The Ultimate Homes Blog

As reported by The Times, Spain and France have agreed to launch a rail company which will go on to build the train which will link Madrid and Paris. It would take five hours to reach Paris from Madrid via the new rail link, and a further three hour journey on the Eurostar to reach London in a combined time of eight hours. The Times has reported that Spain’s Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and François Fillon, the Prime Minister of France, have given their approval to the proposal. The new rail company will be jointly run by the Spanish RENFE and France’s SNCF with a 50/50 stake. The headquarters of the new company will be in Spain. RENFE has said that 300 million dollars are likely to be invested for purchasing new trains for the new link. The plan might be delayed though, as the construction at the AVE high speed link from Figueras on the French border to Barcelona, is still incomplete.

Alicante airport is now the fifth busiest in Spain and it is bucking the national trend. More than 8 million people have used the airport so far this year. One of the reasons for the success has been Ryanair. Everyone's favourite airline (hic) now flies to 50 cities in Europe from Alicante. Visitors from Northern Europe have also boosted numbers. October was the fourth consecutive month to see a rise in numbers. They have beaten the Canary Islands by over 800,000 for the month of October. The Costa Blanca still keeps the title of being one of the favourite places to go in Spain. Alicante is such an easy destination for most cities in Europe......so what are you waiting for!

I subscribe to various news sources, mostly about the Spanish property market, some more interationally orientated. One useful source, Idealista.com recently conducted an interview with Mikel Echavarren, head of Irea, a Spanish real estate consultancy, talking about the state of the real estate sector in Spain. As an experienced professional in touch with many different companies in the sector it is worth listening to what he has to say. Here is a selection of comments from his Q&A with Idealista News, the news section of the property portal Idealista. Do you think there are any good investment opportunities in Spanish real estate today? I think so but they are risky. In three years we’ll probably be kicking ourselves for not advising investors to invest now. There aren’t many opportunities in commercial real estate because there isn’t much product and rents haven’t yet adjusted. In residential, on the other hand, the correction has been very strong and fast. The ideal profile now ...

The market for new homes is on the road to a mild recovery, claims the G-14 group of Spain’s leading developers. Sales of newly built homes will continue “consolidating in the coming months” said Pedro Pérez, head of the G-14. And figures do actually suggest that it's not just wishful thinking by developers desperate for the market to start mopping up the properties they built. The latest sales figures from the National Institute of Statistics show that sales of newly built properties increased by 7.6% from August to September, though on an annualised basis sales were down 20%, so there is some basis for the optimism. “It’s been comforting to see sales rise for the 5th consecutive month, something that means we can say that the sector is recovering since it touched bottom in April,” Pérez told the Spanish press. Sales are bouncing back thanks to lower prices and more selective mortgage lending by banks, argue the developers. The recovery in sales will continue in the months ahead, ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Housebuyers may still have a chance to secure a bargain home between 2010 and 2011, with annual house price growth seen at about half the 5.5 percent expected by end-2009, indicative derivatives data shows. Participants in Britain's junior property derivatives sector said the recovery of the supply starved residential market remained on solid footing, but price rises were set to slow as housebuilders upped construction in an effort to meet demand. "Physical house prices in the UK have continued to increase despite worries that unemployment, restrictive lending and an increase in taxation would prevent recovery," Peter Sceats, a broker at Tradition Property told Reuters. "Some traders are focusing heavily on the core fundamental of supply and demand and believe the rate at which new homes are being (and have been) built is severely insufficient for the UK's future housing needs," he said. Average UK house prices are seen rising by nearly 12...

Sales of motor vehicles in Spain jumped by over 26% for the month of October, when compared to the same month in 2008. The main cause of this leap is said to be the Spanish government subsidy, which is seemingly doing what it was intended, and propping up the weak Spanish car industry. The 26.5% increase was reported by the Spanish car manufacturers association, ANFAC, September was also buoyant, up 18%. This is a big turnaround from the beginning of the year when sales were down by nearly 25%, in reality making this a 50% increase, when compared to the early months of 2009. Nearly 100,000 units were sold in October, as sales continue to climb since the government announced a 2000 euro subsidy in May.

From November 9th all mobile phone prepaid card users, i.e. those without a contract, must be registered with the phone company, and must prove their identity. The government has stated that a rumoured extension will not happen, and any unregistered phones will be disconnected on the ninth. Phone operators had strongly requested a transition period, during which users could register their phones, but the Ministry of Interior has decided that the mandatory cut offs will happen on the ninth.