Madrid is becoming the focus for an auction on Properties in Spain. Bloomberg news pusblished this story:

April 4 (Bloomberg) — Thanks to Spain’s slumping property market, house buyers are as popular as movie stars — and they can cause even more excitement.

Reporters outnumbered bidders as lot No. 1 hit the slate in Europe’s first “Dutch auction” for real estate last weekend in Madrid. Of 216 lots, 194 were withdrawn when they weren’t purchased at the reserve price. One man, investor Manuel Sainz, bought almost half of everything sold.

“Next stop Hollywood!” laughed Sainz, head of property company Las Terrazas de San Blas SA, as he fought off the press after buying 10 properties at discounts of as much as 30 percent.

The event shows the depth of Spain’s housing bust after prices tripled in the past decade. In January, the government’s housing policy director, Rafael Pacheco, called the slowdown “moderate and orderly” after January sales volume fell 27 percent from a year earlier as the global credit shortage forced banks to reduce lending.

“Official figures are one thing and reality is something else entirely,” said Alberto Espelosin, a strategist at Zaragoza, Spain-based Ibercaja Gestion, which manages $12 billion. “It’s really difficult for people to afford a home with the credit restrictions.”

For Tulipp Showrooms and Auctions SA, set up in September, the Madrid auction was the first in a series of monthly events taking place in Malaga, Barcelona and London over the summer.

Dutch Auction

The Dutch auction, developed in 17th century Amsterdam after the collapse of the tulip bubble and used today to sell fish in Spanish ports, starts with the seller’s asking price and then moves down until the property finds a buyer.

“Six months ago if people made an offer below the list price then developers took offense,” said Tulipp managing director Jorge Zanoletty, whose father established Spain’s first regular property auctions 16 years ago. “Now they are in the mood to be more open.”

Tags: spanish, property

A small town in New Zealand has staged its own version of the running of the bulls - using sheep.

Nearly two thousand of the fleecy animals raced along the streets of Te Kuiti in the North Island on Sunday.

Although the woolly version is tamer than the Spanish event, the local Mayor, Mark Ammon, said there were nonetheless risks of breakaway sheep causing damage to the town’s property.

“The odd shop window broken, council gardens trampled, we’re a bit worried they might get on the highway and go to Taupo or Wellington,” Mr Ammon said.

Te Kuiti - which calls itself the sheep capital of the world - was filled with spectators of all ages who lined the streets to watch the sheep running.

Tags: runningthe bulls

  Interest in the Spanish property market could be boosted by new figures which indicate increased visitor numbers.

According to government statistics, the country attracted 6.2 million leisure travellers from abroad during January and February 2008. This is nearly four per cent higher than the amount recorded a year earlier, which means the country is attracting more and more winter holidaymakers. About 1.6 million visitors during this period were found to be British, although Spain also attracted lots of visitors from other parts of Europe.

Tags: spanish, property

Spain, top of the property hotspot charts ? Well think again, a new Travel and Tourism Competitiveness report outlines which countries are better positioned to attract tourists in 2008, making them not only attractive tourist hotspot but also a good overseas property bet.

We have just seen the release of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report for 2008 which makes particularly interesting reading if you operate in the property investment sector.

While tourism has always been one of the key elements in any healthy property market, it is interesting to see that countries such as Switzerland, Austria and Germany seem to be better placed than most to attract more tourism in 2008.

Tags: spain, property