First wave of Expats
Many countries in Europe fell in love with the Spanish Costas as a favorite holiday destination. Germany, Britain and France headed the league table of visitors. Tourists from these main sources arrived in Spain by the thousand to enjoy the gentle atmosphere of mediterranean living. Many fell in love with the simple laid back way of living and chose to buy a small villa and settle as Expatriates.
The property build heyday
It did not take long for the new demand for low cost Villas and Apartments to take hold and with it came the big boys of the building developer sector. The local Councils soon jumped on the bandwagon and, after a slow start, began encouraging new development in their Towns and Villages. The speed of new build rose rapidly between the mid 80s and early 2000s. Countless thousands of apartments and huge numbers of small and large villas sprang up along the coast. Someone dreaming of an Expat life had their dreams answered by easy cheap credit and so the Expat market boomed.
Expatriate lifestyle
It was as they had hoped and dreamed and the new influx of Expats settled down in their quiet sunny homes. And they felt wanted by the gentle local Spaniards. Of course this now provided a wealth of work for the now blooming service industry. Dozens of new opportunities opened in the service industry and a second wave of Expats swarmed in to service the first wave.
At that time, with the British pound standing well against the then new Euro, life in Spain was extremely comfortable and so attracted more retired couples. With the number of retired Expats on the rise, so up went the average age.
Then things changed drastically
With the Credit Crunch many of these dreams came to a sudden halt. The once easy mortgage market dried up and the once strong pound fell against the Euro. Sales of new and resale properties slumped, shortly followed by the rentals market as countless thousands of properties were left empty and often abandoned. Many of these new Expat owners found they could no longer survive on their Sterling pension and the Banks moved in.
The long road home
So suddenly the dreams faded. With many facing repossession by the banks and rapid drop in their income, they only had one way to go. And go they did. Many doing their best to sell what they had to try to cover their debts and unpaid mortgages. And the flow continues even to this day but leaving behind, like a stamp in the clay, a new and lucrative market. Spanish Distressed Sales, Ultra Cheap Spanish Property and the rising Spanish Property Investment markets are now flourishing in the otherwise dead industry. The time for investment is here and investors are simply buying now to wait for the end of the crunch. And so should you if you can.
