Jul 25

angeles-munoz-mayor-marbella

Marbella Mayor, Angeles Muñoz has strong been criticized by The Junta de Andalucia for legalize all the occupied illegally build properties in Marbella as “judicially impossible”. She can’t change black to white. A big backlash for the new Marbella Town Halls GGOU plans. The regional councillor or housing, Juan Espadas, called for a rigorous PGOU Urban Plan for Marbella town that would also convince the courts, adding that it was with the courts where the decision would be taken.

 

Its over 18.000 illegal Marbella apartments or Marbella villas that Marbella Town Hall want to legally in the new PGOU Urban Plan by just legalize them. Some think is right and some wrong, everything goes back to the Gil era when they sold illegal land and buildings licenses and  now has the new Marbella Mayor huge problem to get it right on the papers, because the banks don’t give any mortgage to buyer when someone want to sell their home.

 

The problem is politic, The Junta Andalucia is running by PSOE and Marbella is running by PP, so they don’t work together and the latest thing is this when the regional councillor or housing, Juan Espadas, said that proposing the general legalization was a serious mistake. ‘We have always said that it’s not a case of simply change the illegal to make it legal, but a task of defining a coherent and reasonable model’, he said.

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Jul 22

Michael Walsh, a freelance journalist and expert in Legal and Property matters from Southern Comfit, Write a fantastic article for the Spanish news about the huge problem with all the properties who have been build over the last teen years and who have let the builder to build so many apartments with no buyer. Is it the greedy banks, investors for quick cash or Town Halls for more money? We who live here in Marbella have seen all these Marbella apartments and villas been build, we have wonder many time, who is going to live in all those properties, where from is the people coming from and what are the people going to work, here is no industries or fabrics. My opinion is; the bank is sitting in the skit up to there ear. Read this article and get your own opinion about it.

Are high street estate agencies history?

Few of us would think of walking into a bank rather than an estate agent when looking for a new home. Not doing so could be a mistake. Spain’s banks, including savings banks known as cajas, have more properties on their books than do the estate agents and are looking for buyers.

Who’s counting? The banks themselves are not sure as their portfolios of saleable properties are being added to by the day. This year is likely to see 74,000 repossessions as hard-pressed borrowers hand in their keys.

One expert told El Mundo; “The banks’ stock of repossessions is growing fast and is expected to keep on doing so.” It seems harsh to label the banks as foolish in their past lending criteria for it takes two to tango. Builders and buyers alike overstretched themselves and did their bidding with crossed fingers.

BANKS LEFT HOLDING THE BABY

The glut in unsold homes is the collateral damage caused by economic implosion. The banks are simply left holding the baby; their dilemma now is what to do with the unsold stock?

This has been divided into two categories: A and B. Into the first category falls the swathes of recently or almost completed good quality urbanisations, many of which are standing empty with no buyer in sight, perhaps for years ahead.

Reckoned to make up 70 per cent of banks’ unwanted stock these properties are going for a song. Many are sold on as investments rather than homes. Recently formed in-house property divisions have been created by banks to clear stock through a series of discounted and preferential terms.

THE FORMIDABLE CHALLENGE

The category B portfolio is not insignificant either for this is made up of the bulk of the 74,000 repossessions likely to take place in 2009 alone. Add to these unwanted hostages the €9 billion of bad debts owed by former mortgage holders and the banks are left with a massive headache. This is made more problematic by this category’s variable values and locations. It is hopelessly fragmented.

Spanish banking giant Banco Santander is selling many of its properties to employees, not to mention other consortiums and groups such as Telefonica. These offer considerable discounts and incentives to staff; often with 100 per cent mortgages taken out over 40 years. Others are setting up what can best be described as their own estate agencies.

STAFF INCENTIVES

Michael McLaughlin of Southern Comfit International, says, “It is probably the banks’ most formidable administrative challenge in their history. The rule books are being created and re-written by the day. This fallout from the recession is presenting challenges but opportunities too; for buyers.”

He says: “Despite ten years reputation in sales we are now generating more income from property rentals than from sales. We are urgently looking for registered home owners seeking to attract tenants.”

Some ‘distressed’ properties are being sold at discounts of up to 50 per cent. The difficulty is: 50 per cent of what, when property values are still plummeting? The priority has to be market stabilization, customer confidence, and a return to measured more sensible lending than in the past.

Boom and bust in the housing market will no longer be an acceptable option for the emerging generations. Banks’ with lending criteria best described as slipshod, will be viewed with suspicion; not the least by their shareholders. Hopefully the current malaise will be looked back upon as unique and most unwelcome phenomena.

 

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Jul 20

Sundream Estate sells Marbella apartments or Marbella villas and we don’t rent out cars. So many of our clients who is coming from whole Europe for searching for a property in Marbella this summer have ask us if we also rent out cars, because of there is no cars left at the hire companies in Malaga international airport. The economic crisis is hitting car hire companies on the Costa del Sol and there are just not enough cars to go around. The companies cannot increase their fleets because the banks will not loan money for the companies to purchase cars.

Last year the car hire companies purchased over 18,000 new cars across the industry and this year less than 2000 have been bought a drop of about 89%. As there are not enough cars to go around; the prices per day have rocketed. The bigger companies offer now 100 euros a day for a car. They are resorting to using cars which have up to 200,000 kilometers on the clock and also using private vehicles to bump up their numbers to enable them to meet the client needs.

Some people are raising finance directly from car manufacturers and others are going outside the banking industry to raise funds for new fleets. Even traveling outside Malaga, to find cars is not an option as the problem is the same in most places. Here in Marbella is the problem the same as the rest of Costa del Sol. People are being advised to book their vehicles early or to go to small or medium size companies who are not so badly hit by the problems and also asking the real estate companies who sometime also have hire cars for the clients.

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Jul 19

the-user-manual-site

Do you miss the manual for your router or wireless phone, or has the dog eaten up the manual for your cell phone or wireless router? If the guide to a thing is gone, then can you be absolutely sure you need it. It is Murphy’s Law … Then you should take a look at The User Manual Site. It has indexed over 300,000 manuals from the Web, in PDF format. I did some searches on different stuff I have at my home office and it gave good results.

 

To use the service is simple. Just enter the name and product name in the search field, and do a search. The site uses an auto-completion feature in the search field so that you get the options just by typing parts of the product name. Once you got a hit, just click the PDF file, and print it if you need.

 

If you not found your guide at The User Manual Site, you can take a look at another site. SafeManuals.com is the website that can come to the rescue. There are almost 900,000 (nine hundred thousand) handbooks, manuals and user guides posted in PDF format. It is just keying in the name of your electronic things, whatever it may be, and see if it is included in the database. Do you get a hit, can you free download the manual in PDF format, to read on screen or print. This article did I found in TkJ. Thanks Tommy.

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Jul 19

property-marbella-under-constrution

Owners of property in Marbella can starting relax now. Marbella Town Halls mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, did have a press conference this week and she made it clear her intention to legalize most of the illegally built property in the municipality, including that constructed during the years of the GIL administration.

 

Totally, she said that is estimated 18,000 buildings constructed under GIL era and after with his illegal licenses, which did not meet the requirements of the 1986 Urban Plan, would now be legalized, and that includes some of the most controversial examples such as Banana Beach with 300 residents, and the constructions at La Vibora and Río Real with 30 residents each one. There are so many people who have purchased apartments, townhouses and villas who were illegal whiteout know that. Despite their being technical and judicial reports issued against the legality of these buildings, they are now included in the ‘normalizations process’.

Marbella Town Halls new PGOU urban plan leaves only some 1,000 illegal structures and most of those are not completed, and hence unoccupied. What is going to happen with then is not clear jet. But the Mayor, Ángeles Muñoz, says she will protect those who purchased any apartments or villas in Marbella in good faith and have been swindled by builders and lawyers.

Related article: 38.194 illegal property Marbella.

Marbella Town Hall against Greenlife Golf Club.

Marbella Town Hall steals a slice of Antonio Banderas garden

37.000 unsold properties, not 21.000 for province Malaga and Marbella

Holiday homes on the Costa del Sol and Marbella escape demolition

 



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Jul 17

property-marbella-beaches

Much property Marbella is empty. The beaches are packed, but something is wrong. The property in Marbella is empty of tourist. The first couple of weeks of the peak summer season this year have revealed a different atmosphere in Marbella and on the whole the Costa del Sol. The beaches are packed but more of the space is occupied by locals who have put off plans for a holiday elsewhere. After all going to the beach for a swim doesn’t cost anything if you don’t live too far away.

 

Meanwhile the shops, boutiques, the hotels, bars and restaurants are noticing the difference. For example, the hoteliers association, Aehcos, predicts that the average occupancy rate for the month of July will be down around 10 per cent on last year, despite the increase in last minute bookings. “Reservations are picking up a little, but we are still below last summer’s levels”, said Aehcos Chairman, José Carlos Escriban. As for August, bookings are still very slow. Just two weeks from the busiest month of the year and there are still plenty of vacancies in Marbella, Estepona, Fuengirola and on the whole Costa del Sol.

 

Restaurants and Bars are also noticing the effects of the crisis as customers are ordering more tapas and cheaper set meals rather than selecting dishes from the menu. Also the rental companies for a property Marbella have many emptier Marbella apartments and Marbella villas than last year. The rental prices are lower this summer than last year. One trend that has become clear from the results of the first fortnight in July is that the establishments that are better positioned on Internet have more reservations.

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Related article: Marbella apartments to rent for your holiday.

 

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Jul 16

marbella-apartments-for-rental

Marbella apartments for rent in the summer can bee very easy if you book your holiday apartments in Marbella from some of the professional companies. There are a lot of companies who is in this business, but it’s very few who is good. It’s a personal choice of course when it comes to booking a holiday, in my experience a like for like holiday – one being a package holiday – the other being a private apartment rental, the level of comfort and quality furnishings typically found in holiday apartments.

Marbella apartments to rent for your holiday start with your self, what do you want? Close to the beach, lots of shops around, night life, tranquil sunny after noon sunny terrace with a view over the Mediterranean, lovely community gardens with children pools. Start thinking what do you want and then call some of this good rental companies for an apartments in Marbella for rent on your holiday.

I recommended you follow rental companies here in Marbella;

http://kmmarbella.com/

http://www.marbellarentals.st/

http://www.nordicarentals.com/

http://www.sundream-estate.com/

http://www.exclusivemarbella.com/

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Jul 16

The result of count how many illegal property Marbella has is finish now. The list from the Marbella planning office is now closed at 38,194 constructions outside the PGOU Urban plan guildelines approved in 1986, 24,488 of them are homes. The numbers have been published Monday by La Opinión de Málaga.

 

90 percent of the official list or 24,488 of the irregular buildings are homes (apartments, townhouses and villas). The full extent of the illegal building problem in Marbella has been revealed with an official count of the irregularities coming in at nearly 39,000 buildings. People have bourt a property Marbella in god faith, but now is it illegal.  

On the list are homes, hotels, schools, petrol stations, golf courses and even a chapel and heliport. Marbella Town Hall has to speed up with get the “illegal” homes there license.

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Jul 12

Summer means hot.  Spain – Germany in David cup in Marbella, what more can you have in one week. Of course – 1 million tourists is also here. Everything tougher means more jobs for us, more people who want to buy Marbella apartments or Villas in Marbella. I only have little time over for write in the blog about the entire good and bad thing in Marbella. Ok, we had receive two new apartments and one villa, property Marbella for sale, new reports of the water problem in Marbella, slowing down in the constructions,  new fresh free fonts, new mobile prices, The sacking of Roca, illegal building licenses, Windows 7 on the top on Amazons and other news:

Marbella Town Hall still only talk, talk and talk about the water problem.
Marbella and Costa del Sol construction is slowing down.
40 new really smart and fresh free fonts!
New mobile phones prices in Europe.
Is it possible to rely on free antivirus programs?
Marbella Town Hall is trying to sack Roca.
Windows 7 pre-orders grab Amazon top sales spots.
Marbella Town Hall against Greenlife Golf Club.
Apple, iPod Touch, iPhone, Mac, huge profit and a big cash reserve.


The new properties for sale are:

http://www.sundream-estate.com/191-marbella-villas.html

http://www.sundream-estate.com/425-marbella-apartments-aloha-park.html

http://www.sundream-estate.com/424-marbella-apartments-menara-beach.html

 

Happy reading!

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Jul 12

marbella-water-reserve

Marbella Town Hall talk and talk, but nothing is happen, we all know that for a long time now and the latest news in this typical Spanish talking system is that it has gone 15 years since they starting talking about increased the water reservoir La Concepcion in Marbella. The story is follow, more than 15 years ago, when it was first suggested that the La Concepcion reservoir would need to be increased in size to cope with the fast growing population of the areas Marbella, San Pedro, Elviria and the other in Marbella community, ideas have been put forward to carry out the work. At that time could we already see how much was building and what was coming in the future, large Urbanizations with many apartments, villas and golf courses.

 

There have been endless announcements about projects to double its capacity, but none have come to anything. But, with the pressure on water supplies increasing every year, technical experts had put forward plans to re-enforce and raise the walls by 16 meters, a move which would require the reservoir to be only half full for many months, not a risk the authorities were prepared to take because of the possibility of interruptions to the water supply. Now it seems it may be possible to carry out the work without the risk to the water supplies by extending the walls further down the Rio Verde.

 

Water supplies for this year seem secure with the reservoir currently at 87 per cent capacity. Marbella Town Hall is saved by the bell this year; the economic crises in the world, less tourist, less golfers, ect.  The situation is further improved by the output from the new desalination plant which now has five lines in operation and is providing an additional 35,000 cubic meters of water each day, thereby reducing the drain from La Concepcion. The uptake from the golf courses has also decreased with the requirement that they use re-cycled water for their needs. The usual summer consumption is around 20 cubic hectometers, well below the reservoirs current capacity level of 53 cubic hectometers, so all should be well until the winter rains and maybe more water to us who has a property in Marbella.

Related article: Marbella saving water by its desalination plant.

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