What range of properties are buyers buying?

I have found some interesting official information that, although only refers to Malaga province and the first quarter of 2012, it can give an indication on what is being sold. I have to say that the data surprised me:

- First of all, that more than half of the properties being sold are priced below the 150.000 € figure. In my market it is not easy to find those but it is clear that in the Malaga province a number of them are being sold.

- Looking on to the next range, and this is where most of my two and three beds are in, 91 % of the properties sold were priced below 300.000 €.

- Going even further, 99 % of the properties that left the market were sold below the 600.000 € mark.

- Only 1 % of the properties sold in the first quarter of 2012 were valued over 600.000 €. Most of the villas are in this range.

I am quite sure that the numbers for Marbella and Benahavis are somewhat different with higher percentages on the higher levels but even if we take off the lower range, the percentage of sales over the 600.000 € range won’t be higher than 2%. I would have thought that it was going to be higher.

Spain is creating a “bad” bank for toxic property assets

The Spanish government is creating a "bad bank" into which all the toxic property assets of its debt-laden banking sector can be off-loaded. The move is aimed at helping the country's troubled banks draw a line under the debt crisis and move on.

The Bank of Spain will assess the value of the assets being transferred into the "banco malo" and the banks will receive cash, debt or shares in return. The bad bank could last 10 to 15 years. The idea is that the toxic assets being off-loaded must have a value that will allow the bad bank to make a profit in the long-term.

However, the final regulations are not in place and there are still many uncertains about how the whole process will work. Not even how will be fixed the value of the assets to be transferred, one of the crucial points in all this matter. We will know more next month.

Is it the beginning of the change?

Let’s leave the charts talk. The tendency on the number of properties sold in Benahavis showed by the data of the first quarter has been confirmed in the second quarter. In fact, in 2012, the number of properties sold is already higher than that of the whole 2011. In Marbella, the numbers are not that good but in the same line.

The number of properties sold in the first semester is higher than the ones sold in the same period of 2011.

However, there is a negative side on the information provided by the Ministry of Housing: the mean selling price is lower (although the available information is only for the whole Malaga province). A simple conclusion can be reached: more properties are being sold at cheaper prices. This means that if you reach the appropriate market price, you may be able to sell. Therefore, the market is not dead but it is correcting itself.