Atlantic Internartional Partnership Headlines:How much of a bargain is real estate in Spain?

http://atlanticinternationalpartnershipnews.com/2011/05/atlantic-internartional-partnership-headlineshow-much-of-a-bargain-is-real-estate-in-spain/Last week members of the Spanish government came to London to present Spain as an attractive destination for property investment. Sean O’Hare finds out what the audience thought.

To an audience of UK investment fund managers and financial advisors, Spain’s minister for housing Jose Blanco and secretary of state for housing Beatriz Corredor attempted to show that Spain, although struck by the crisis, is a solid economy showing signs of recovery.

The message was directed at investors in the Spanish housing market in the hope of filling a surplus supply of approximately 700,000 homes, the majority built along the southern Spanish coastline.

The presentation conceded that over-development had taken place but that prices had adjusted accordingly.

The national average house price decrease was 25 per cent, and in certain areas in Andalucia prices had fallen by as much as 49 per cent, investors were told.

But with Spain’s record unemployment level breaching 20 per cent, rumours of its economy following in the footsteps of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and a property sector reputation somewhat tarnished by horror stories of expats falling foul of Spain’s retrospective planning laws, the burning question on the lips of financiers going into the room was: just how much of a bargain is Spain and would high-risk investment be rewarded accordingly?