More Romanians, Fewer Brits

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That's the title of an article I just read in the Spanish daily, ABC. Basically, it's a review of a Bank of Spain report called, "Foreign Investment in the Spanish Residential Market Between 2007 and 2019." Apparently, foreign buyers of homes and property in Spain rose from  4.2% in 2007 to 10.% in 2019. 

The report highlights that during this period there have also been changes in the habits of these investors, one of them being the decrease in buyers from the UK. It notes that Brexit and the devaluation of the pound contributed to the fact that between 2017 and 2019 the British sold more houses than they bought in Spain. During this period the percentage of foreign purchases by Britons fell by 6 points, and last year represented 8% of transactions by residents of Spain's fellow EU countries. The opposite happened with countries such as Romania and Italy, which increased their participation in the market to 12% and 8% respectively. At the same time, the total of such purchases made by foreigners from countries outside the European Union are also significant (27% in 2019). Among non-EU countries, Morocco and China stand out, with respective percentages of 14% and 6% of purchases by foreigners in 2019.

According to the report, there were other significant changes in property sales to foreigners. Between 2007 and 2010, they barely represented 3.3% of the market, but then grew strongly until reaching the historical maximum of 10.5% in 2014. That year the recovery of the sector began, which caused non-Spaniards to gradually reduce their involvement in the market. In 2019 they represented an average of 7.8% of operations. 

The analysis also reportedly shows that the housing stock held by resident foreigners increased steadily from 2007 on, and then accelerated after 2014. Thus, in 2019, net purchases by foreigners accounted for almost 0.2% of the housing stock, almost three times more than in 2013. 

The report also highlights the interest that these buyers have in Spain's coastal regions, especially the Balearic and Canary Islands. Nineteen percent of housing purchases in Santa Cruz de Tenerife were made by foreigners last year, followed by the Balearic Islands (16%), Alicante (15%) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (14%). 

Regarding prices, the report indicates that between 2014 and 2019 the prices foreigners paid was 4% higher than those of domestic buyers, although this percentage rises to 10% when considering purchases in cities such as Tenerife and Palma de Mallorca. 

ABC quoted the report as saying, “These differences are probably a reflection of the different investment profile in different provinces. In those on the Mediterranean coast and on the islands, foreign investors with high incomes, who demand higher quality homes located in better areas, surely have a higher significance."

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In recent years, there has been speculation that the presence of foreigners in certain areas of Spain has caused housing prices in those regions to be more expensive. This theory the Bank of Spain now  corroborates, at least in part.

From the report: "The high correlation between population growth and rising property prices suggests that the increase in the foreign resident population in certain provinces (especially island ones) contributed to increasing house prices through their effect on demand for real estate."

Meanwhile, realty website Idealista reports that Standard & Poors recently carried out an analysis of the consequences of the coronavirus COVID-19 crisis on Europe's housing market. Results indicate that house prices are falling by 3-3.5% in Spain, as well as in the UK, Ireland and Italy. 

That sounds better than the forecast of Bankinter, which predicts that prices will drop by 6% (which Idealista pointed out is in line with the estimates of the Swiss investment bank and financial services company, UBS) and a collapse in sales of up to 35%, after having already fallen 3.3% in 2019. That would bring the volume of operations in 2020 to around 326,000, which would be the lowest level since 2014—the year Spain finally began its recovery from the recession. (You may recall that the main cause of  Spain's 2008-2014 economic crisis was the residential real estate bubble, which saw prices rise 200% from 1996 to 2007.)

It will be interesting to see what changes the pandemic will bring to Spain in so many areas, including in terms of house prices, sales, and the number of foreigners who buy property here.

  Saludos,                                                                                                                                                   

Carlos                                                                                                                                                       

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Just in time for summer, Barcelona bans bikini wearers, shirtless men and nudists from its streets

Make sure to wear a shirt if you want to walk around in the stifling heat of Barcelona this summer, or you may pay dearly for it -- up to 300 euros!

Just in time for the tourist rush, the Spanish city known for its beaches and relaxed lifestyle has prohibited not only public nudity, but also the wearing of bathing suits away from swimming areas.

Beset by the hotelier and merchant lobby, who have protested for years that tourists walking around town with exposed torsos give Barcelona a bad image, the city council on Friday approved new legislation to prohibit and punish those who go down the street naked, bare-chested or in a bikini. The measure, which goes into effect next month, was approved just four weeks before municipal elections.

How the law will work

Complete nudity will only be allowed on Barcelona's officially recognized nude beach, Mar Bella, which is the only one in the city that has sand dunes, making it a somewhat secluded spot. Going shirtless or wearing swim-suits will be allowed only at pools, beaches and surrounding areas, such as the Paseo Maritimo stretching along the Mediterranean. Doing so anywhere else in the  city, including while strolling along the emblematic Las Ramblas boulevard or having refreshments at a sidewalk cafe, could result in a fine larger than the 200 euros one has to pay for running a red light: between 300 and 500 euros for going naked, and 120 to 300 for not wearing a shirt. In practice, local police will not fine transgressors immediately: nudes and semi-nudes alike will first receive a warning and an invitation to cover up. Fines will only be given to those who refuse to cooperate or who are caught again for the same violation.

Barcelona's police officers will probably easily recognize nudity when they see it, but how will they determine semi-nudity and its appropriateness? What is the difference between a woman wearing a bikini bathing suit and one wearing a pair of skimpy shorts with a bikini halter top? How far can a shirtless guy walk from the beach before being considered indecent? What happens if while a police officer is fining a bikini-wearing, shirtless couple who wander into a neighborhood near a beach, a sweaty construction worker without a shirt carries a heavy object out of building-site onto the street?

Barcelona on the cutting edge

While at least two other Spanish municipalities have passed legislation banning nudity, none have gone so far as to outlaw semi-nudity. In 2008 Alicante established fines ranging from 751 to 1500 euros for pubic nudity. The city of Las Palmas published an edict in 2004 stating that "nudity, when practiced in places of public transit, practiced en masse, or improperly, is no longer natural and becomes exhibitionism forced on others." Since there was apparently no fine or other punishment prescribed, I'm not sure how nude-free Las Palmas is today. But Barcelona's streets may soon be free of bikinis, swimming trunks and a few tourists.

Maybe next the city council will spend some time and money cracking down on another worrisome group of people who tend to freely wander Barcelona's streets, as well as its beaches: pick-pockets and purse-snatchers.

Cross posted on Newsvine.

Sources:
El destape urbano, non grato (Urban nudity, non grata) - La Razón (with video report)
No es un biquini, es un 'top' (It's not a bikini, it's a 'top') - El País

One Year On!

It's been a little more than a year since I started blogging, so I thought I'd provide updates on some of the topics I've written posts about:

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BICING

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I've written a bit about Bicing, which also celebrated it's first year anniversary recently. Well, today's El País newspaper ran an article about the service's increasing growing pains: El Bicing genera 600 reclamaciones diarias por mal funcionamiento. (Bicing receives 600 complaints a day about technical problems.)
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This was based on information included in a report that City Hall made public yesterday, but which apparently had been making the rounds of municipal offices for a while. Perhaps the most damning part of the report was the revelation that a majority of users are dissatisfied with the functioning of the computerized stations where bikes are parked. Aside from some stations habitually not having bikes available, and others seeming to hardly ever have empty spaces for leaving-off a bicycle, other problems include system overloads which cause the whole computer network to fail. When this happens bikes cannot be removed from the stations and bikes that are left-off are not recognized as having been returned. Therefore, some people have been wrongly penalized for returning bikes late or fined for not returning bikes at all.

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More than 150,000 people currently subscribe to Bicing. Apparently a total of over 250,000 people have joined the program in the last 14 months, but more than 150 people drop out each month. Today Bicing has 367 stations and a fleet of 5,500 bicycles, with about 28 members for each bike. The plan is to grow the program to 6,000 bikes and 400 stations by September and then to postpone more growth until the operation of the service can be improved, for example, by installing a back up computer system to take over when the main one goes down.

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Who will pay for the improvements? The city will, although Clear Channel, the company that has the contract to run Bicing, was fined 22,000 euros this past January for not meeting the minimum quality indices that had been agreed to.

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Other statistics from the report included:

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- An average of 39,500 trips daily - 7.8 per bicycle.
- Each bicycle is ridden some 10,000 kilometers per year.
- As of last June 18, users had completed a total of 50,178 trips - 9.2 per bicycle.
- An average of six traffic accidents involving Bicing users are registered each month.
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If you are a Bicing user and want to have your voice heard, you can participate in a survey being conducted by researchers with Telefónica Investigación y Desarrollo (Research and Development) and the University of Washington. Click here to take the survey, which is available in English, Spanish and Catalan.

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By the way, I still hold a generally positive view of Bicing and am so glad that it exists. While not even close to perfect, it certainly has been a positive addition to my life -- and I bet it's better than anything they have in Paris!

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NEWSPAPERS / PERIÓDICOS
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A new daily newspaper appeared on the Spanish scene this past year. Público hit the stands in September, with the aim of attracting left of center readers in the 25-45 year old age group. The editor is 32 year old Ignacio Escolar, who is the son of journalist Arsenio Escolar, the editor of the free daily 20 minutos. The younger Escolar previously worked in television, radio and as a musician in the groups Meteostat and Dedcodek. He's also writes a popular blog called Escolanet.

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Of course, Público seems to be going head to head with El País, the country's other left leaning daily, which bills itself as, “the global Spanish language newspaper.” (El periódioco global en español) One of El País' directors, Juan Luis Cebrián, told the New York Times and International Herald Tribune, "We don't even see them as a competitor. It's like comparing The New York Times and The New York Post." So, I guess it was just a coincidence that the publishers of El País felt the need to revamp the paper last October, with the stated purpose of appealing to younger readers.

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Well, I still like El País, but I find that I like Público, too, and have been buying it pretty frequently. Anecodotically, I can say that many people I know seem to be doing the same.
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THE SUMMER SOLSTICE AND LA NOCHE DE SAN JUAN
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Another summer solstice / noche de San Juan came and went yesterday. Fantastic fireworks and thousands of party goers on Barcelona's streets and beaches. I read today that the local police estimated that there were 85,000 people on the city's “playas” last night. Of course the symbol of the year's shortest night is the bonfire, and so flames and firecrackers colored my neighborhood as usual, as well as all of Barcelona.

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However, it's not just Barcelona that celebrates la noche de San Juan. In towns in the Pyrenees there were traditional torchlight processions, Madrid saw urban bonfires and on Spain's islands there was fireside dancing in the moonlight.

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In Alicante, where one of the biggest San Juan festivals is held, the dazzling climax of the festivities won't happen until tonight. Larger than life wooden and paper maché figures are built by neighborhood associations as part of a city-wide competition and then are burnt to the ground at midnight on the 24th, setting the entire city aglow. What a way to welcome in the summer!
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THE ECONOMY
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Well, PM Zapatero couldn't quite bring himself to use the “c” word but at least he stopped using some of his favorite euphemisms (difficult scenario, period of adjustment) when he finally admitted yesterday that Spain's economy was in serious trouble. He couldn't let go of one ambiguity, however -- economic deceleration. At least he shuffled it along from a “deep deceleration ” to a “strong deceleration -- almost a sudden stop.”
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Better late than never? We'll have to wait and see if the 21 new proposals his government plans to make to address the CRISIS will do any good. So far the reaction has been muted to negative, with the governor of the Bank of Spain describing them as "insufficient." I wonder if that was a euphemism?
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Chao amig@s,
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Carloz