In the aftermath of a new Spanish prime minister being elected, British expats have been warned against buying property in the country, by British expats themselves.
One of the main points new prime minister Mariano Rajoy will tackle will certainly be the ailing Spanish property market. There are said to be 900,000 properties for sale in Spain, and in 2011 only 200,000 have been purchased so far.
One avenue that might be explored is the possibility of bringing in more UK expats. Earlier this year a the Spanish Secretary of State for Housing visited the UK in an attempt to lure wealthy Brits into purchasing some of the many British properties. However, the journey proved to be ill-judged as British expats who have been affected by the Spanish property scandal took the opportunity to voice their frustrations at the Secretary.
The issues have arisen after it turned out that many homes bought by British expats with honest intentions were in fact built on land that was protected. The demonstrators marched for an hour which caused some disruption on the roads. The owners of the homes are said to be “devastated” by the rulings as they all stress that they were never informed about the land issues and that the homes were purchased legally with all the necessary paperwork.
And now, one of the groups campaigning against the Spanish government, AUAN, has urged Brits to avoid putting money into Spanish property, claiming the market has “Wild West” like practices.