Spain's Coast Building Boom
Friday, October 27, 2006
By some estimates, as much as 40 percent of all European construction is occurring in Spain.
Spain's Booming Real Estate is just one in many worldwide real estate markets booms.
New luxury hotel/golf resorts, beach scrapers and others, are not only booming in south Spain but in other south European borders like Portugal, Italy and Greece.
By all accounts, Spain has experienced an economic boom over the last decade. It has “continued its prolonged economic expansion” and “weathered the international slowdown” making it “one of Europe’s best-performing economies”.
Economic growth—between 3 and 4 percent a year and twice the European average—has made Spain the world’s eighth-largest economy, up from 16th place 10 years ago. Companies such as the fashion house Zara, phone operator Telefónica, construction giant Ferrovial and real estate developer Metrovacesa have become globally recognised names.
Anyone who is a resident of a country belonging to the EU can buy property in Spain.
And that's what the rich north European tourists are doing, boosting the demand for new construction, whether it's well planned luxury resorts or ugly "concrete hills".
There are of course serious side-effects like corruption, money laundering and a very dangerous real estate bubble that could drag the whole south European market and economies to stagnation or worse.
In a recent article, from The Washington Post:
About 3 million houses have been started or built in Spain in the past four years, including 812,000 in 2005, with as many as half of them along the coast. By some estimates, as much as 40 percent of all European construction is occurring in Spain.
The boom is being fueled partly by the demand of northern Europeans for retirement homes on the Mediterranean. Drawn by the temperate climate, relatively inexpensive housing and the ease of avoiding taxes by conducting business under the table, foreigners now account for 70 percent of the population in some Spanish towns.
You can read the rest of the newsarticle here
More information about the Spain's Coast Real Estate Boom in the next days.
posted by IntoBlogs @ 9:57 PM,
