Malaga sees highest growth in number of startup businesses in Spain opened since 2007

Malaga sees highest growth in number of startup businesses in Spain opened since 2007

Due to the recent years surge in property sales, mortgage approvals and holiday bookings, the economy of Spain is back on track and with the sudden rise in the number of business startups gives a clear indication about the growth of economy. Malaga, the home to Costa del Sol has seen over 5,177 business startups opening in 2015, similar to the likes of how the economy was before the 2008 crash.

Highest start-up businesses since 2007 

The annual growth seen in Malaga province was 8.5%; which is the highest for business property for sale in Andalucía, and the Seville province stood at around 1,500 startups opening in the same year, taking the second place.

As per the statistics provided by INE (National Statistics Institute), 9,443 companies were opened in Spain totally for January 2016 alone, which is a 14.7% year on year growth against January 2015.

Other communities such as Madrid, Cataluna and Andalucía also saw a massive growth in the number of business startups and the counts stood at 1,823, 2,183 and 1,570.

All the business startups this year predominantly belonged to the real estate, finance and insurance sector in Spain and collectively attracted a capital of nearly €293 million while the communications and telecommunications sectors in Spain saw a total of €2.22 million being infused.

The whole of Spain and the Costa del Sol is feeling positive changes and you can feel the optimism in the air. Investment has returned and growth is moving forward in the right direction.

UK Property Tax Totalling €1.38 billion Owed by Spaniards.

Spanish love buying property

The British remain the largest foreign investors in Costa del Sol  property and Spanish property as a whole, but data from the Spanish tax authorities show that it’s not an unrequited love as Spaniards owe €1.38 billion in UK property tax.

The information comes from the Spanish Form 720, which Spaniards use to declare any assets they own outside of Spanish territory when they have a value of higher than €50,000. Overall Spanish citizens are the proud owners of over €9 billion in overseas property.

The love spreads across all of Europe as France is where the majority of Spanish homeowners buy property. In France Spaniards own €1.73 billion in property, with the UK in a close second. Germany comes third with Spanish brick and mortar assets totalling €728 million. Fourth place is shared by Mexico and Portugal with €682.3 million.

This data is based on Spaniards who are still based in and living in Spain and doesn’t take into account expats who have long since said goodbye to the motherland.

Spaniards have also bought property in other places including Andorra (€627.4 million), Belgium (€485 million), the USA (€374 million), Switzerland (€354.6 million) and finally Italy (€309 million).

Many Spanish also own second homes on the coast and when the summer months come or its holiday time where the temperature inland is so high, the Spanish decent to the coast areas such the Costa del Sol.

Marbella Showcases the World’s First Revolving Solar Homes.

When you get right down to it the entire world is solar-powered. Everything on Earth draws some energy from the sun. Everything that has ever existed, from rocks to oceans, to forests, to the industrial revolution, and even the Beatles and Benedict Cumberbatch, they all owe their existence to the Sun.

Marbella solar homes for sale

Today when you think about solar power you think about solar panels. The Spanish government has proven to be infuriatingly regressive on the issue of solar power. They even introduced a sun Tax in Spain that punishes people who choose to install solar panels on their roofs.

A Marbella based company has come up with an idea to solve this problem though and help people get around this “sun tax” while still enjoying the benefits of clean and powerful solar energy.

The company is Sunhouse360° and their home literally rotates every 15 minutes to give each room the maximum amount of sunlight throughout the day.

Property for sale in Andalucía and all of southern Spain sees so much sunlight that this kind of creation can reduce energy bills by up to 70%, at least according to the company. This is because of the floor-to-ceiling windows that cover the entire home, and an interior layout designed to let in as much sunlight as possible.

Home owners can choose from different sized properties and can also have photovoltaic panels installed on to the home as well. This will combine the thermal energy of the sun with regular solar photovoltaic powered electricity.

The houses for sale in Costa de sol have a understandably high price of £753,000 (+IVA) at first, but this will get you a 250 square metre property that won’t cost nearly as much to run and maintain.

How often, and how quickly, the house rotates has been programmed to make sure that the home owners don’t even feel the rotation. Sunhouse360° have also said the homes should be programmable to let owners set a rotation frequency that suits them.

Sunhouse360° believe that having sunlight in the home is very beneficial and that it is possible to change so that the light reaches the entire house. Or, if you wanted to, it can be programmed so that light I always in the kitchen.

The idea for the home was first developed over two years ago and it is believed that the homes will be available in early 2016.

The Costa del Sol homes for sale are also programmed with “eco rotation” software. This software will detect which parts of the house are the coolest and bring it into the sunlight. It is designed for when the homes reach more northern climates but is still effective in the southern areas, where it turns the warmer areas of the house away from the sun to keep the whole property cool.

The Sunhouse360° makes use of virtually everything that makes property for sale in Marbella and the area such a great tourist destination; innovation, sunlight, and property. It’s going to be interesting to watch as these Costa del Sol homes for sale pop up all across southern Spain.

The future looks bright for the Costa del Sol property market.

The Profiles of British Buyers Revealed Through Spanish Property Research.

The Profiles of British Buyers Revealed Through Spanish Property Research.

Middle-aged couple are predominantly buying property in Costa del Sol

Research done into why buy property in the Costa del Sol and Spain has shown the profile of the average British home buyer in Spain.

The majority of British expats (74%) are between 45-64 years old, spend €200,00 on average, and choose homes that are by the sea, according to the latest figures published by Tranio, one of the largest property agents in Spain.

The average size of property for sale in the Costa del Sol and purchased by expats is over 100 square metres and property is most commonly bought in Andalucía, Valencia and the Canary Islands.

It was also revealed that the British buyers make up 30% of all foreign purchases on the Spanish property market, making them the largest foreign demographic. France and Russia make up around 10% each and compete for second place.

The number of Brits buying Spanish property slowed down a little in the last decade but it’s beginning to pick up again.

The rise in activity has been helped by a favourable exchange rate between pounds and euros, a boosted British economy, and great lending rates in Spain. Overall 30% of the property searches made by British people on Google were for Spain.  

The financial crisis that hit Spain is over and property prices are expected to start rising again. Cleaver investors are buying in Southern Spain and the Costa del Sol once again and growth is expected these coming years.

Now is a great time to start looking and buy property in Costa del Sol as there are still some excellent bargain property for sale in Spain.

The Company That Gave Us The World’s Largest Outdoor Swimming Pool Set to Dive Into First European Project.

 

Crystal Lagoons project will be a fantastic for the whole Costa del sol.

Crystal Lagoons, the real estate giant that gave Chile a pool over 11 football pitches wide, is bringing something similar to Casares in the Costa del Sol. 

They plan on constructing a €121 million luxury resort complete with the largest pool in Spain and  Europe, surrounded by 450 homes.

The Alcazaba Hills Laggon will measure a hectare and a half and will be a great destination for swimmers and other watersports in Spain.

It’s going to take an estimated eight months to build. The site has now been closed and, at one point, was going to become the Spanish Themed park of Disneyland.

There are plans to build another 350 properties as well as make use of an unsold 100 properties that have been there since 2009.

The plans bring some optimism back to the formally abandoned development and will target wealthy European tourists, especially those in Britain, Germany, Scandinavian and Dutch countries.

The regional director of Crystal Lagoons, Sebastian Pillado, says that Crystal Lagoons can use their technology to create the beach lifestyle anywhere in the world and has the potential to bring life and hope too many unsold and empty projects.

The property landscapes in Estepona, Mijas and Property-for-sale-Marbella has had a magnificent year so far with €376 million in investments scheduled so far.

This is great news for southern Spain and the Costa del Sol as property for sale along the coast as turned a corner and the coming years look very exciting if your a property investor to say the least.

How do Members of the LGBT Gay and Lesbian Community Fare in Spain?

Spain has seen some major changes across the last decade or so, but how do members of the LGBT community do in Spain as residents and tourists?

Gay and Lesbians are fully excepted in Spain

Going on a trip across Europe would have been vastly different even as early as 1975 when compared to today. While the change is obvious in formerly communist Eastern European nations there are also many other countries that have shifted dramatically in the past 35 years. Few countries have seen more dramatic social and political upheavals than Spain.

Spain was still gripped by the fascist regime of General Franco back in 1975. It was a country ruled by political oppression, institutionalised torture, severe religion with Catholicism in Spain, and a distrust of liberal attitudes. The social landscape was vastly different just a few thousand kilometres away in the Netherlands. The Netherlands had relaxed laws and a far more liberal outlook on life that created an almost cultural utopia that was far different from what Spain was seeing with the restrictive General Franco.

30 years later and everything has changed dramatically. It has been a long and arduous journey since the death of Franco in 1975 but now Spain has become one of the most liberal countries in Europe. They were the third nation to legalise gay marriage in 2005, behind only the Netherlands and Belgium. They became the seventh country worldwide to do so.

Even though Spain still has a religious backbone that threatens to undermine the progress Spain has made socially and politically, the Spanish people have still made commendable progress.

The public approval for gay marriage stands at over 65% in Spain, which is great for a country that is so traditionally macho and patriarchal like Spain. In Spain the stereotypical image of the “hombre” – a bushy moustache, blue-collar sensibilities, and a gruff demeanour – is still there but homosexuality has become quite accepted across all of Spain. Discretion is still the best option in some places, especially away from the resorts and larger cities in Spain, but you could still say the same about any country in the Western world.

The more cosmopolitan areas of Spain are home to the most gay-friendly destinations you can find in the world, especially in Barcelona, Sitges, and the resort of Torremolinos found in Costa Del Sol. Málaga and Torremolinos are home to the Campo del Golf nudist beach and the appropriately named Gay Village, two of the largest gay beach areas in Spain and in all of Europe.

Torremolinos is also host to a number of bars that cater almost exclusively to their homosexual clientele, including the Parthenon discoteca that sits at the heart of Torremolinos. The La Nogalera strip is a famous destination for homosexual tourists thanks to the gay bars and clubs that welcome thousands of tourists each weekend throughout the whole year. Homosexuals are welcome in practically every resort across Costa del Sol including Fuengirola, Estepona and Puerto Banus.

Visitors to Spain Enjoy Best Value for Food and Drinks in The World!

Travellers to Spain will enjoy some of the lowest food prices in the world, according to a new survey.

Orange Square Marbella old town

The Post Office Travel Money report visited 46 different destinations across the world and rated Spain as the fourth-best value for food when the meal cost €47.30. The shopping basket in question contained a bottle of beer, a can of Coke, a glass of wine, mineral water, suncream, a packet of Marlboro cigarettes and a three-course meal for two including house wine.

A cup of coffee costs on average €1.27 in Costa del Sol, with the local beer costing around €2.13.

The gap in prices between Spain and the actual cheapest destination has risen from €1.32 last year to the far higher figure of over €7.90.

In all, the local cuisine in Spain is of the highest quality and with the prices and cost of living in Spain being so low, no wonder more and more holiday makers and lifestyle buyers are choosing Spain and the Costa del Sol there choice of holiday and home destination.

People just don't realise that living in the Costa del Sol really is so much cheaper than living in northern Europe by nearly one third cheaper which is extraordinary? The life expectancy is higher and with an average temperature of 20C all year around and a family orientated culture with the wonderful Mediterranean lifestyle Spain brings and only a few million inhabitants in the whole region, and central Europe only a short flight away, more and more British and northern Europeans are looking at southern Spain and the Costa del Sol to buy property for either a holiday home or a permanent lifestyle choice.
Buy a Spanish home and move to the Costa del Sol because life really is better in flip flops.