Well, speaking of What Will Happen to Spain, I own three pisos in Barcelona. I live in one of them in La Gracia and rent out the other two in l'exiample. The two I rent are 400 square meters, 4 bedrooms, full gourmet kitchens, maids quarters 3 full baths with showers and bidets, 1/2 bath, formal dining rooms, large living rooms, and libraries that have been turned into/library entertainment rooms. They are fully furnished and included a weekly housekeeper. In addition, they both have formal foyers. They are not cheap. I tend to have groups of 4 to 6 Brits or Germans rent them for three to six months. And I'm booked into September 2011, including cash deposits.
When I first bought these apartments they cost about $200,000 US. The Euro was about .86 to the US Dollar. Now, of course, the fate of the USA Dollar has changed as well as the Euro. And housing is even tighter that ever. The reason most Spaniards live with their parents until they are 40, or even continue to live with their parents after marriage, is because of a severe housing shortage. The city government does subsidize the construction of modern flats, but the qualification process to purchase or just get a hipoteca (mortgage) is a long and usually difficult process. At least half of the property transactions that take place in the city are done in cash without the support of a one of the many hungry banks.
Add to the above realities, the city has some serious building codes. Yeah, there are some towers hither and yon about Barcelona, but not many. One of the things that makes BCN a travel destination is not just the few buildings and public spaces built by Gaudi, but the entire city still has the pink/tan terracotta (sp?) look of a Mediterranean city. So, there are serious height restrictions. And if a new chunk of apartments are going to be modern, the city suggests the architects go out of their way to make them WAY modern and add some positive aesthetic to the neighborhood that may have been lost (or not existed) when older structures were torn down for new building space -- and the same height as the original buildings.
Everyone complains, but I doubt you'll find a city population more proud of their city than the folks who live in BCN. And there has been a recent out-migration into the canyons to the north, north east where young families can actually afford to buy a home. Again, the restrictions are somewhat tough. If any of you have bothered to travel outside of Barcelona you'll remember that three sides are protected by forests, the lungs of the city. And the fourth side is the port, public beaches, and energy plants to the north. So all of those "scenic" little pueblos with rock cottages are being bought up and renovated into homes. They may look like 200 year-old farmhouses, but the interiors are remarkable revised uses of space with all modern amenities.
There is always the possibility of BCN becoming just another place full of rich people, but that has always been part of the city's fate. No one really knows how many billions of Euros are floating in the City's harbour housing mostly permanent residents from other countries.
Maybe if the UK government could dig out a giant lake in the middle or to the side of Birmingham and fill it with multi-million£ yachts?
My point is, it seems the problem with housing in the UK isn't something that follows an an agreed upon and efficient set of guidelines. Maybe I'm wrong. But the last thing anyone in Barcelona wants to do is "go build out in the farm country." Not a good idea. Instead, they are reusing every centimeter of dirt that already exists within the city.
Amusingly, as the Euro scares you folks in the UK, the local economies seem to be doing rather well down here. Although the price of a piso similar to the ones I own have risen in ten+ years from $200,000 to about 3,000,000€. Not such a good thing for young families, but there is a clot of new "affordable" family apartments being built up the street -- where the facade matches and gives homage to -- the rest of the architecture in the neighborhood. But they cost about 500,000€ and are barely 50 square meters.
Anyway, what I had intended to sum up in 20 words or less is Spain has seen much worse than the UK's worry about what will happen to the Euro. And Spain has always survived.After all, while the UK was enjoying the 50s. 60s, and early 780s, Spaniards were dealing with the continued "austerity" of Franco "the friendly despot." And catalanes were being executed for speaking their native language in public. If anyone knows how to implement austerity measures, it's Spain. Do Brits keep stale bread around or do they throw it away? Spaniards never throw bread away. They turn it into croutons. Even better, they slice it, rub it with garlic and spread a bit of tomato over it. Tasty.
The only Spaniards I've ever met who've wanted to live in the UK have all been in their teens and early 20s because of the British music scene. After all, Spanish rock and roll basically sucks like a Hoover. So, who can blame them? But I don't mean to write all of this crap (which it most certainly is) just to disparage the UK. Seems like you folks have some serious problems with your own currency.
Just pretend the glass is half full. :smile:
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