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It’s not every day that a real bargain lands on your doorstep but here is a rare opportunity to purchase a property that is within reach of most people’s budgets.
What you see here on this page is clearly not the completed work – this is a work in progress.
But that work is much further advanced than these pictures can possibly show and completion is expected before the end of this month.

* l Standing on a commanding height easily reached by good roads, the traditional finca home is nearing completion of its total renovation..

 

Beware the hidden costs of buying a home abroad

A new study warns homeowners to avoid the hidden costs of buying a home in Spain, which could add up to a staggering £25,000 over the life of a 25-year mortgage.
The problem, say experts from money exchange company Travelex Personal Transfers, is fluctuations in currency exchange rates.
These can be tempered to some extent by fixing the exchange rate for up to two years by a process known as forward contracts.
These allow buyers to secure a fixed rate of exchange for future payments, regardless of exchange rates between, say, sterling and the euro.
That peace of mind naturally comes at a price and the exchange rate on a forward contract will not be as good as the rate on the day the contract is signed.
What it does do is let the buyer budget the repayments in the knowledge that they wont fluctuate with changes in exchange rates.
As an example of the effect of fluctuating rates, a Spanish property on the market for €250,000 in September last year would have cost £173,647. But by the end of December the pound fell to a four-year low against the euro and the same property would have cost £187,647, an increase of £13,618 in just two months.
Experts say adding in bank transfer fees and commissions could push the price of that dream home up by £25,000 over the 25-year life of the average mortgage and urged people to think of the total cost of buying a property abroad, not just the purchase price.

 

Spanish low-cost airline Vueling is poised to be first to launch regular cheap flights between the Canaries and Madrid.
The services will operate from the Spanish capital to Tenerife’s north airport and to Gran Canaria, with up to three flights a day.
The company says it expects to carry more than 300,000 passengers on each route a year.
The arrival of the Spanish carrier will increase capacity by 28 per cent at Tenerife’s north airport and by 21 per cent in Gran Canaria.
The Madrid-Tenerife route has a capacity of 27,000 a week during peak season at present and that will increase by 7,500 with introduction of the new, cheap service.
Vueling spokesman, Juan Carlos Iglesias, said: “Vueling’s operations into Tenerife and Gran Canaria are an important step in this company’s history.
“Both routes carry more than a million passengers each every year but there is a high level of demand, not always met by the existing airlines.
“Lack of capacity and high fares have been one of the main stumbling blocks to the development of tourism in the islands and the new service will go a long way to solving that problem.”
In order to free aircraft to expand into the Canaries, the company is sacrificing some of its least used routes out of Madrid, including flights to Nice, Pisa and Bologna.
Those services were only introduced last year and although profitable, have not produced the targets set by the company.
The company’s optimistic view of the Canaries is a shot in the arm to the beleaguered tourist sector, which has suffered setbacks with visitor numbers showing a steady decline.Spanish low-cost airline Vueling is poised to be first to launch regular cheap flights between the Canaries and Madrid.
The services will operate from the Spanish capital to Tenerife’s north airport and to Gran Canaria, with up to three flights a day.
The company says it expects to carry more than 300,000 passengers on each route a year.
The arrival of the Spanish carrier will increase capacity by 28 per cent at Tenerife’s north airport and by 21 per cent in Gran Canaria.
The Madrid-Tenerife route has a capacity of 27,000 a week during peak season at present and that will increase by 7,500 with introduction of the new, cheap service.
Vueling spokesman, Juan Carlos Iglesias, said: “Vueling’s operations into Tenerife and Gran Canaria are an important step in this company’s history.
“Both routes carry more than a million passengers each every year but there is a high level of demand, not always met by the existing airlines.
“Lack of capacity and high fares have been one of the main stumbling blocks to the development of tourism in the islands and the new service will go a long way to solving that problem.”
In order to free aircraft to expand into the Canaries, the company is sacrificing some of its least used routes out of Madrid, including flights to Nice, Pisa and Bologna.
Those services were only introduced last year and although profitable, have not produced the targets set by the company.
The company’s optimistic view of the Canaries is a shot in the arm to the beleaguered tourist sector, which has suffered setbacks with visitor numbers showing a steady decline.

 

A MAJOR bottleneck at the small town of Alcalá is choking the life out of tourism and business traffic on the west coast.
Now the ruling Coalición Canaria in Santiago del Teide plans ask the Cabildo to build a new road to bypass the town.
Guia de Isora council has already sent a similar proposal to the Cabildo for consideration.
Anyone living on or near the coast in Santiago has to go through Alcalá to reach the motorway for the south and the TF-47 is the main tourist route in and out of both Guia de Isora and Santiago del Teide.
But traffic bunches up all day long as it passes through Alcalá. In the evening rush-hour tailbacks can extend as far back into Santiago as the junction at El Varadero.
Residents and tourists, as well as tour operators and businesses trying to keep to a schedule, can find themselves faced with delays of more than half an hour.
A major cause of the problem appears to be the newly built roundabout serving the new Sol Melia hotel at Alcalá, where two lanes become one as they enter the town.
Increased traffic with new tourist development on the west coast adds to the problem and, especially in the evening rush hour, people leaving work in Alcalá contribute to the jams that extend into the side roads.
Santiago council fears the problem can only get worse when the spur from the island ring road to nearby Fonsalia is opened, adding yet more traffic to the area.
The council will table a motion at its next meeting asking the Cabildo to look at every way to solve the developing problem, including building a bypass through what is largely farmland behind Alcalá.

 

Greens pan new golf plans

The regional government in Andalucía has issued a new Golf Decree that bans the use of drinking water for irrigating golf courses. In future they will have to use recycled water.
It will beome law next month and existing courses will be given two years to bring their water supplies into line with the new regulations.
The new rules also put a stop to projects that link housing developments with golf courses, except if the proposals are deemed to be of tourist interest.
In such cases, approval would have to be obtained from the regional cabinet following a technical report.
But the area’s Green party has poured scorn on the proposals, pointing out that all golf courses have a tourist interest and the rules were useless in the fight against unbridled development in the area.
To underline their point, the greens presented the president of the regional government, Manuel Chaves with a mini-golf set.
The greens say the present will allow him to play golf at home in the garden without turning the whole of Andalucía into one massive golf course.

 

THE slowdown in house price rises and the economy generally may be hurting but it will pass. That was the message from the European Central Bank (ECB) last week.
And in Spain the effects should be less severe than elsewhere in Europe, according to economics minister, Pedro Solbes.
While the ECB described the housing dip as “normalisation” after the sharp rises of recent years Solbes said a budget surplus of two per cent last year left the government in a position to boost public spending to shore up the flagging private sector.
“Our room to manoeuvre means the period of slowdown is going be short,” said Solbes, pointing out that, despite the downturn, Spain was still outperforming other major European economies.
He would say that, wouldn’t he, with the national election only weeks away.
But the better than expected balance of payment surplus, coming amid dire figures in other parts of the economy could prove to be prime minister Zapatero’s ace card.
Despite the slowdown, particularly in Spain and the UK, which have seen unprecedented growth over the last decade, real price growth is generally seen as stable when looked at over the longer term.
Price increases slowed to less than five per cent last year, and again, the slowdown was most marked in countries that have seen the biggest increases in recent years.
The ECB suggests the downturn is the result of slowing demand, with affordability a major factor.
That is borne out by figures from the Halifax, which show owner-occupancy in the UK is at its lowest level in more than 10 years, reflecting the rapid rise in house prices, the worldwide credit squeeze and higher interest rates.
The survey, based on government data, showed the number of owner-occupiers in England fell by a record 83,000 to 14.5 million last year.
This second annual decline took home ownership from more than 70 per cent in 2006 to 69 per cent last year, the lowest since 1998.
Young buyers have been hit hardest as they struggled to get on the property ladder during a period that has seen double-digit price rises over the last few years.
That figure is borne out by the Halifax survey, which showed the steepest fall in home ownership among the under-30s, down by almost a quarter of a million.
The struggle to get on to the property ladder was also reflected in a surge in rentals.
The number of households living in private rented housing rose by 107,000 last year to more than 2.5 million, a 12.5 per cent increase since 2002.
Of the Eurozone countries, only France and Germany have lower owner-occupier rates than the UK, while Spain is among the highest with more than 80 per cent of people owning their own home.
That situation could change in the next few years as economists predict the full effects of the credit crunch will begin to bite in Spain.
While Spain’s government, facing an election next month, sticks to a three per cent growth forecast, most banks are predicting a figure closer to two per cent and some are even talking of recession.
With 14 years of unprecedented growth seeming to have come to an end Spanish households and businesses are burdened with high levels of debt at a time when the international credit crisis leaves banks far more cautious about lending.
That’s a sure recipe for a downturn in consumer spending, which will slow the economy still further.
But first economy minister Solbes will have to quell market fears over the abrupt slowdown in the construction industry.
The boom years made Spain the EU’s biggest consumer of concrete but, with falling house prices, estate agent activity has almost ground to a standstill.
An estate agent near Madrid said: “Banks have stopped lending to riskier clients.
“I can still show clients as many properties as they want but, unlike a year ago, when they would lend to just about anybody, today the banks are far more choosy.”

 

Despite the end of the construction boom Spain was still Britain’s favourite place to buy a holiday home last year.
Online letting agency, HolidayLetting.co.uk said all the negative publicity surrounding the country last year simply went over the heads of potential buyers.
The company said, however, there had been a shift away from those buying purely for investment towards what it describes as mixed-use investors.
These are people seeking investment income when not using the property themselves but not buying for short-term profit.
The company reasons that whatever happens in the property market, Spain will continue to attract millions of tourists every year and they all need somewhere to stay.
Company boss Ross Elder said: “We believe Spain has a self-perpetuating characteristic which continues to attract investors and holidaymakers.
“Its proximity to the UK, the range of low-cost airlines available, the established expat communities and its traditional appeal to British holidaymakers all ensure that holidaymakers keep returning.”
The company found the Canary Islands attracted three times the number of holiday accommodation requests in winter than in summer and they remain the top Christmas destination, with Tenerife dominating the list of enquiries.

 

 

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