Thursday, December 04, 2008

They must be optimists

The Partido Popular (PP)  in Orihuela voted in favour of allowing 2,570 new homes to be built in the PAU7 area of Villamartin at last week’s full council meeting. Some 650 of these homes will be ‘protected’ social homes.

The move to develop this area of Villamartin was mooted shortly after last year’s municipal elections, despite promises from the Mayor, Monica Lorente, that no further development would take place in Orihuela Costa. The plans have now been formally adopted into the Partial Plan by the 14 PP councillors in Orihuela.

The opposition councillors, voted against the plan, stating that there is no market demand for additional housing, and that there is insufficient water supply to service this new development.

It is all well and good approving plans for more houses but who in their right mind would build them and who would buy them? When you see existing building sites deserted and existing houses that have been on the market for nearly two years, you realise that there is no longer the demand in this area that there was.

With unemployment at record levels, local buyers are thin on the ground. Other nationals are facing the same gloomy prospect.

In any case, with the euro at 1.162 to the pound, British buyers for example, would be insane to even contemplate buying a house in Spain at the moment. Just to illustrate the point; if we were buying our house at the current rates, it would cost us £47,000 more than it did in 2004.

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