Costa Tropical Internet

Historic Antequera is just a wolf howl away from a fascinating wilderness park in Malaga’s mountainous interior. Arpi Shively goes walkies.
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Spain’s government has contrasting opinions on the soaring numbers of Iberian wolf and lynx
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Victim was sent by God, according to killer’s letters A BRITON who claimed to have killed and eaten his girlfriend has been sentenced to 12 years in prison by a Spanish court. Paul Durant, 47, pleaded guilty to the murder of Karen Durrell – a 41-year-old mother of two from Ilford, in the south of England.
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COUNCIL officials in Cádiz have banned rice at weddings in the city. Throughout Spain rice is thrown at the bride and groom as the newlyweds exit the wedding venue.
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The big Spanish property companies are all agreed on one thing: if a lot more land is not made available for building in the immediate future, the price of housing will rise sharply over the coming two years. This was the message in the G-14 meeting last week, when a property sector lobby made up of the 14 biggest property companies in the country gathered to discuss the future of their sector. They also warned the public administrations that urban planning paperwork is stifling the industry, and it needs to be simplified. The president of the group, who also heads the Martinsa-Fadesa company, Fernando Martín, assured his listeners that neither property prices not interest rates will fall in the immediate future.

Martín criticised the ‘voices of alarm,’ as he put it, which are creating unnecessary worry with respect to property prices in Spain. He was unhappy about the image of the industry in this country, he said, adding that “it does not correspond with its weight in the economy.� He recognised, nevertheless, that many companies are unable to present a proper image to society at large. This was the reason the G-14 group was established in the first place, he said.

The property group spokesman rejected outright that property companies plan to drop house prices in the near future, adding that it is much the same paying 170,000 as 200,000 euros for an apartment. As far as the G-14 is concerned, he added, the important thing is that building land is made more easily available. “It takes an average of six years to have land zoned for building in Spain, while in Mexico or Morocco, it takes no more than a year and a half.�

Rafael Santamaría, president of the Reyal-Urbis company, spoke of other fears in the sector. Referring to old houses, he expressed a view contrary to that of Martín. According to him, those people who bought houses in the past as investment may be encouraged, through fear of falling prices, to put them on the market at the same time, and this would lead to a sharp drop in prices.

Also demanding that the bureaucratic process be simplified, Martín called for houses of 40 or 50 square metres to be allowed by the public administrations, or even that houses already built be divided into smaller units that purchasers could afford. He accepted that sales have slowed down, but denied any crisis in the industry, adding that in the first nine months of the year, the initiation of house building by his group had fallen by 60 per cent, while visits to show houses had fallen by 45 per cent.

In spite of his desire to send a tranquillising message, Martín said that if this trend continues, and reminding us that the building industry accounts for 25 per cent of overall employment, then the Spanish economy will be in serious trouble. He said that for every house not built, an average of three jobs are lost, mainly by immigrant workers. Such a scenario, he added, could result in the loss of thousands of jobs, and lead to social disturbance. On the future of the industry, Martín said that we would see more smaller companies being taken over by bigger ones.

Full story from surinenglish.com

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Last week we updated our Spanish house price index and posted an article comparing our statistics to those from the Spanish Ministry of Housing. The whole price index section also got a bit of a makeover to make it easier to find price-related articles.

If you feel like having a laugh, read our first news story entitled More Building Land Needed.

A spokesman for G14 - representing 14 of the largest property developers in Spain - claims that what's needed in Spain is more land for more building. I can see how that might benefit the members of G14 - but not Spain's economy or it's property market.

This story reminded me how the news circulating in Spain differs vastly from the perspective 'outsiders' have of what's going on within the country.

To use a Formula 1 example, within Spain, Lewis Hamilton was almost universally portrayed as the sly back-stabber and Fernando Alonso, the hard-done-by saint. Precisely the opposite perspective of the UK press.

To use a property-related example, when speaking to Spanish friends from Madrid last week about the land-grab laws in Valencia - they had never heard of there being a problem at all - nothing.

I know that the UK press tends to make a mountain out of a molehill in this respect but there is a real problem in Valencia - and it affects Spanish as well as foreign property buyers - yet it had never make the headlines in Madrid.

Just like the comments from the G14 spokesman, we try to present a range of perspectives on the Kyero news page so you have access to different points of view. We're sometimes criticised for painting an overly-optimistic or an overly-pessimistic view of the Spanish property market - in roughly equal measure. I guess that means we're successfully walking the line between both extremes - what do you think?

Next week, I'm off to Las Vegas to attend the 2007 Realtors Conference and see how we get on at the International Property Awards on the 16th of November. Kyero.com is up against RightMove and Daft for the 'Best International Property Portal' award. I'll let you know how we get on but I won't be holding my breath against such strong competition. Whatever happens we feel quite proud to be rubbing shoulders with the big boys of the industry.

Martin Dell, Kyero.com
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10,000 highly-qualified workers needed for high-tech industries in Spain – Spanish-speaking telecoms and IT experts, get ready to pack your bags!

Spain is currently experiencing a shortage of experienced and highly-qualified workers in many high-tech fields, to the point where some commentators believe the country will need to bring in 10,000 immigrant workers to fill the employment gap. If you've got the relevant qualifications and have been working in your field for some time, the prospect of being able to continue your work in Spain may be all you need to induce you to consider relocating.

One thing to bear in mind is that you won't find the majority of available jobs on the costas. Madrid and Barcelona are the main two locations for this sort of employment, although other well-populated industrial centres such as the Basque Country will also offer employment opportunities. Wages are generally lower in Spain, but the cost of living is also less. Speaking Spanish will be a great advantage, and as fewer young Spaniards are studying for technical degrees, you can give yourself a year or two to learn the language, safe in the knowledge that the job market won't be flooded with recent graduates when you're ready to start looking for work.

Full story from homesworldwide.co.uk

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Holidaymakers are at risk of costly mistakes at overseas ATMs because of the growing use of a practice known as "dynamic currency conversion".

The confusing choice over whether to withdraw currency at your own bank's exchange rate or at an alternative rate offered by the company that owns the overseas ATM is the latest potential financial pitfall for cardholders abroad, on top of expensive "cash handling fees" of as much as 2% and currency "loading" fees of 2.75%.

Nationwide building society says it has noticed an 85% year-on-year increase in customers using overseas cash machines that offer a choice of exchange rates. Most of this has been in Spain, it adds, where Santander - the giant Spanish bank that owns Abbey - has now rolled out 4,500 ATMs offering the new service.

This week, Travelex announced the launch of a DCC service with ATMs in the US that will target prime tourist areas in Manhattan, Miami and Los Angeles, and said it was also in talks with a number of banks in mainland Europe. It already owns more than 300 such cash machines in Australia.

Most Britons' experience of dynamic currency conversion has so far been limited to restaurants and hotels when, instead of paying the bill with plastic at your bank's foreign exchange rate, staff give you the choice of a rate offered by the local retailer but converted into pounds sterling instead.

The idea behind it is greater consumer choice - you see exactly how much your current account will be debited in the UK at the local retailer's rate rather than blindly accepting your own bank's exchange deal, and the possibility of an exchange rate in your favour.

However, unless you carry a pocket calculator everywhere you go, it's almost impossible to know which deal is best, and many unsuspecting people end up paying over the odds.

Now that DCC has spread to overseas cash machines, there is a risk that more Britons will be left out of pocket, and the difference might vary from a few pence to several pounds for each withdrawal. Depending on how much you take out, it could easily add up to a tidy sum over a holiday or extended period of travel.

The same principle applies: consumers must choose between paying for currency at a foreign exchange rate set by their own bank or at a rate - displayed on-screen - offered by the bank or currency provider that owns the overseas ATM.

But in order to work out the best deal, users need to be able to keep a number of key statistics in their head and make calculations.

"If you're with a standard high street bank, you would have to know what your own foreign exchange rate is, and what your bank's ATM mark-up is [usually 2%], and compare this with the on-screen rate," says Dominic Lindley, policy adviser at consumer body Which?

"We've raised this with Visa and MasterCard. It's extremely difficult to work out if your bank or the DCC [option] is best."

This is a tall order for most people, let alone Britons relaxing on holiday who simply want to be able to use an ATM to get their cash.

It's the latest financial challenge to Britons who can end up spending a fortune just to use their debit and credit cards overseas.

Expensive extra fees for taking money from overseas machines already include a currency conversion fee - 2.75% of the sum being withdrawn at most banks but as high as 2.99% with Lloyds TSB - as well as a transaction handling charge that is at least £1.50 or 1% to 2% of the sum withdrawn, according to financial data analyst Moneyfacts. "Our advice is, if in doubt at the ATM, withdraw currency at your own bank's exchange rate," Mr Lindley says. Ideally, he adds, you should take a Nationwide debit card or post office credit card with you.

The Office of Fair Trading says that, as part of its overall report into free banking due to be published at the end of next month, it is also looking at the transparency of such fees. Visa and Mastercard say they monitor the system to make sure that consumers are given the DCC option in a clear manner.

Dynamic currency conversion at ATMs has begun to spread after a 12-month pilot in continental Europe that ended last year and was deemed a success. Although the roll-out on the continent is so far largely confined to Santander, other banks are monitoring the situation to see if it becomes accepted by the general public.

Full story from guardian.co.uk

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If surveys show 40 percent of the UK adult population would like to make an overseas property investment, why have only four percent actually done it?

This is one of the questions which Richard Brady of Olive Tree International hopes to find an answer to. He said: “Buyers looking to invest abroad are often daunted by the wide choice, particularly as the world has opened up so rapidly in the last five years.

“ With pensions floundering and plenty of up-beat articles in the press extolling the virtues of buying overseas it seems the obvious place in which to invest but of course many are concerned about adverse press such as land grab and therefore although opinion polls show a large number of UK citizens wanting to buy abroad only a small percentage actually purchase overseas.�

Brady says the majority of people who take the overseas investment plunge can benefit enormously. He cites diverse examples such as Bahrain where properties have risen 35 percent in the last five years, Spain, despite recent bad press, still has an annual growth rate of around 20 percent and Turkey which has seen growth rates of around 20 percent pa.

Following the opening up of many Eastern European countries and old favourites such as Portugal and Italy, the choice can be confusing.

This is why choosing the right agent is paramount; says Brady who advises you pick one that belongs to an associated body such as The Association of International Property Professionals AIPP, or the National Association of Estate Agents incorporating the Federation of Overseas Property Developers, Agents and Consultants, or FOPDAC. “Where you see the term ‘due diligence’, remember that this could be subjective, particularly if the ‘diligence’ is intimately linked to the developments because they are the builders or the builders agents�, warns Brady. “If your agent is in the pocket of the developer you run a great risk of them not being impartial.�

Most people start their overseas search via the web site but just typing in ‘overseas property agent’ can result in an inordinate amount of companies – Yahoo brought up 8.3m sites in a recent test.

Brady offers the following advice. Read the web sites carefully. ‘Stunning scenery’ needs to be backed up with facts and figures. You need to gain as much information as possible about any given development.

Full story from fly-2let.co.uk

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MADRID has given its backing to a motorway that will cut through one of the region’s areas of outstanding beauty. Almost ten kilometres of the A4 Andalucía-Cuidad Real road will pass through the protected Despeñaperros Natural Park in Jaén when it opens in 2009.
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