high speed trainSPAIN’S service sector is growing at its fastest rate in eight years.

The Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of the country’s service companies grew by 4 points in April, up to 60.3.

The highest in Spain since November 2006, this represents 18 straight months of growth.

“April was a very encouraging month for Spanish service providers as growth of a number of key variables including activity and employment quickened,” Andrew Harker, economist at Markit, said.

“However, the highlight from the latest PMI survey was the strongest rise in new business since June 2000, boding well for further growth of activity in coming months.”

The service sector mainly encompasses transport and distribution of retail and food industry goods.

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26 COMMENTS

  1. @Marion and Fred he won’t like this then seeing as he’s the self appointed Minister of Spanish property as well as Minister of Housing in the UK. The latest from Tinsa says Spanish house prices are still falling and they fell 1.7% in April 2015.

    But then from his little London bookshop he says London and UK property is overpriced by 60% yet he doesn’t own property there nor ever has done in Spain, how nice is that for your London neighbours who do own property? Ah Dick Nessfield/GUAQ the man behind loads of aliases!

  2. Maybe the scaremongers should have a word with Volkswagen, who have announced its intentions to invest €4.2 billion in its Spanish plants between 2015 and 2019! Or the increasing number of foreign property investors in Spain! Or even the growing number of people taking out mortgages in Spain (21,300 new mortgages were approved in February, according to the latest data from the NIE, an annualised increase of almost 30 per cent, and the best month for mortgage approvals since 2011.) Surely they should be told, as the scaremongers told us, that Spain was about to leave the Euro, that Santander bank was about to fold, that the Home Office were about to evacuate a million Brits? What??? They got all that wrong, and still they’re here spreading their doom?

  3. So Dick Nessfield aka GUAQ aka Trampa501 (HousePriceCrash) ignores the above facts, a little while ago he was saying Spain would ‘experience sustained property growth this year’ but he doesn’t believe Tinsa it seems. He trashes UK and London property but doesn’t let on to his fellow residents and shop-keepers who he really is, maybe they should know! Why would you trash London property prices whilst talking up Spanish property yet live in London, run a tiny bookshop there, especially when there’s an active community doing their best for the area which incorporates your bookshop? It’s madness for business as well as neighbourhood relations.

  4. Spain’s unemployment fell by 118,293 (twice that expected) in April – the best figure ever recorded in April. Those figures displayed on this very site! A far better reflection of the growing Spanish economy than Marion’s doomseeking (a bank is “looking” at shedding some jobs). Still, the haters get their comfort where they can… I’m beginning to feel sorry for Mike and his deranged postings. No one here is trashing UK property prices, in fact it’s only “Mike” (should call him Housley) who seems here to be obsessed by this! If other sites annoy you, correct them there! And if you want to comment further on Spanish property you can always go to SPI – oops, sorry, I forgot you’re banned there for your threats and multiple identities…. Still it must be hard for you, various reports indicate a strengthening Spanish economy and a turnaround in the property market (which also helps some stranded Brits who want to sell). Very hard as you wanted things to deteriorate.

    • The INE statistics showed that a large percentage of those “jobs” were for seven (yes, 7) days or under. Only a tiny percentage were real long-term jobs. The vast majority were temporary jobs. One would expect Spain to make some sort of recovery after so many years, and as a business owner in Spain (a successful one, unlike you Squiddy lol) I will gladly look forward to it. How can someone “hate” a recovery exactly? We want good news, but no BS.

  5. Seems Spain is doing better than most parts of the UK. Where I live prices are still static or still falling. you are ok if you live inside the M25 and you are part of the ‘London Empire’ other than that you have diminishing services from councils and diminishing prices for your property.

  6. Don’t be silly. Theire is a general consensus that houses in the UK have risen in almost all areas. Even Yorkshire, Midlands etc have seen substantial increases. Where I live houses are up around 12% and they were up the year before. Not close to M25. They also sell within a couple of weeks on the market. Spain’s housing market doing better than the UK. Have you been at. The cheap Gin Ha ha.

  7. You lot love the insults, silly now, I have 2 properties for sale, they have been valued by several estate agents, they were priced at the lower end, 2 years no views, no sale. Your lucky to have a house that has jumped 12% but a lot have not and are still dropping. Maybe one day someone will buy my properties so I can come and live in Spain with all you happy, friendly people and never again see the UK.

  8. John, it’s comments such as this last one that I love from you since it shows how you have zero knowledge about moving to another country. If your current house(s) are stagnating in value then you should stop thinking about moving to another country and ask yourself why you can’t deal with the property you have in your own country first lol. To compare Spain’s housing market with the UK was truly hilarious btw.

  9. Ahh I see, Silly AND Zero knowledge. I am trying to deal with the selling Fred. I have dropped the price from £550,000 to £275,000 and still going down. These prices are not guesses these are valuations unless I am unlucky and have paid “Silly and people with Zero Knowledge” to value and sell the house for me. I know that you think you know better than everything what is going on in the UK and Spain and can advise on Housing, job markets, internet security and where you can download all kinds illegally you seem to have missed some areas of the UK in your surveys. If I lower the price any more I will be selling it for less than I bought it for in 1999. As for moving to Spain I am not stupid to know there are problems over there too, I have several friends that have moved there older to retire and younger with families. Oddly enough none of them have been ripped off, mugged or any other disasters either. They ones who went to work over there are working. There only comments were that bureaucracy is very long winded. To be honest I prefer to take their opinions about living in Spain rather than yours as from your attitude you seem to have fell out of love with Spain. Wonder what changed as you must have moved there willingly.

  10. Fred is absolutely correct to say the housing markets in Spain and the UK are totally different. I own in both countries, one for holidays (Spain) which we’ve had for over 15 years and it’s worth more than we paid back then, but never wanted to sell it as it is for family. The other in the UK which is for living whilst being the best investment we’ve ever made. Other UK properties we’ve owned have all made good profits when sold.

    Markets are completely different in that UK has limited supply but more demand, the opposite of Spain, plus the UK has much lower costs to both buy and sell, a no-brainer if retaining asset value is important. A Grexit which is possible will further damage EU property for some while, a Brexit should be good for UK property as it is perceived as safer from EU worries.

  11. So Lightfoot are you going to tell us where in the UK prices have dropped so dramatically? Otherwise readers are going to think you are making it up. Plenty of transparent information about the UK property market, unlike Spain.

  12. “I have dropped the price from £550,000 to £275,000 and still going down”

    Wow, you are either totally inept at marketing, or your house was never worth 550K in the first place. I had totally the opposite price increase experience in the UK. I have no idea where you live, but I have never seen a drop like that, ever. I had a friend whose land was eroding next to a beautiful coastal spot and even he didn’t get a price drop on that scale.

    “I know that you think you know better than everything what is going on in the UK and Spain and can advise on Housing, job markets, internet security and where you can download all kinds illegally you seem to have missed some areas of the UK in your surveys.”

    That is true John, I do know better than you on all those subjects, but pointing out your shortcomings is not going to help you much is it? I don’t promote illegality; you just don’t understand how the Internet works (amongst other things) and you take things to extremes, like for example your not wanting a satellite dish in Spain because it might receive “UK owned illegal airwaves”, and the classic – examining every piece of content on YouTube because a video might be illegal. Classic, that one John. You’ll do well in lawless Spain lol.

    Spain has been an experience. When I was first looking at properties there was no information on the Internet about purchasing houses, the legality issues and all the other things. Even renting in Spain doesn’t help because you have to reside and live in a country to really get into its systems and culture. At least I have over a decade of experience living and working in Spain. Do you?

    Anyway, good luck with the move. By the time you get over here the prices will have risen again and you won’t be able to afford a place lol.

    • I follow the masses I am afraid and do not market my property myself, I have used estate agents and as I stated have had several look at it and value it. From your comments about being inept then it puts the majority of people into that area as most people I know also use estate agents.
      As for your sarcastic comments about YouTube, I don’t check to see if the content is illegal, I just do not use it unless viewing a manufacturers video. Also the reason I would not have a satellite dish is I do not watch enough TV to warrant one, I am a music lover and use Spotify.

  13. “Spain adds 500,000 jobs as recovery spread” – the FT 23 April. “Santanders’s Q1 profits jump as Spanish economy economy recovers” – Yahoo news 28 April. “Spain’s economy on road to recovery” – Business Insider 30 April “Spain’s economy charging ahead” CNN Money 1 May. Hmm, who to believe? Various media. economists and govt bodies? Or the scaremongers on here (who got wrong all their previous predictions of doom)? Maybe though Fred has a point when he claims that house prices will soon start to rise sharply in Spain thus preventling John from buying… I can’t see it myself when renting is such good value.

    • Squiddy, your desperation really shows when you cling on to one of my comments lol. To correct you, I didn’t say house prices would rise “sharply”, but when a market has been rock bottom since 2008-ish the trend ought to be upwards. However, a house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it at the end of the day and Spain is a high risk venture when it comes to buying houses, so expect a very slow recovery indeed (and certainly not pre-2008 levels). I notice a pick-up in sales in my own area, but asking prices are way down, some as much as 40%.

  14. Whatever point of view you may have, the UK is a far better place to invest in property than Spain not least because of buying/selling costs – estate agents charge 5% of sale price in Spain whereas UK agents charge around 2% but very often less than that. Capital appreciation is virtually zero in Spain due to low demand and very high supply. Then there are the legality issues and the unworkable property laws which the authorities refuse to address even though they know it is killing the property market and losing them billions of Euros in revenue every year.

    If the place was run properly, it would all be very different and the best place to live in Europe – what a waste.

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