• Home

Enter your search terms Submit search form propertydevelopmentnews.co.uk Web

• Building & DIY
• Buy-to-Let
• Latest News
• Mortgages
• Overseas Property
• Property Finance
• Property Tax

Subscribe

Overseas Property Investors Being Fined Under New Spanish Legislation

Thanks for visiting! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. .
This site posts daily property development tips and news on a wide variety of subjects ranging from DIY to mortgages, from property finance to industry news.
Go ahead, subscribe to our feed! You can also receive updates from this blog via email
Thanks for visiting!

Property investors in Spain who are not registered within their relevant local tourism authority and let holiday properties to tourists could face fines of up to €30,000 under new legislation.

The Spanish authorities are carrying out thoroughly inspections, inspecting paperwork and even examining websites in an attempt to eradicate what they regard as unregistered letting.

Some cases were even reported by Spanish neighbours, namely holiday properties in the Balearic Islands and on the Andalucía coast.

A large number of overseas property investors declared they bought their second homes for personal use, though, after advertising their Spanish properties on the internet for holiday rental were fully booked for most of the year, generating an average of €1,400 per week extra income.

The law clearly underlines that if a property is let primarily to tourists, should be registered for holiday rentals.

A property consultant based in Ibiza, Gary Davidson, said:

Given the fact that buy-to-let mortgages are more readily available nowadays, many expatriates have been seduced into investing in property in Spain with rental income from holidaymakers paying their mortgage and providing them with an additional income.

Despite this, most overseas property investors in Spain don’t know that they require licensing from the local tourist authorities to rent their property to tourists until they’re hit with legal action.

Popularity: 100%

Housing Associations Practicing Unfair Posseassions Says CAB

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) revealed that despite the Government’s rent arrears pre-action protocol appears to be bedding down well, some housing associations are continuing to choose to seek possession for rent arrears using the mandatory Ground 8 under the 1988 Housing Act.
The rent arrears protocol was first launched in October 2006, defining the steps landlords must take before resorting to court action. Broadly this has had a positive effect and Citizens Advice has found that most social landlords will only take possession action for rent arrears as a last resort.
However, some housing associations do not follow the protocol and still seek possession for rent arrears using the mandatory Ground 8. As a result some CAB clients have been threatened with homelessness in circumstances where this might have been avoided if discretionary grounds had been used. Citizens Advice does not believe that the use of Ground 8 by housing associations is consistent with the Government’s wider homelessness prevention agenda.
Citizens Advice Chief Executive David Harker said: “There really is unfinished business here. A minority of housing associations – and I stress it is a minority – are still using Ground 8 to recover rent arrears. This is unhelpful, inconsistent and often unfair.
As our report Unfinished business shows, the time has come to discontinue the use of Ground 8 by housing associations and we are therefore pleased that the Department for Communities and Local Government has set up a stakeholder group to look at the problem.
We hope this will result in early action to end this practice.”

Popularity: 83%

Mortgage Advisors

As we said yesterday, gross mortgage lending increased in April.

Now, if you are a serious property developer, you’ll know how much money that makes for the mortgage advisors.  Many serious property developers have regular contact with their mortgage broker and may even have a special arrangement with one if they are a private, smaller company.

But have you thought about becoming a mortgage advisor yourself or at least looking into doing the qualification so you’ll understand more about your options and what the mortgage advisor is saying to you?

You need to get your CeMAP qualification, which you can do very quickly and easily at quite a cheap price with several CeMAP training companies.  Why not take a look.

Popularity: 76%

Gross Mortgage Lending Improved in April

Gross mortgage lending improved in April, according to the latest figures from the CML (Council of Mortgage Lenders).

Lending totalled £25.3 billion in April, a five per cent increase on the previous month but still eight per cent down on April 2007.

The CML points out that the monthly increase bucks the usual trend of declines between March and April, which it suggests is down to the Easter holiday period being in March this year.

Popularity: 73%

Bank of Scontland to Review Buy to Let and Self Cert Mortgages

Bank of Scotland plans to reprice mortgages from its buy-to-let and self cert ranges in an effort to keep pace with other lenders.

Mortgages from the two ranges will be withdraw today at 5pm, and relaunched with new rates from tomorrow.

The HBOS owned bank refused to comment on what the new rates would be.

Brokers were told in an email 16 mortgages from the bank’s buy-to-let and self cert ranges would be withdrawn.

Bank of Scotland will also cut the maximum loan-to-value on mortgages for new build flats by 5 per cent to 75 per cent.

A Halifax spokeswoman said:

We price in line with the market. Over the past few weeks, most major lenders have increased their pricing on a number of occasions.

It is not appropriate for us to pick up the significant capacity deficit left by lenders who have departed from this market.

Popularity: 84%

Next Page »

Copyright © 2008 Property Development News

Home | XML Sitemap | RSS Feed | Comments RSS Feed