Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 10:12am
Spain is a lovely country and has been a holiday and retirement destination for decades.
Do you remember the financial crisis of 2008? Many here do and still haven't recovered. I know people who say that what their house would sell for now is less than they paid for it, it straight cash terms, nearly 20 years ago. They aren't unusual.
There was an unsustainable gold rush of building new dwellings, in the background were new roads built with EU money. These were there to encourage companies to relocate to Spain. Look around and you will easily find the pre prepared industrial estates, never completed, or the completed ones never occupied. The same applies to dwellings, countless around the country waiting to be finished and occupied. The companies never came and neither did the employees.
Look at the unemployment rate in Spain. Can these people afford to buy a house? Who starts this so called "property ladder" if not them.
Then there are the on costs of buying and selling which makes resale and buying again an unattractive option, financially.
There is a vast oversupply of housing stock, new, part finished, second hand, privately owned and bank repossession. Yes, some are selling estate agents will always tell you that.
But the pool of immigrant buyers will diminish with fewer British meeting the criteria to move here and the other nations don't have a suddenly increased birth rate to replace them.
There is a lot to this. Many people have a vested interest in persuading you that now is the time to buy or you will lose out, estate agents, builders, vendors. This isn't Britain and things don't work the same way.
Buy a dwelling here and rent it out if you can. Enjoy your holidays here and possibly look forward to your retirement here, but don't consider it an investment.
My thoughts and others might disagree, but it's your choice. Make sure you do your research.