Spanish King to Pay Visit to Queen Elizabeth II in June

Spanish King to Pay Visit to Queen Elizabeth II in June

The Spanish King Felipe the VI will visit the UK with his wife Letizia as part of an official state visit to meet with Queen Elizabeth II, the British head of state. The visit was due to happen last year, but was postponed due to the political deadlock of the country. Now King Felipe’s calendar for 2017 has been opened up for ceremonial matters following all the officiating he had to do with the political landscape of Spain last year.

As momentous as the visit from the Spanish king will be, it is likely to be overshadowed by a visit from controversial US president Donal Trump, who will be welcomed by the Queen later this year.

Even so, a meeting between the British and Spanish heads of state is always an occasion worth savouring, especially during the current climate of uncertainty caused by the Brexit and the future of the relationship between Spain and the UK. While it’s not very likely for the royals to discuss highly political matters, their meeting offers a chance to symbolically show both Brits and Spaniards that there is a lot of goodwill still between the countries, forged by their deeply connected ties.

A report was recently released by the Spanish government showing the damage that could be caused to both the Spanish and British economies by a “hard” Brexit, which could cost the economies of both countries by up to €4 billion. The good news is that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is seemingly taking a sensible approach to the Brexit, telling reporters that they should avoid dramatizing everything. He said that they just need to have good negotiations, which is just what the UK, Spain, and Europe as a whole want, and he expressed his hope everything will turn out well for all involved.

It might not make the headlines, but Rajoy makes a great point; the day will be won by sensible debate. If the heads of state for both nations can have a meeting filled with smiles, handshakes, and great photo opportunities, then it gets proceedings off to the right start and ensures a harmonious future for all.

Victory for Clean Energy Advocates As Fracking Firms Abandon Spain

Victory for Clean Energy Advocates As Fracking Firms Abandon Spain

Clearly the people of Spain don't want fracking

Spain has been getting a bit of a bad rep lately as far as energy policy goes. Things went downhill when the country decided to “tax thesun” after a particularly generous support scheme for solar power several years ago that saw many homeowners happily install solar panels to receive a feed-in tariff (FIT) from the government.

The government thought it would be good to rein in their financial support of solar power, and now man homeowners with solar panels are in a position where they have to pay a “solar tax” to feed their solar power back into the national grid.

It’s obvious this wasn’t the intended outcome. Spain has a lot of large solar farms, and plenty of windfarms, but it takes more than just renewable energy to support a country the size of Spain right now, which is where fracking comes in.

Fracking is a controversial technique where natural gas is extracted from deep underground, and it’s dramatically transformed the energy sector of the USA, enabling the country to reduce its dependence on oil from Africa and the Middle East. Now the USA can even export their excess energy themselves.

It was hoped that Spain would be able to get on the fracking bandwagon. Fracking companies estimated there was some €700 billion euros in natural gas sitting under Spain that would only be accessible through hydraulic fractured drilling; a process where water, sand, and chemicals are injected into rock buried deep underground at high pressure, with gas extracted through a pipe.

Fracking is a controversial process, with many people living close to fracking sites reporting earthquakes, polluted water, and even fires. That is why there was such a strong opposition to the practice in Spain.

Even so, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy passed a law that allowed for fracking during his previous term, and explorations have already begun by five of the leading fracking teams in the US.

Given the nature of Spain though, it was only natural the natives would continue to be restless about the issue. As soon as a company headed out to a site, they would find themselves greeted by resistance from energy and environmental groups, seeking to block racking as much as possible.

These groups – such as Heyco, BNK, R2 Energy, SHESA, and San Leon – are celebrating this week following the announcement that all the fracking firms that entered Spain have now left the country behind.

This means that the energy future of Spain needs to be considered once again, but now maybe Prime Minister Rajoy will think again about using renewable energy, what with the natural gas stuck in the ground for the foreseeable future.

Land Registry Data Shows Spanish Property Sales up 19% in One Year

Land Registry Data Shows Spanish Property Sales up 19% in One Year

Spain property sales continues to break sales records

As if there wasn’t enough evidence out there that the Spanish property market has picked itself back up, the latest data from the Land Registry offers even more.

There are many different ways to measure how healthy the Spanish real estate sector is – such as mortgage data, notary data, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), and search trends. Perhaps the most accurate way to measure this success would be the land registry.

Property sales in January of this year were shown to be 19% higher than in January of last year, which is the biggest increase for January since 2008; according to leading Spanish property agent Mark Stücklin.

Stücklin said that sales figures had been inflated in 2011 and 2013 due to government interference; referring to tax incentives issued during these lean years.

Stücklin is confident that this shows 2017 is truly the best start to a year as far as property sales go since the boom period ended. It also appears that there is plenty of demand across much of the country, with no region coming out ahead of the crowd.

The land registry data shows that the biggest transaction rise in January occurred in the Balearics, which saw an increase of 40%, followed by the 36% in Barcelona, 35% in Costa Dorada and 28% in the Costa Brava.

Property sales on the Costa del Sol were up 20% in Janary compared to last January, pushing it above the national average and a clear sign that property sales will remain strong across 2017 despite the looming concerns of Brexit negotiations and how they impact British buyers.

As far as the property types go, resales increased 21% compared to 2016, with 8% more new homes sold. Stücklin said that it was a reassuring sign that the recovery of Spanish home sales will continue into 2017, and that the increases seen in Alicante and Malaga suggest that international buyers are coming forward.

The Brits were still the largest single nationality in terms of foreign buyers in January, accounting for 11% of foreign buyers. Second was the Middle East with 8%, while Scandinavia came in third with 7%.

Time Runs out for Eta as Separatist Group Fully Disarms

Time Runs out for Eta as Separatist Group Fully Disarms

It’s been a long time since the Basque separatist group Eta could be considered a threat, and it’s now expected that the terrorist organisation will wilfully disarm themselves by April 8^th.

The regional Basque government announced on Friday that they have contacted the leaders of Eta, who say that they will not just lay down their arms next month, but will also offer up the location of all their weaponry stockpiles.

Eta have spent decades trying to create an independent Basque, but sympathisers have disagreed with their tactics and work by Spanish and French police have reduced the power of the group, rendering them unable to continue their attacks.

An ETA activist confirmed last week that the group will finalise their disarmament by April 8^th, with disarmament completed no later than the date of the French general election; April 23^rd.

Even though the Basque region is officially a part of Spain, ETA claims that a part of it is in southwest France as well. The governments of both countries have long resisted the actions and pressure of the group, which claimed hundreds of lives in the 80s and 90s.

The group was formed in 1959 and – since then – there are some 830 deaths attributed to the group. The last time they performed a deadly attack was back in 2010, which claimed the life of a French policeman in Paris.

The group has taken a more political approach since then, calling a ceasefire in 2011. Even though the group is still considered a terrorist group, many of the its members have begun hiding in plain sight.

Txetx Etcheverry – an activist with ETA access – said that ETA gave them the responsibility of disarming their arsenal, and that the group would be completely disarmed by the evening of April 8. The Basque government say they see the potential for a complete and final disarmament in the short term, and asked for the cooperation of the Spanish and French governments; asking them to open communication lines and show ambitious vision to reach a goal that benefits – and is historically important to – society.

Madrid is likely to welcome the news of disarmament. Spain has been fighting hard to keep its unity following the reign of Franco, and is still dealing with the Catalan independence issue on top of this Basque separatist problem.

Property Buyers Wishing for Property in Spain

Property Buyers Wishing for Property in Spain

Property searches for Spain continue to be very strong

It was just last month when TheMoveChannel.com’s Top of the Props report showed around one in seven of every enquiry made on the site was for Spanish property – giving the country the highest amount of activity since 2013, and putting Spain in the top spot in the list of top 10 destinations on the property portal. Now, a few weeks later, and Spain is welcoming more good property news. The province of Malaga – home of the Costa del Sol – has moved into first place for the first quarter of 2017 in the top 50 Hotspots Index for TheMoveChannel.com. Not only is this the first time that Spain made its way to the top spot, but there’s even more good news.

Malaga accounted for 4.01% of the searches for the leading property portal during the first three months of 2017, moving up 18 places compared to the data from the last quarter of 2016, surpassing Florence/Italy down to 4^th place on the way.

In fact, Spain Property for sale has 31 spots on TheMoveChannel.com’s list of Top 50 Hotspots, more than doubling how many spots it had at during the fourth quarter of 2016, and an all-time high for any country.

Spain also held 8 of the top 10 positions, and dominated the top five with Malaga, Almería, Tenerife, and Benidorm; giving Spain four of the top five positions. This gives Spain the largest Top 10 percentage in the history of the Hotspots Index. Spain was also responsible for 13 of the top 15 destinations.

On a local level, the Costa del Sol hotspots making it into the top 50 included Nerja, Benalmádena, Fuengirola, La Cala de Mijas, Estepona, Marbella, Torremolinos and Mijas. Portugal grabbed eight destinations of its own in the Top 50, with Italy grabbing five and France earning three.

Stats Show Interest in Spanish Property among European buyers has Grown by Double Digits

Stats Show Interest in Spanish Property among European buyers has Grown by Double Digits

Brits are still buying property regardless of Brexit uncertainty

Brits have always been the largest single group of foreign buyers of Spanish property. Given that around one-fifth of all Spanish properties sold to non-Spaniards go to Brits, it can be misleading to try and compare other nationalities to British buyers on a like-for-like basis.

That is why the Spanish property portal Kyero has decided to take a different approach across recent months by grouping “Europeans” into a single entity. The results of doing so have been eye-opening.

When Europeans are classed into a single group like this, the data shows that 60% of all inquiries on Spanish property Kyero receives come from Europeans, with the growth since last summer reaching double digits.

The portal has recorded an increase of 25% in leads and enquiries year-on-year (based on the data from February), but the highest spike in growth has come from Europeans.

One interesting statistic is that Spanish property enquiries from British buyers has risen 36% over last February, but sales have only increased by just 1.5% - an anomaly that would appear to be fuelled by Brits taking more of a “wait and see” approach to Spanish property until the issue of the Brexit is sorted. There is certainly a lot of demand for Spanish property from Brits, but they are holding out on actually making the purchases until Article 50 is finished.

This isn’t the case with the Germans, where both interest and sales have increased by over 20% over the past year. Despite Germany facing a general election in 2017, the politics in the country have been stable for a long time, which is reflected by the willingness of the population to purchase overseas property.

Kyero analyst Richard Spiegal understands that Brits are taking a wait and see approach, but is still convinced that would-be buyers will only be mildly inconvenienced by the Brexit. Spiegal said that the majority of British buyers would just be mildly inconvenienced by the Brexit, feeling that it isn’t likely going to change access to travel, the availability, and property rights.

Brits are still interested in buying, but are just in a holding pattern while waiting to see how the Brexit negotiations will unfold. Even though the British are going through a temporary pause for now, the Spanish property market is still on the rise. This is just a further testament to the appeal of the country to people from around the rest of Europe, and indeed the world.

Buyers Just Can’t Get Enough of Spanish Property

Buyers Just Can’t Get Enough of Spanish Property

The next 6 or 7 years looks fantastic for Spain

TheMoveChannel.com is reporting that according to the latest Top of the Props report Spain became the number one destination for the property portal for the first time in seven months. Over one in seven enquiries made on the site were for Spanish property, giving Spain the highest share of search activity since 2013.

Interest in Spanish property has also more than doubled month-on-month. Enquiries about the US fell from 14.65% in January to 11.38% just one month later, pushing it down to second place.

Dan Johnson, Director of TheMoveChannel.com, says that foreign buyers remain in love with Spanish property. Whether they are looking for holiday homes in the sunshine, Golden Visa-seeking buyers from the USA or Middle East, investors around the world are just as eager to get their hands on Spanish property. The Spanish property market has also never been so appealing since the recovery of the real estate market. Now is definitely the right time to buy Spanish property.

There were some other European countries to breach the top 10 of Top of the Props including Portugal and Italy, which came in 3^rd and 4^th place respectively. France came in 6^th, while Turkey came in 9^th and Germany came in 10^th. Two countries from a little further afield making the list were Indonesia, which came in 5^th, and Singapore, which finished 8^th.