Although there have been some welcome signs of positivity within the Costa Del Sol property market, the halycon years experienced in the late 90´s and early 2000´s will not be seen again for a very long time, possibly not for over 10 years.
The European Union and its financial status looks more precarious by the day and the latest austerity bill, passed today shows that the Spanish Government is listening to pundits who think that Spain could suffer a fate similar to Greece, only on a far greater scale.
Big paycuts for workers and the strike action that will ensue, will certainly not help the domestic property market. Couple this will the large oversupply of homes and difficulty people will have getting finance and the news on the whole still isn´t fantastic. There are several issues with the international holiday home buyer, too.
Much of the boom could be attributed to the property speculator who used additional equity in their main residence to fuel their purchases. Many people now find themselves in negative equity and the banks risk tolerence has changed completely.
Should the international buyer have sufficient deposits to make a purchase here in Spain, mortgages are far more difficult to come by, again another factor impeding full recovery. Many developers within the are have lots of unsold stock and over the next 6 months, the level will increase as projects are finished.
The days of the "off-plan" property buyer have long gone, partly due to a lack of trust because of the previous years of corruption and bad publicity by the English press.
The property that is selling is the best of breed for each specific property class, as many buyers are now aware that vendors have to be realistic in their pricing levels if they want a sale. It will be interest to see more of the data produced over the next 6 months, this will give us all a clear picture of where the market is going and whether we will see further inertia in the Costa Del Sol property market.
