MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish Socialists celebrated their re-election on Sunday with sparkling wine and songs in the streets, well aware that their hangover may last not hours but years.

Spain’s economy is slowing, property prices are faltering and hundreds of thousands of people are losing their jobs as a decade-long construction boom runs out of steam — many of them immigrants who have helped fuel Spain’s stellar growth.

“It is going to be very difficult,” said Jorge Moreu Arcos, a 43-year-old draughtsman.

“There’s been a lot of corruption in town halls, and house prices couldn’t keep doubling every six years. The problem with the economy is a global one now.”

Across town, disillusioned conservative voter Pilar Hernandez said the economy was unlikely to improve under either party as global oil and food costs push Spanish inflation over 4 percent — while real wages have not risen in 10 years.

“It’s amazing how much prices are going up while salaries aren’t at all,” said the 54-year-old, who works in a school cafeteria. “We’re short of decent politicians.”

In its campaign, the centre-right Popular Party played on economic fears by attacking Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for legalising almost 700,000 illegal immigrants who, it intimated, were taking Spaniards’ jobs.

Since 2000, Spain has taken in more immigrants than any country apart from the United States — officially 3 million, but possibly many more.

There were plenty of foreigners dancing in the streets around the Socialist headquarters on Sunday night, but even they reckoned Zapatero would have to cut back on the number of immigrants who come to Spain.

“In future, immigrants will have to come into the country on a legal basis … and I think that there will be a limit to how many can come,” said Argentine Maria del Valle, 41, who has lived in Spain for 18 years.

(Additional reporting by Ben Harding; Writing by Jane Barrett; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Tags: spanish, property, prices

Spanish irritation is expressed in an aritcle in El Pais

Spain wants the Gibraltar finance centre to be put on the OECD ‘black list’. This is because, according to the Spanish Treasury, Gibraltar continues to be “opaque, inaccessible and impenetrable.”

This is the thrust of a surprise attack on Gibraltar carried by the daily El Pais. Cooperation with Gibraltar has not advanced as regards fiscal and tax matters, says a spokesman of the Spanish Treasury.

And the information Gibraltar makes available is said to be limited and of little use. The Spanish Treasury thinks that other fiscal paradises like Jersey, those in the Caribbean ‘and even Andorra’ have provided more ¡information when it comes to fighting money laundering.

The question of financial services is one of the topics down for discussion in the much-trumpeted Trilateral Forum. But the Spanish tax department is evidently not satisfied, it is said.

However there is cooperation with police matters in the persecution of an offence, with much of the cooperation taking place in an “underhand” kind of way.

But when there is a request for information on companies, bank current accounts or lawyers offices, the cooperation disappears, a Spanish police source is quoted as saying. This is because this is an area prohibited even to the Gibraltar police, it is claimed.

Tags: spain, gibraltar

At the year end it a worthwhile exercise to take a look at property investments you are involved in and compare them with what is happening in the world at large.
So we are publishing top performing property markets from overseaspropertymall for you to a spot of comparison and see how you stack up.
Our target, Spain, only achieves 5% but that still does not stop it being one of the highest volume performers.

2007 saw some major changes in the World’s property markets.

The U.S subprime crash bought about massive drops in property values and increases in foreclosures in certain markets and states – notably Florida, California and Nevada. Latest statistics show a national foreclosure rate of one foreclosure for every 555 households and Realty Trac, a U.S based online market place is claiming over a million listings as of November 29th. The crash does not seem to be affecting the high end condominium market which continues to flourish, particularly in Manhattan.

Western Europe saw a swift slowdown particularly in Ireland, the U.K and Spain, although, as with the U.S, the high end markets in major cities such as London are also flourishing with record prices being seen for both residential and commercial properties, and the U.K still managed a 9% increase in prices. London is still the most expensive office market in the World for 2007 thanks to the West End, followed by Mumbai, India.

The Baltic markets in general saw a slow down in price growth, with one major exception being Bulgaria, knocking previous success story Latvia well back in the rankings and Estonia falling behind also.

Top performers world wide for the year were Bulgaria, China and Singapore, with Bulgaria showing a stunning 30.59% increase in residential house prices.

Top performers for 2007 percentage increase (- decrease) in local currency

1. Bulgaria 30.59
2. China (Shanghai) 27.85
3. Singapore 27.59
4. Estonia (Tallinn) 23.38
5. Lithuania 13.64
6. Philippines 13.04
7. Colombia 12.82
8. South Africa 12.52
9. Norway 11.56
10. Hong Kong 11.25
11. Australia 10.63
12. Latvia 10.22
13. Sweden 9.86
14. UK 9.68
15. South Korea 9.01
16. Poland 8.38
17. France (Paris) 8.27
18. Japan (6 cities) 7.75
19. New Zealand 6.67
20. Canada 6.13
21. Finland 5.88
22. Italy 5.60
23. Spain 5.31
24. Indonesia 5.24
25. Greece 4.18
26. Denmark 3.95
27. Netherlands 3.77
28. Malaysia 3.20
29. Switzerland 2.56
30. Germany 2.04
31. Portugal 0.49
32. Israel -0.51
33. Thailand -0.78

Tags: property, market, performance, bulgaria, china

In order to answer some concerns people have about buying property in Spain we set up an intereview with our practising English Spanish lawyer based in Spain, Des Sparkes.

Click here:
Spanish lawyer conversation
Runs for approx 30 minutes

Des answers questions such as:
How can I stop my property being grabbed back by the authorities?
How can I know for sure I am dealing with a fully qualified lawyer?
How do I avoid all the sales pressure and take time to make my decision?
Are there things I should watch out for when I go on an inspection trip?

Des recently took part in a BBC program so we thought you’d like the benefit of
some of his knowledge.
Des is available at www.sparkeslawyers.com