Archive for October, 2009

Spain Still Number One Destination for a Second Home Abroad

Monday, October 19th, 2009

The recent A Place in the Sun exhibition held in Birmingham has confirmed that Spain continues to hold number one position when it comes to buying a holiday home abroad.

Surveys carried out at the show of the visitors attending revealed that 60% were interested in Spain. They also highlighted that many of those interested in buying property in Spain had been waiting for “the right moment to buy”. There was a consensus that now is that time with many taking the plunge to invest in a home abroad.

Despite property exhibitions taking a toll for the worst over the last year, the A Place in the Sun exhibition was a great success. Although scaled down compared to previous years, the turnout was a positive sign that UK buyers are returning to their age old dreams of buying “A Place in the Sun”.

The exhibition included a number of seminars covering a range of topics regarding purchasing property abroad. The most popular at the event was “Emigrating to Europe” which ran a course of 6 over the weekend and received an audience much larger than expected.

Despite the negative press about buying property in Spain that has plagued the UK press over recent years, visitors to the show seemed undeterred to buy. However, there was a general attitude that buyers are seeking more information, becoming more informed to avoid potential pitfalls when purchasing their holiday home.

Source: Sur in English

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Posted in Property in Spain, Property on the Costa del Sol, Spain | No Comments »

New Terminal at Malaga Airport – Open by Easter 2010

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

The long awaited opening of the new terminal and second runway at Malaga International Airport is now in sight. The terminal, which is nearing completion, is expected to be open and operational by next Easter with trial operations due to take place early next year, confirmed Concepcion Gutierrez, the Secretary of State for Transport from the Ministry of Public Works.

An impressive investment of €320 million has been committed to the project, which is expected to bring the airport’s capacity to 30 million passengers per year with the ability to cope with 9,000 passengers per hour – double that of its current capacity. The addition of the new terminal means the airport will be spread over an area of 385,000 square meters, the number of check-in desks will rise to 179, there will be 48 departure gates, 7,500 pieces of luggage will be handled every hour and new car parks will provide for more than 3,500 vehicles.

The second runway is expected to be operational by the end of the year, which will double flight capacity.

The expansion will make Malaga the 3rd largest airport on the Spanish peninsula and comparable to most major European airports. In addition, the surrounding and connecting infrastructure is also being upgraded with modern facilities to access buses and a new railway station connecting Malaga to Fuengirola. New road links joining the A-7 motorway and a new Malaga ring road are in process.

Such infrastructural improvements and the ability to receive much larger numbers to the region is great news for the Costa del Sol and is expected to have an excellent impact on local industries, property and tourism in particular. New air routes are being studied carefully to boost tourism in Andalucía. In addition, it is expected that 150,000 new jobs will be created indirectly.

Source:  Sur in English, Typicallyspanish.com, Airflights.co.uk

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Posted in Malaga, Property in Spain, Property on the Costa del Sol, Spain, Tourism in Spain | 3 Comments »

Marbella & Malaga – A Safer Place to Live

Wednesday, October 14th, 2009

Comforting news was announced last Friday that the crime rate in Marbella and Malaga has fallen for the second consecutive year. Hilario Lopez Luna, a government Representative for the province of Malaga, announced that crime in Marbella alone had fallen by 11% so far this year, more than the provincial average. The city of Malaga has also seen a reduction in its rate of crime by 5.5% during the same period, equal to that of the previous year.

Hand in hand with the falling rate of crime, it is reported that police efficiency has improved this year, rising from 32% to 38%. The number of arrests made in the province as a whole has also risen from 4,736 to 5,623.

Source: Sur in English

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Posted in Malaga, Marbella, Spain | No Comments »

Fighting Talk from Bulgaria’s New Government

Monday, October 5th, 2009

The new centre-right government in Bulgaria is fighting hard to turn the country’s economy round, setting itself some challenging goals in its four year fiscal plan. Running a balanced budget in 2009 and 2010 and adopting the euro by 2013 are amongst the mandates made by the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Simeon Djankov.

Acknowledging the difficulties of the tasks ahead, Djankov admitted, “[A balanced budget] will be hard to achieve this year, and the next one will be even harder, but we will succeed.”

The limited power of Bulgaria’s central bank to affect the current economic situation, due to its currency peg to the euro, hasn’t helped. Its fiscal policy is therefore key to the country’s recovery. To avoid the predicted end of year deficit, budgets were substantially cut back earlier this month and measures to boost revenues have been announced. Progress is slow but signs are emerging; the external deficit is shrinking from 26% at the end of 2008 to 11% and inflation is expected to reach 3% by the end of 2009.

Exiting the recession and eurozone entry are key drivers for the controlled fiscal policy. Mid-term fiscal and anti-crisis plans have been sent to the European Union’s Executive Commission laying out concrete steps and timeframes for their implementation.

Source: Balkans.com

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Posted in Bulgaria, Bulgaria Economy | No Comments »