A court in Marbella has told the four British purchasers of a property Marbella seen as illegal by the Junta de Andalusia that they cannot have their deposit returned and they must go ahead with completing the purchase. The purchasers must now pay all the court costs as part of the ruling, but do have the right of appeal to the provincial court.

They had claimed their deposit back after a delay in the handover over a challenge to the building license. Court orders the British buyers to complete purchase of irregular Marbella property.

The buyers have paid over more than 103,000 € as a deposit on the apartments on the urbanization Santa María Green Hills, in Elviria Marbella, signing the contract with Marbella Vista Golf S.L. in November 2004. The Spanish new paper Diario Sur reports that the apartments should have been handed over before 1st January 2006, but, owing to the regional government’s challenging the building license they considered to be illegal, neither the property nor the gardens and promised golf course were completed by that date.

The would-be buyers then claimed their money back through the courts, with the company placing its own counter-claim as part of the same proceeding. First Instance Court No. 5 in Marbella has now found in favor of the developer, ruling that the fact that the property was not completed on time is not the company’s fault. The court also said that any irregularities in the license granted by the Town Hall cannot be attributed to the developer.

There was a similar case affecting the same urbanization two years ago, when other British buyers had their claim for their stage payments to be returned turned down by a court. Sur however reports another case a year later, when the provincial court ruled on appeal in favor of the buyers, ordering the developer to return their payments.

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Over the last two year with the economic crisis in the world and our three criminal cases in Marbella under the names “Ballena Blanca”, “Malaya” and “Hidalgo” have the prices for property Marbella and apartments got down. I have write about many of the problem we have in Marbella. The problem is so many for a seller; first if he get a buyer, then hope that not the buyer’s lawyer say to his client – I think the apartments don’t has the building license or that the prices maybe is going done little more and in the end try to find a banks who want to give a mortgage, the Spanish banks don’t have any money more. The English news paper do also a lot by writing that the prices has going down 40 – 50 -60% in Spain, where??? Where do we asking the client. A property in Marbella has maybe got down 10 – 15 % over the last two years. The most of the sellers say – then do we not sell now and wait some year and see how the market are then. Marbella apartments or villas are a good investment over some year. Now can we se some light in the tunnel, Marbella Town hall have more or less sorting out all illegal licenses problem, the banks are slowly starting to get new mortgage and the buyer have understand that the prices is not going down any more. Here is some of the article I have write about the problems in Marbella.

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Illegal Property in Marbella are going to be legalized by the Town Hall.

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House prices in Dubai market has foundered in the past year and in the Baltics, it is also bad. In Central Europe and in Israel has the prices are rising.

It is the UK valuation firm Knight Frank, which has produced a summary of the global housing market. The company has looked into the prices of houses between the third quarter of 2009 and the same period last year.

Overall, the world’s housing markets have recovered over the past year and more than two thirds of the 42 countries that Knight Frank unit has experienced price increases over the last three months. Despite this, the average price levels are lower in 60 percent of the country than they were a year ago:

“House prices will now rise in a clear majority of the countries included in the study. This can be compared with the second quarter, when prices rose in 50 percent of the countries,” says Liam Bailey, head of house analysis at Knight Frank.

Most of all has the prices raised in Israel. Here has the prices going up an average of 14 percent. Although Malta and Alpine countries Switzerland and Austria have seen sharp increases in house prices over the past year. During the last quarter, have the housing market in Singapore increased strongest and climbed by over 15 percent.

Sweden is among the countries in the minus column. The Swedish house prices have dropped, with 0.4 percent during the past year. This puts Sweden in the middle of the table.

Dubai has the worst problem. Prices have almost halves in the Emirate over twelve months.   With this place Dubai itself at the bottom of the list, before the two Baltic states of Estonia and Lithuania and Bulgaria.

Knight Frank also notes that several countries in Europe have not yet seen rising house prices during a single quarter after the credit crisis. These include Spain Ireland and Denmark.

Footnote. Knight Frank house price index is compiled using official data from each county’s statistical agency.

Related articles;

http://www.sundream-estate.com/blog/2009/05/30/us-house-sales-figures-are-worse-than-expected/

http://www.sundream-estate.com/blog/2009/05/27/the-worlds-largest-real-estate-crash-league/

A couple of weeks ago come news that Dubai World, which is behind Dubai’s extravagant construction of artificial islands and giant skyscrapers, suspend payments in six months.

Because of the massive State interference in the company has data led to speculation that the Dubai state should halt payments, or at least that the state is unable to guarantee Dubai World’s commitment.  The conglomerate Dubai World has asked for debt restructuring and extension of credit from lenders to May 2010.

More problems, Nakheel, a property development company owned by Dubai World, reported during its first six months of its fiscal year broken a loss of 13.4 billion dirhams. This corresponds to a loss of 3.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Last week had Dubai World talks with a number of banks to restructure 26 billion dollars in debt, which includes a bond for 3.5 billion U.S. dollars issued by Nakheel. The bond will expire on 14 December. The government of Dubai announced that it will pay 4.1 billion U.S. dollars to cover the liabilities of property developer Nakheel.

Every week come new information about the finance crisis in Dubai, and in this new finance crisis are all the banks in the world involved in.  Every bank around the world has borrowed out money to Dubai spectacular building companies and the other building project in Dubai like The World islands, Waterfront, the subway, the ski slope, Palm Deira, Maritime City and many more fantasy project. Now have the banks understand there that they maybe don’t going to get the money back. The rich oil states around Dubai are not willing to pay the bill; they are going too asked for debt restructuring and extension of credit.

The affect are, that our mortgage in Spain and Europe is going to be higher and no new mortgage to clients. So here in Marbella and the rest of Spain, it’s going to be more apartments and villas for sale on the market to lower prices, the banks have to take over more properties which they must sell to any prices, so the prices is going down more.

Related articles;

http://www.sundream-estate.com/blog/2009/12/02/a-property-in-marbella-is-not-for-the-spanish-banks/

http://www.sundream-estate.com/blog/2009/05/27/the-worlds-largest-real-estate-crash-league/

Only the three criminal cases in Marbella who goes under the names “Ballena Blanca”, “Malaya” and “Hidalgo” has together been washed an incredible 1,000 million euros. It shows the summaries that the prosecutor has done in cases that are reported today in La Opinión de Málaga.

The largest network of administrative corruption and Urban Development began to be investigated in March 2006. The 26 front men and women alleged used by Juan Antonio Roca (who was Marbella town planning advisor) the man at the centre of the Malaya case, suspected to be bribes and other amounts channeled around between municipal officials and builders to the tune of 670 million euros. The money came from the backhanders which many real estate promoters and builders paid to do business in the town, get illegal building licenses for new apartments blocks and villas urbanizations.

In the other cases are internationally known criminals and drug trafficking. Large sums of money have been sent around the network and ended up in accounts in tax havens. The Hidalgo case saw 220 million laundered and Ballena Blanca some 150 million

Related articles;

Marbella Malaya corruption involved 670 million euros of laundered money.

38.194 illegal property Marbella.

 Now have the figures of the corruption in Marbella Malaya scandal when the former Mayor’s Julián Muñoz, Marisol Yagüe, her deputy Isabel García Marcos and the big boss in the Malaya José Antonio Roca, who was town planning advisor plus 100 more people in Marbella community, Marbella police, councilors and business people. The money thought to have been laundered during the infamous ‘Malaya’ case in Marbella has been calculated at around 670 million euros.

Most of this involves payments received in exchange for ‘favors’ relating to building development in the city, say police. They have given quicker buildings licenses for apartments, villas and other properties. They sold community plots illegal and gave license for building on them. It is said to have been laundered by up to 26 people who worked according to the orders of the alleged ringleader, former town planning assessor for Marbella Juan Antonio Roca.

The suspects are spread across Spain and include six lawyers from a firm in Madrid. In addition to property development corruption on the Costa del Sol – and particularly in and around Marbella – the ‘Malaya’ case is believed to have involved homes built in Los Alcázares (Murcia).

TV4 made the summer of 2009 an entertainment program called Mammas pojkar; one of the attended was my beloved friend Susanne Rydeström and her son Tim Rydeström. The program consisted of 3 mothers (Susanne Rydeström, Naima Malki and Gerd Ideståhl) with their 3 sons, (Tim Rydeström, Bobby Haddad and Christian Ideståhl) together in a luxurious villa in Marbella, brilliant sunshine and 32 potential girlfriends. For the three guys in TV4’s dating program mammas pojkar look the situation perfect, to say the least out. The only drawback was that their overprotective mothers living in the house – and they have nothing against interfering in their sons’ love affairs. But who will control the most – the son or mother? During six weeks tried sons and their mothers are intermingled in a luxurious villa in Marbella, together with 32 girls who hope to find love in one of the guys. It was a lot of romance and fun challenges in and around Marbella in TV4 program mammas pojkar, but also drama, strong opinion and rivalry. Not to mention the heated discussions between mother and son about the potential girlfriend limits. My friend Susanne Rydeström and her son Tim Rydeström did it well.

Susanne Rydeström was perfect in Mammas pojkar.

In the program Mammas pojkar had mothers very much opinion on girls; Susanne Rydeström felt that Tim should have a girl from Europe, so no culture clash arose. Gerd wanted a daughter in law who is very interested in flower and horticulture and last but not least wanted Naima have a Syrian girl, a virgin who is only interested to wash and cook for her husband. The 32 girls discovered very quickly that Susanne Rydeström was the best mother, who loves to dance, drink a glass of wine, listening to rock music and everything else that makes life happy. Susanne Rydeström was their perfect mother in law in TV4 program mammas pojkar. Who chose the boys as his dream girl? Well who knows?

Susanne Rydeström has two blogs; http://susannerydestrom.blogg.se/ and http://www.finest.se/userBlog/?uid=35626&beid=1249624

Tim Rydeström has this blog; http://www.finest.se/userBlog/?uid=25863&beid=1249855

The Marbella City Council has today appointed Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren, who played the Russian boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV to, ‘Ambassador of Marbella “for his association with the municipality and its long and successful career.

The Mayoress of Marbella Ángeles Muñoz has highlighted that Marbella and its citizens is a real privilege to have such distinguished neighbors as Dolph Lundgren, he could have chosen any city to live and has opted for our own.“ Munoz stressed that the Swedish actor meets and exceeds the profile for the City to associate with the name of the municipality and “promote the city and its image worldwide.”
“The goal is to involve persons of recognized national and international reputation who want to sit in Marbella and we know that the heart feels Lundgren,” he underlined.

In this sense, expressed by the actor who has told his wife and two daughters “make life in Marbella and not think about changing it for anything.”
- Marbella is a very special place for my family, a wonderful city in which they can fully enjoy life,” said the Swede, who has highlighted in his speech “the beauty of the Sierra de la Concha in contrast to the blue Mediterranean Sea.
But first, highlighted the “warmth and hospitality of their neighbors, who know how to enjoy life in a unique way in the world.”
Therefore, he has shown his “love” for the city and has undertaken to bear the name of the city everywhere.

Tourism Councilman Jose Luis Hernandez, also wanted to highlight the figure of Lundgren and the importance of personalities with a career as contrasted.
The mayor has shelled the biography of the actor, director, screenwriter and film producer “who has worked primarily in action films and martial arts in Hollywood.”

Dolph Lundgren is born in Sweden, graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology as Master of Chemical Engineering, University of Sydney. It was in one of his trips to Boston when he landed in New York and presented to the casting for the role of Ivan Drago, which complements his life changed.

However, since contact had been maintained before the world of cinema in the film A View to a Kill James Bond saga, where it appears as the protector of his then-girlfriend, actress / singer Grace Jones. Among other outstanding films of his films are in Little Tokyo, Masters of the Universe, Universal Soldier, Johnny Mnemonic, Blackjack or Storm Hunter. It has now along with Sylvester Stallone filmed the movie The essentials alongside Mickey Rourke, Jet Li, Brittany Murphy, Charisma Carpenter, Eric Roberts, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis and to be released in April 2010.

Finally, Hernandez recalled that Lundgren is the second ‘Ambassador of Marbella‘ along with the president of the Spanish Olympic Committee (COE), Alejandro Blanco.

Marbella Government has new laws for the streets in Marbella. The new regulation prohibits the offering and demand of sexual services in the street, i.e. prostitution. It also prohibit anyone from performing acrobatics on skateboards, roller skates or bicycles in public spaces which are not made for such purposes; anyone from offering massages or tattoos, or tarot card reading, without the respective license from the local government. I don’t know if this law is good enough. The local police can’t not today stop the huge illegal sales of cd, video movie, watches, handbags and the other millions things, because if they take one person today, are they out in the street in couple of hours again. The new laws welcomes by the local living people in Marbella who is tired of the huge street prostitution. 

The Spanish banks have starting to set up real estate companies and try to sell there huge stock of properties they have to take over in this economic crisis. But the bank is bank, not a real estate company, they are so wrong in what they do, they are sitting in Madrid or Barcelona and they don’t know understanding way it is so high prices of villas and apartments in Marbella.  I read this good article in OPP about the problem. (OPP – overseas properties professional)

Spanish Banks should be better Estate agents

Demonized by agents for keeping prices artificially high to avoid losses, or making it harder for agents to access distressed deals, many now feel that Spanish banks must become better estate agents if the market is to recover.

Ian Waudby, chairman of investment consultancy Crest Group International, observes that the companies set up by banks are slowly making it easier for foreign buyers and agents to access stock; but he stressed that buyers need a quicker response from these companies and a faster sales process.

“The properties need to be packaged with mortgages,” he told OPP. “The websites aren’t bad but if you try to make an offer you won’t hear anything back. CAM is the most organized at the moment but by the middle of next year they’ll all be offering the same thing.”

The price is wrong

Discounting is central to the current bank-owned property stalemate, with agents saying they’re either not big enough or only available for too short a period of time – Banesto, for example, is offering 40% discounts but only for November.

“There isn’t enough desirable Spanish property at the distressed prices that people want,” said Inez Rix, owner of Direct Auctions. “The demand is there but even if people see their ideal property they aren’t prepared to pay for it if it isn’t cheap.

“We don’t bother with the banks because their prices are higher than those of the private sellers and they also charge high legal fees. If they’d knock €20,000 off their prices we’d sell their property right away – they are keeping prices artificially high and are being extremely unrealistic.”

Mortgage obstacle

Mortgages are still a major barrier, with banks either reserving the best products for their own stock or not making them available at all. “It’s hard to get mortgages still and bank-owned properties need cash buyers,” said Bob Callan of prime Marbella agent Callan Developments. “A lot of people expect a bargain from the bank but can often get a better deal from an individual distressed seller.”

Pro-active banks that price realistically will see more profit than those who wait out the market, according to Rix. “I think the market will force them to lower prices eventually,” she said. “Everything’s about two years behind what it should be and I expect they’re sitting on an awful lot of stock. The big banks such as Santander could probably sit on it for 20 or 30 years but the smaller ones can’t. There aren’t enough buyers at the moment and they may have to bite the bullet and get rid of their properties.”

Most agents OPP spoke to agree that the sooner the banks bite the bullet, the sooner the Spanish homes market will recover.