers. Spain's banking system also has some of the world's strictest reserve requirements.

While Spanish banks remain in a fairly healthy state, the worsening global financial market conditions will have an impact on Spain's economy and smaller Spanish banks could be forced to seek fresh capital if the crisis drags on and bankruptcies continue to soar in the property markets.

Bank of Spain Director General of Research Studies, Jose Luis Malo de Molina said: "The direct impact of the Lehman bankruptcy for Spanish banks will be minimal, given their exposure is practically non-existent. The Spanish banking system is facing the international crisis from a healthy position, with good levels of solvency and profitability,"

 "However, it is necessary to recognise this episode signals an intensification of the serious international financial crisis, that also has consequences for the Spanish economy," Malo de Molina added. Spain was the only one of the euro zone's four biggest economies not to contract in the second quarter after the government drew on its budget surplus to launch a 38 billion euro economic stimulus package.

The Bank’s proactive statement contrasts with the wall of silence from the British Government – busy scrambling for the political lifeboats - and from the Bank of England that reported high inflation, but failed to change course again.

Buy a property in Britain? Only if you really need to and can get a half decent mortgage. Buy a property in Spain?  Plenty of bargains, good mortgages, a better managed economy, oh, and the sun shines for 300 days a year along the Costas.