Tag: Belgian

Torreblanca Golf Attracts Swedish, Belgian & Chinese Investors

18 October 2017 – El Periódico Mediterráneo

Swedish, Belgian and Chinese investment funds have all expressed an interest in developing the Doña Blanca Golf de Torreblanca project, whose foundations were initially approved again by the Town Hall (of Torreblanca) last Tuesday, during an extraordinary plenary session. The expectation is that the project will be awarded at the beginning of 2018 and may become a reality in 2022.

In fact, the government’s team says that even before launching the tender for the program, it already has half a dozen companies and investors on the table, who have registered their interest in the urban planning project. Three of them are backed by foreign capital.

In the opinion of the councillor responsible for Town Planning, Rosana Villanueva, that fact reflects the interest that the golf project has sparked. The plan is to maintain intact the characteristics of the initial program, created in 2005, and for the project to be put out for tender for around €58 million, which will represent a saving of €3.5 million with respect to the initial plan, which exceeded €61 million in total.

The PAI (‘Programa de Actuación Integral’ or Comprehensive Action Program) is considering extending the site by 1,910,254 m2, with 600,000 m2 allocated to the 18-hotel golf course and an urbanised area spanning 1,233,255 m2, with 4,410 homes, as well as hotels, tennis courts, a football pitch, shopping centres, 125,000 m2 of green space, a promenade and a coastal park measuring 80,000 m2. And the companies have expressed their interest in the complete development.

In fact, the PAI is one of the Town Hall’s priorities. That has been highlighted by the socialist mayor, Josefa Tena, since the beginning of her term and, now past the half-way point, she is continuing to back the golf course as a generator of employment and driver of tourism in the municipality. Its launch would represent one of the highest aspirations of the local government, “along the creation of employment”.

“Moreover, it would foster tourism and develop a coastal space with green, sustainable and controlled urbanism. Given its location and proximity to the airport “the seasonality of local tourism could be evened out; moreover, it will be the only beachfront golf course (in the country), which makes it a very attractive prospect indeed”, said the mayor.

The document to be presented to the plenary session will include an appendix with the foundations for the tender work for the construction firms, in order to speed up the process and ensure that the megaproject is given the green light as soon as possible.

Original story: El Periódico Mediterráneo (by Merche Martinavarro)

Translation: Carmel Drake

CaixaBank: Consequences Of Brexit For Spain’s RE Sector

11 September 2017 – CaixaBank Research

The real estate sector has started a new bullish cycle, as evidenced by the evolution of house purchases, which have been growing at double-digit figures for two years now. Whilst internal demand has been boosted by the recovery in employment and favourable financing conditions, overseas demand has been by no means negligible: in Q1 2017, it grew by 14% YoY.

Nevertheless, this positive movement in terms of demand from overseas buyers is masking various different trends. On the one hand, most of the purchases are happening on the Mediterranean Coast and in the islands, with foreigners accounting for more than 30% of total purchases in some provinces.

On the other hand, the evolution of these house purchases varies significantly by nationality. In this sense, the uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the depreciation of the pound are leaving their mark on the acquisition of homes by citizens from the United Kingdom, the main cohort of foreign homebuyers in Spain. In Q1 2017, purchases undertaken by British citizens decreased by 13% YoY. Nevertheless, that decrease was more than offset by the uptick in purchases made by French, German, Belgian and Swedish citizens who increased their purchases at rates equal to or more than 20% YoY in Q1 2017.

The different trends observed between international buyers have generated changes in the relative weight of each country in terms of house purchases, at the same time as reducing the degree of concentration amongst certain nationalities. Although the United Kingdom continues to head up the list of overseas buyers, purchases by that cohort have gone from accounting for 21% of the total in 2015 to 15% in Q1 2017.

Looking ahead, house purchases by British citizens may regain some of their buoyancy if the Brexit negotiations evolve favourably and the pound manages to recover some of its strength. Nevertheless, periods of significant uncertainty surrounding Brexit, or a hard Brexit, could tarnish the recovery, given that house purchases by British citizens have historically been very sensitive to economic conditions in their own country. On a more positive note, the good economic outlook for the other main home-buying countries in Spain, together with the continuation of accommodative monetary conditions and the decrease in the political uncertainty in the Eurozone countries, represent an opportunity for the Spanish real estate sector.

On a more positive note, the good economic outlook for the other main overseas buyers of homes in Spain, together with the continuation of loose monetary conditions and the decrease in the political uncertainty in the Eurozone countries, represent an opportunity for the Spanish real estate sector.

Original story: CaixaBank Research

Translation: Carmel Drake

Belgian Interest In Spanish Holiday Homes Skyrockets

6 April 2015 – El Mundo

Last year Belgian citizens purchased 21% more homes in our country (than during 2013), attracted by the low prices.

The Belgian group Stella predicted it in the early 90s, in one of the most popular songs in the country’s history: “on ira tous, tous tous a Torremolinos” (we will all, all all, go to Torremolinos). That omen is now a reality since Belgians are coming to Spain in increasingly large numbers and not just for one-off holidays, but also to become homeowners. During 2014, the citizens of the country acquired 3,507 homes on Spanish soil, almost 21% more than in 2013 and, although at the time they had a certain predilection for the Malaga town, the truth today is that their interest has spread across the whole country.

“Prices have risen so much in Belgium and have fallen so much in Spain that it has become very affordable (for us) to buy a home on the Mediterranean (Coast)”, says Bertrand Florent, resident of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, one of the most expensive neighbourhoods in Brussels, where it costs more than €300,000, on average, to buy a home.

This reasoning has led him to think about investing his money in a second home in Spain where, for less than €100,000, he could increase the statistics that show how (interest in) our domestic market has become an authentic boom for Belgian citizens.

The increase in house prices in Belgium, together with the decline in the Spanish market during the crisis, has converted the Belgians into the main non-resident foreign purchasers of homes in Spain, on a proportional basis.

They are only slightly exceeded (in absolute terms) by the citizens of the United Kingdom and France, two countries where the number of inhabitants is several times higher than the Belgian population of just over ten million.

Nevertheless, “several factors should be taken into account”, says Antoine Bourgeois, real estate advisor in Brussels. “Belgians used to spend time on the Belgian coast or in the South of France. However, real estate prices have risen sharply there, and so Belgians have decided to focus on other destinations”. This exodus has also been helped by the evolution in the means of transport and the fact that now there are more – and cheaper – flights than ever linking Belgium with various locations in Spain.

The rise in prices has been observed across the whole country, where the market has grown like wildfire in recent years, to the extent that average house prices doubled in Belgium between 2002 and 2012.

This development has led the OECD – Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development – to consider Belgium as one of the countries in which house prices are most over-valued in the world, with rates that, in 2013, significantly exceeded the averages in other western countries, both in terms of the differences between prices and wages, as well as between sales and rentals. This data led the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor to warn about the creation of a real estate bubble in the country although, since last year, the market has shown signs of stabilisation.

Original story: El Mundo (by Alberto F. De Quer)

Translation: Carmel Drake