Properties in Spain have had a rough ride over the past three years following a five year ascendancy that saw prices rise by 300 - 400 %. A correction most would say in hindsight, was inevitable. But the length of time that the market has now been ?sitting at the bar? could never have been predicted. One global issue after another has piled on the misery to the point that nothing seems to surprise any more.



The latest nail in the proverbial has been the ascendancy in the value of the Euro, which combined with ever decreasing strength in the dollar has sent the more important rate against the pound close to a high. Gone are those skeptics that professed the demise of the new currency a few years ago when it was launched.

The main effect to the Spanish property market has been to see the drop in villa prices that has occurred over the past twelve months, to create a bounce in the market, to have been nullified. The increases that were seen in interest in January have not materialized into purchases as investors and holiday home buyers wait for their pound to give them back the purchasing power that they had expected when they did their original calculations on moving to the sun.

The blame for the ever strengthening Euro may be a result of the inability of the E.C.B. to effectively manage interest rate policy over such a variety of economies that make up the member nations that adopted the Euro. It was always a worry that the lack of 'mobility of labour' may be the straw to break the back of the Euro camel. By contrast to the economies that make up the US, the language barriers across Europe make it much more difficult for a worker in Greece who is made redundant, to up and move to Germany, where his profession is lacking in skilled workers. This inability of the labour force means that differing member nations will suffer different rates of employment/unemployment without the ability to transfer labour to even things out.

In a month or two things will only get worse. With millions of brits booking their summer vacations on the continent, the months of may to September are historically strong for the Euro as demand for the currency deals with the foreign exchange needs of the public.

Some good news is required to get things going again globally?lets hope it happens before November.

I say November because the election of a new president?whomever they choose, normally produces a bounce in the step of the largest economy in the world and whose ripple effect may help all things globally. Otherwise the Spanish market may stay suffering with a summer of more than just blue skies!