The Marbella property industry is eagerly anticipating the next phase of the Mayor Ángeles Muñoz's reinvention plan, which is being announced this week.
The presentation is expected to contain plans to make Marbella an open-city in terms of foreign investment, with the hope of encouraging foreign companies to work more closely with the local business community. However, it is likely that steps to reassure buyers would be far more beneficial to the market.
The Mayor will be announcing the plan at the Annual Entrepreneur Assembly. The assembly is also expected to discuss what difference the legalisation of the 17,000 (approx) illegally built properties.
The property industry is hoping that the mayor's plan will contain something with regards speeding up the planning process.
"Investors are not going to come in unless they can get a building licence more quickly and are told clearly and quickly if there are any problems," said Ian Waudby, chairman of developer Crest Group International. "Now that the illegal homes have been legalised the town hall needs to address this."
Marbella needs more than foreign investment. Marbella is Spain's prime property destination, and prime properties are currently selling better than any other class, but there is still a negative bubble over the market, because of just how quickly and easily the corruption was allowed to become a disease, and subsequently, to infect the entire property market.
I personally feel that the legalisation of the properties was the right decision, but the process needs to be made completely transparent; where do the proceeds go? Who owns the properties? And many more questions must be answered without anyone having to actually ask.
Further than that there needs to be an independent enquiry that is handled swiftly, and the findings made public equally fast. As it is now, everything is up in the air, where it has rightly formed into a dark cloud hanging over the market.
On the other hand, buyers are doing more research than ever, and this is likely to cause the effects of the scandal to be minimised now that the issues have been almost completely resolved by the legalisation.
In support of Mayor Muñoz, the moves taken by her are starting to bear fruit, with the announcement earlier this year of a new development of luxury apartments in Marbella. A revival in the Marbella property market would certainly be good news, not only for those who have previously invested in property, but also for the Spanish economy as a whole.
