Saturday 25 February 2017

Poll Finds Most Spaniards Willing to Adopt European-Style Working Hours

Poll Finds Most Spaniards Willing to Adopt European-Style Working Hours


Spanish daily newspaper 20 Minutos conducted a poll that showed around 80% of Spaniards would enjoy taking shorter lunch breaks and finishing work earlier, which would bring Spain into line with most of Europe.
The Spanish Siesta days are looking numbered.

The Mediterranean working culture of Spain has been an anomaly in Europe for quite some time. Workers in Spain start later, have longer lunch breaks, and finish later than many other Europeans. Many Spaniards are ready and willing to change things though.

In order for the change, the government has said on many occasions that they plan to bring Spain back into Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) to bring the country in line with Europe.

Even so, it would be a while before the working culture itself is changed. The good news is that the idea of a typical 9-5 working day isn’t that bad for the majority of Spaniards living in Spain, who would be happy to accept it.

The poll from the newspaper found just over two-thirds of people polled wouldn’t mind a shorter lunch break. Some Spanish workers – especially in the retail sector – can face lunch breaks of up to three hours.

People are also becoming dissatisfied with the 11:00-11:30 “breakfast break”. 64.5% of Spaniards surveyed said they would be willing to lose it, and 82% of Spaniards surveyed said that they would prefer it if the working day was more condensed.

Many European companies that are established in Spain have already adopted the European style of working hours, such as real estate companies and many others.

Friday 24 February 2017

UN Data Shows Fewer Spaniards Emigrate Abroad Than any other European Nation


UN Data Shows Fewer Spaniards Emigrate Abroad Than any other European Nation



Spain is a wonderful place to live and with it
being so great why leave ?
Everyone knows that Spain is the most popular choice for holidays and property in Europe, which just goes to show the appeal of the country for Europeans, Americans, and everyone else across the world.

Now some interesting data has been released by the UN showing that only 2.7% of Spaniards choose to live abroad; this is the lowest figure in all of Europe.

The UN map shows that many nations in Eastern Europe experience high rates of emigration from the native population. Bosnia and Herzegovina in particular lose 43.3% of their native population to other nations.

The rest of the top five is made up of Albania (38.8%), Macedonia (24.8%), Portugal (22.3%) and Montenegro (22.1%). Other top scorers included Ireland at 18.8% and Romania with 17.5%.

7.6% of native Brits are currently living abroad. The Scandinavian countries seem to offer enough to keep the natives at home as Norway and Sweden have only 3.7% and 3.4% of their native population living abroad respectively, while Finland has 5.4%.

There were a few years when the recession got really bad in which thousands of Spaniards flocked the Germany and the UK to find work. While a number of these people chose to stay where they ended up, the UN data shows that, as the Spanish economy recovered, the Spaniards came back home.

Given the affordability of the country, along with the fine Spanish cuisine, climate, and natural beauty, it’s understandable that Spain manages to be a perennial favourite with Spaniards and foreign visitors alike.

The UN put together another map that showcases the most popular destinations for each nation. According to this map Brits are most likely to head to Australia, while the Irish typically go to the UK, Germans head to the US, and most of Eastern Europe heads to Germany.

One interesting piece of data is that Spaniards are most likely to go to France, while the French are most likely to go to Spain.

Thursday 23 February 2017

Demand for New Spanish Homes Increases 32.5% in a Year

Demand for New Spanish Homes Increases 32.5% in a Year
Buying off plan property is back in demand as each
new development sells out very quickly


et, there’s been an improvement in the new build sector across recent months. The data from the Ministry of Development shows that, for the first eleven months of last year, there were 32.5% more requests for building permits than during this time period in 2015.

There were a total of over 59,999 building permits granted in the first 11 months of 2016, which is the most granted in this amount of time for over five years. It is a massive increase of 72% compared to the same time period in 2014; just three years ago.

5,934 permits were granted in November alone – an increase of 25% over 2015 and the most permits granted in a November since 2010.

The data would suggest that the recovery of the Spanish housing market is pretty balanced; positive figures are being posted by both the resale and new build sectors.

What is most encouraging is the sustainable, stable growth of the new build sector. Before the market crashed in 2008, Spanish property was being constructed at lightning speeds. In just 2006, some 900,000 new homes received building permission.

It was obvious that the rate of development was unsustainable. It took the country over half a decade to work through the incomplete, unsold, or just unsellable homes. These days things are looking much better. There’s barely any oversupply left at all in the most popular areas of Spain such as the Costa Brava, Costa del Sol, and the Balearic and Canary Islands.

Wednesday 22 February 2017

Malaga Sees Steady Flow of Cruise Ships

Malaga Sees Steady Flow of Cruise Ships

Malaga has become a hub for cruise ships
Malaga has always been a mainstay on the itineraries of many of the most prestigious Transatlantic liners in the world. The latest data from the Puertos del Estado Port Authority in Spain shows that 366,679 cruise ship passengers entered the Malaga port in the first ten months of 2016; representing a 10.2% increase over this same period in 2015 and three times larger than the national average increase of 3.7%.

This increase pushes the Costa del Sol capital into fifth place behind Barcelona (an increase of 8.7% and 2.4 million passengers); the Balearics (a 5.8% and 1.7 million passengers); Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (a 10.7% increase and 795,845 passengers); and Santa Cruz de Tenerife (down 2.5% with 613,015 passengers).

The other two port authorities in Spain that registered a record number of passengers on cruise ships – Cádiz and Valencia – came in sixth and seventh respectively; welcome 342,233 passengers (down 6.1%) and 337,166 (down just 0.03%).

The provincial daily newspaper Diario Sur is also reporting that Malaga will welcome cruise ships 296 different times in 2017, for a total of over 500,000 tourists expected to arrive throughout the year. This represents a very sizable increase of 17% and 13% over 2016.

Tuesday 21 February 2017

Spain Comes in 4th in Survey Assessing Expat Quality of Life

Spain Comes in 4th in Survey Assessing Expat Quality of Life

Spain is considered to be one of the best places there is to be an expat, at least according to the latest survey by expat network InterNations. The survey included over 14,000 expats from around the world and included questions about living life abroad.

Its confirmed that Spain is one of the very best
countries to live in the world. 
Over 174 nationalities spread across 191 countries were asked how they would rate the quality of life where they live on several key factors such as safety and security, leisure options, health and wellbeing, and their own personal happiness.

When all of these metrics were considered, Spain came in fourth overall in the world. Spain performed well on several fronts; in particular the Ease of Settling in index, which ranks how welcome expats feel as soon as they arrive in Spain.

The friendliness of Spain alleviates many traditional fears expats have, and is complemented by the affordability, safety, climate, and infrastructure of the country that makes it easy to get around and get back home for visits.

There were only three countries in the whole world that ranked ahead of Spain. Japan came in third place, thanks to the peaceful lifestyle and great medical care. Austria came in second because of the clean air, good infrastructure, and great job prospects of the country. First place went to Taiwan; where expats can expect high levels of safety, plenty of choices for leisure, and high paying jobs.

Spain still topped the polls for Europe and is the destination of choice for many expats in the UK and wider European area thanks to the location, weather, and variety of places to live.

After factoring in the affordability and cost of living of the country, even expats who aren’t looking to get a high paying job can find comfort and a good life in Spain.

Monday 20 February 2017

Spanish Manufacturing Finishes 2016 on a High

Spanish Manufacturing Finishes 2016 on a High

Spain is sill beating records in manufacturing
The Spanish manufacturing sector grew by the fastest rate in nearly a year during December 2016; a growth spurred by surging output and new factory orders. The data from a survey by Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) shows that the index rose by 0.8 to 55.3 in November. This means that the index has stayed above the 50 line – which is the difference between growth and contraction – each month since November, 2013.

On top of this, new vehicle sales in spain were up 11% in 2016, despite fears that the government terminating the scrappage scheme (PIVE) at the end of autumn would mark the end of the recovery for the new cars market. A total of 1.14 million new cars were sold in 2016; up 10.9% over 2015 and the highest annual number since 2008.

Additionally, the data also shows the three car models that were most popular with the Spanish audience in 2016 were the Citroen C4 (34,615 sold), the Seat Leon (33,653 sold) and the Seat Ibiza (31,836 sold).

Spain continues t punch above its weight in all aspects of growth and anyone moving to Spain can see positive signs in all industries.