Wendy WilliamsIN a bid to attract buyers for Spain’s million-plus unsold homes, the country’s Development Minister is embarking on a European ‘roadshow’ to promote the nation.
Jose Blanco will start his whirlwind five-nation tour in London on May 4 before travelling to France, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
According to a statement, his aim is to boost sales of existing Spanish holiday homes solving the problem of oversupply that is overwhelming the market.
He also wants to reassure investors of the ‘strength’ of the country’s economy and the ‘transparency’ of the housing market.
European investors have fled the market in recent years after Spanish developers built thousands of illegal homes during the real estate boom.
Many of these now face demolition in a mass cleanup by regional governments.
Sounds a lot like trying to treat the symptoms instead of the cause…
I wonder if anyone attending the first ‘scam artists’ show in London will ask this joker a two relevant questions:
(1) what is the average U factor of these houses and apartments Mr Bono?
(2) would any of these apartments get planning consents anywhere in northern Europe Mr Bono?
Result – end of first meeting and cancellation of the rest.
It’s like the emperor’s new clothes – except they are not trying to convince a bunch of village idiots, in this case!
If they want to know why foreigner’s won’t buy their overpriced, badly constructed, idiotically situated (think dry riverbeds) property – why don’t they have the nous to actually ask (and take on board) the opinions of the people they are trying to flog this stuff to?
And then put things right – not just legalise a few properties here and there.
Legalising a few properties to avoid European sanctions does not begin to even scratch the surface of what is wrong with Spain’s property market.
But this crisis might just force the Spanish, out of sheer economic desperation, to agree that their way is not always the right way and they need to start looking at the bigger picture.
It’s their country and they should be able to do what they like in it and, in general, we, as foreigners, should toe their line. But when they want foreigners’ money, it’s about time they realised that they have to give the customer what the CUSTOMER wants – not what the Spanish want to blag them into wanting.
It’s not a bad thing, either, that foreigners are being a little more discerning when putting their hard earned cash into another country’s economy! The madness of previous property booms should never be allowed to happen again. Too many cats got fat and too many ordinary people got badly hurt.