Expats in Almeria, Spain are facing the demolition of their homes in the latest town planning scandal to hit Almería province. Around 19 properties, all lacking building licences and first habitation certificates, are facing the bulldozers in the El Fas district of Cantoria according to Costa Almeria News.

Although the case has been going through the courts for almost two years, the effected residents only heard of the news in late June when they were served with a summons asking if they wanted to take part in legal proceedings against the builders.

The public prosecutor says the builders sold the properties to third parties despite knowing they had been built on non-urban land and without permits. He also said that a court had ordered a halt to construction work in June 2006. Acting on behalf of the government, he asked for the houses to be demolished and for the expat homeowners to be compensated.

Expats are claiming the local mayor, Pedro Llamas García and the solicitors who initially represented them, repeatedly assured them that the properties were all legal. An expat spokesman for the Cantoria Residents’ Association said they had been “led up the garden path” by builders, solicitors and the council, and suggested the latest scandal could be the tip of the iceberg.

He said: “Around 200 other properties in Cantoria are going to be in the same position. We bought in good faith and it turns out we were lied to and defrauded by everyone,” he added bitterly: “We were viewed as sheep ready to be fleeced.”

At the centre of the case are two individuals accused of fraud, Karen Smit and Julio Piñeiro. They are named as the developers of the El Fas complex and have been charged with selling illegal properties.

Britons living in the Spanish region of Valencia have forced the local government to drop plans to strip thousands of expatriates of the right to public healthcare. Millions of British retirees have moved to the Spanish coast in recent years, many lured by property developers’ promises of a sunny retirement home overlooking the Mediterranean in resorts like Alicante and Benidorm. However recent arrivals have placed such a strain on Valencia’s health system that the regional government said earlier this year it would scrap cover for foreigners, even if they hold resident status in Spain.

After protests to the British Embassy in Madrid, consular staff and the region have thrashed out a deal whereby an estimated 3,000 early retirees will continue to receive healthcare for a ‘reasonable and affordable’ price. Pensioners are covered by the European Union’s reciprocal health system, which means the UK picks up the bill for treatment, but the arrangement does not cover early retirees. The deal will come into effect in January.

Hundreds of Britons have joined forces to bring a class action against the Spanish Government in a bid to reclaim an estimated £86m in overpaid capital gains tax (CGT). This is Money reported back in April that Britons who sold a Spanish property between June 2004 and December 2006 could be owed cash as a result of a Spanish Government’s capital gains tax ’scam’.

However, where as initial conservative estimates put the total amount to be reclaimed at £11,000 per person – over the past three months hundreds of Britons have registered average reclaims of more than £19,300 each – totalling more than an estimated £86m.

The tax error came about after British non residents paid a Spanish Non Residents’ Income Tax rate of 35% on any capital gains, compared to a rate of 15% paid by Spanish nationals.

The 20% overpayment not only totals a profit somewhere in the region of an estimated £86m, but also contravenes European Community Treaty rules on discrimination and therefore was unfairly charged by the Spanish Government.

British people applying for a refund will also receive missing interest at a compound rate of 6% to their reclaims, meaning payouts could be on average 26% larger than first thought. But while hundreds have already joined forces in a bid to reclaim their tax, thousands more are still to come forward.

But those who sold property previous to June 2004 have already missed out on being able to make a reclaim on their overpaid tax, as under Spanish law, claims can only be made dating back over a four year period.

Spanish house sales fell 7.1 percent year-on-year in April to 55,802 units after a 39 percent fall in March, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported. Government data also showed a 13.8 percent year-on-year fall in April house mortgage lending to 12.24 billion euros ($19.2 billion), following a 42 percent drop in house mortgage lending in March. April’s lower rate of falls in house mortgage lending and house sales can be partly explained by the fact that Easter was in March this year and in April last year, INE noted.

“This sudden easing is probably due to Easter, and until we see how the index behaves over the next few months we really can’t draw any conclusions,” said Sergio Diaz from Caja Madrid.

Spain, the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy, is suffering a deeper than expected slowdown as the end of a decade-long property boom coincides with the global credit crunch, record oil prices and a strong euro. Housing Minister Beatriz Corredor said on Wednesday the sharp slowdown in Spain’s housing sector will be over by the second half of 2009 and called the sector’s decline a necessary correction for Spain, where house prices tripled in the decade to 2007.

Half a million British ex-pats living in Costa Blanca in Spain are to lose their free healthcare under a new law being introduced by the region’s provincial government.

The Spanish authorities say that British expatriates living in the Valencia region, most of whom are over 50, are placing a too high a burden on the local health service. A spokesman for the regional health ministry said: ‘It is costing us an extra €1bn [£790m] annually to look after a million new residents as well as long-stay tourists, and our services are at saturation point.’

The move has caused alarm in the expatriate community on the Mediterranean coast. Many made the move to Spain on retirement under the impression that they would be looked after by the medical system there but now they are being coerced into taking out expensive private insurance.

A British embassy spokesman said UK pensioners and individuals on long-term incapacity benefit who are living permanently in Spain would be unaffected, as they are covered under a reciprocal healthcare agreement with the UK. Those who will lose their entitlement - mainly early retirees aged over 50 - were being advised to take out private health insurance.

Manpower Inc. has released the results of its third annual talent shortage survey, revealing that 31 percent of employers across the globe are finding it more difficult to fill jobs. “This year, the most significant finding is that the percentage of employers in the Americas having trouble filling positions has dropped more than half compared to last year,” said Jeffrey A. Joerres, CEO of Manpower Inc. “This dramatic decrease is a reflection of the recent downturn in the U.S. economy. However, the talent crunch is still a very real concern.”

The top ten workers most in-demand by country are:

United States

1. Engineers
2. Machinists/Machine Operators
3. Skilled Manual Trades (primarily welders or carpenters/joiners)
4. Technicians
5. Sales Representatives
6. Accounting & Finance Staff
7. Mechanics
8. Labourers
9. IT Staff
10. Production Operators

The percentage of employers surveyed in the USA indicating that they are having difficulty filling positions was down from 41% in 2007 to 22% this year.

Canada

1. Skilled Manual Trades (primarily carpenters/jointers, welders or electricians)
2. Sales Representatives
3. Engineers
4. Accounting & Finance Staff
5. Labourers
6. Nurses
7. Teachers
8. Drivers
9. Machinists/Machine Operators
10. Secretaries, PAs, Administrative Assistants & Office Support Staff

The percentage of employers surveyed in Canada indicating that they are having difficulty filling positions was down from 36% in 2007 to 31% this year.

Australia

1. Skilled Manual Trades (primarily electricians, carpenters/joiners, or welders)
2. Engineers
3. Sales Representatives
4. Accounting & Finance Staff
5. Drivers
6. Technicians
7. Labourers
8. Secretaries, PAs, Administrative Assistants & Office Support Staff
9. Mechanics
10. Management/Executives

The percentage of employers surveyed in Australia indicating that they are having difficulty filling positions was down from 61% in 2007 to 52% this year

New Zealand

1. Sales Representatives
2. Skilled Manual Trades (primarily carpenters/joiners or electricians)
3. Engineers
4. Accounting & Finance Staff
5. IT Staff
6. Labourers
7. Technicians
8. Secretaries, PAs, Administrative Assistants & Office Support Staff
9. Management/Executives
10. Production Operators

The percentage of employers surveyed in New Zealand indicating that they are having difficulty filling positions was down from 62% in 2007 to 47% this year

Spain

1. Technicians
2. Skilled Manual Trades (primarily electricians, masons, welders or bricklayers)
3. Management/Executives
4. Accounting & Finance Staff
5. Production Operators
6. Labourers
7. Drivers
8. Secretaries, PAs, Administrative Assistants & Office Support Staff
9. Mechanics
10. Engineers

The percentage of employers surveyed in Spain indicating that they are having difficulty filling positions was down from 33% in 2007 to 27% this year

Spanish builders are tempting home buyers with free cars, mortgage holidays and hard cash as they try to lift the gloom shrouding the housing sector reports iht.com. Some companies are also diving into the rental market. At the annual property fair in Madrid last week, the number of promoters was down by a third from the previous year, many of them victims of the deepening housing crisis. With fewer buyers milling around models of whitewashed housing estates, there were fewer lines to see sales representatives.

“Since the end of the summer, movement in the market has been very, very slack,” said Javier Roca de Togores, managing director of Zapata, a promoter selling homes on the southern fringes of Madrid. “We have seen huge falls of around 70 or 80 percent.”

With prices of existing Spanish houses down by more than 4 percent since peaking in mid-2007 and the market still overvalued by up to 20 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund, some companies are shifting to rental properties.

Brokers say U.S. and northern European funds are snapping up coastal plots for 20 percent to 25 percent less than the asking price and new apartment prices, even in Madrid, are down 15 percent to 20 percent on average - a trend yet to show up in official price data.

As the rental market accelerates, these buyers may benefit.

Spain has built more than five million new houses in the past decade, taking the stock of existing homes to 24 million, because of economic growth averaging 3.8 percent, historically low interest rates and an influx of immigrants to cities and foreigners to the coastal regions.

Ex-pats living in Spain are being recruited and trained to work as remote telemarketing staff for English businesses because there is a shortage of suitable candidates in the UK. Call centre staffing company Sensée has hired 10 sun-soaked British workers as telesales agents for Sense On Hold (SOH), a UK-based company providing marketing to callers while they are waiting on hold. The agents will never meet their new bosses at SOH, as all elements of recruitment and training take place online.

The move reflects the growing number of employers using mobile workers for traditional, office-based jobs. Steve Mosser, managing director of Sensée, told Personnel Today: “The idea behind recruiting ex-pats is that it doesn’t matter where you are to do this job, as long as you fill certain criteria. The application process is online, so we don’t ever meet the employee. Interviews and training are conducted over the web, and when they reach a certain grade, we match the skills of the person to the employer.”

Working from home, the agents will call UK businesses to sell SOH services and set up appointments. The type of work makes it easy to measure individual performance, according to Mosser, as employers can track how many appointments and calls they make. Hiring candidates remotely costs approximately £400 per employee, compared to £4,000 per employee when recruiting in the traditional way.

“We wait the longest time possible before having to make human contact with them, which brings huge HR savings in recruitment and training,” he said.

SOH said it had won more than 60 new contracts in the past six months since working with Sensée telemarketers.

According to Kyero.com, the Costa Blanca region, in the province of Alicante, is most the popular Spanish Costa – receiving 26.6% of all coastal property enquiries in Spain. This area boasts a relatively large number of English-speaking residents, making it easier for relocating Britons to fit into everyday life, as well as a consistently warm climate that gives the Costa Blanca year-round appeal for holiday-makers. The Costa Blanca can also be said to be the most popular of the Costas because its house prices average at €237,000 (£185,000), 3% less than the Spanish average of €245,000 (£191,000), making owning a second home affordable.

Second most popular of the Costas, according to the latest Kyero.com figures, is the well-known Costa del Sol, in the province of Malaga, which gets 22.0% of the property portal’s Costa enquiries. This region has long proved popular with both tourists and property investors alike because of the excellent facilities on offer – including a wide range of shopping centres and golf developments – as well as the easy accessibility via air, road, rail and sea.

The Costa del Sol, along with the Costa Blanca, has a varied mix of nationalities calling it home and the area is especially popular with families. House prices, unfortunately, reflect this popularity with average Costa del Sol house prices ranking 21% above the national average at €297,000 (£231,000).

To the east, the Costa Tropical of the Granada province is third most popular, with 17.1% of enquiries. The Costa Tropical differs from the other popular regions because it is not so developed instead it is punctuated by many traditional villages and cove-fronted beaches, offering a more ‘typically-Spanish’ way of life for the foreign property purchaser. Interestingly, average property prices are much less than the Costa Blanca and the Costa del Sol with a typical house costing just €169,000 (£132,000), 31% less than the Spanish average.

At the other end of the scale, the Costa Verde, of the Asturias province in the north of Spain, ranks as the least popular of the Costas, with only 0.1% of enquiries about this area. This relative unpopularity with foreigners is reflected in the average house prices where properties cost just €156,000 (£122,000), 36% less than the Spanish national average. Again, this region is more undeveloped than the better known southern Costas, and this is one reason for its cheap properties. It is also more climactically unstable and therefore does not necessarily suit those looking for year-round sunshine, either for holiday rentals or for relocation.

Martin Dell, MD of Kyero.com, comments, “There is a great deal of variety to be found across the Spanish Costas, with much to offer those looking to invest in Spanish property. It is key that when looking to purchase in the Spanish Costas, you decide upon what is important for you and your family – be it excellent all-year temperatures, undeveloped beaches, first class facilities, value for money or breathtaking scenery – and then choose your Costa accordingly.”

The Costas have long been a popular holiday destination, offering good weather, long sandy beaches and varied scenery. Since the booming development period of the 1950’s, these coastal areas have become synonymous with the typical ‘Spanish holiday’ for millions of international tourists each year.

Not all Costas are the same, however. There is in fact great variety offered by the 4964 km of coastline. There are popular and somewhat expensive areas such as the Costa Blanca, Costa del Sol and Costa Brava as well as little known Costas that have something different to offer.

The Costa offering the lowest property prices is the Costa Verde – set within the Asturias province in the north of Spain – where the average property price from Kyero, as of March 2008, is €156,000, 36% less than the Spanish national average.

The Costa Verde offers a somewhat quieter holiday experience than more developed Costas with peaceful beaches, and traditional, picturesque towns. One of the most varied regions of Spain, scenery ranges from rocky coastal coves to mountainous precipices encouraging the adventurous explorer to discover more about the region. However, one reason for the low property prices may be attributed to the more unstable climactic conditions, earning the wettest of all the Costas its name, Costa Verde, the Green Coast.

In contrast, the most expensive Costa is the Costa Maresme – in the province of Barcelona – where average house prices are high due to the excellent infrastructure and good economic prospects on offer.

Here, the average property price as of March 2008 is €599,000, 144% over the national average of €245,000. Interestingly, although still very high, house prices in this Costa have in fact fallen by nearly 3% in the last year from an average of €615,000 in 2007. However with an average price of €506,000 in 2006, there has still been significant growth of over 18% overall in the course of this 2 year period.

One of the most well-known of the Costas, the Costa del Sol in the province of Malaga, ranking third most expensive has also seen a drop in property prices. This established tourist destination, viewed by some as saturated with high rise developments, has seen average property prices decrease from a high of €308,000 in 2006 to €305,000 in 2007 and to a current average of €297,000 in March 2008.

This dip of nearly 4% could be seen as surprising due to the introduction in recent years of numerous new golf developments to the Costa del Sol making the area a Mecca for golf enthusiasts. However, the disappointing winter of 2007 for Costa del Sol tourism (as reported by the Association of Hoteliers) has accelerated this decrease in house prices, as has a move towards the cheaper and less developed Costas, this hitting areas such as the Costa del Sol hard.

One example of a Costa that is seemingly benefiting from this transition is the Costa de Almeria in the province of Almeria to the east of Malaga, which ranks as the third cheapest Costa but has seen a steady increase in property prices in the last 2 years.

From an average price in 2006 of €190,500 to an average of €196,250 in 2007, and up another 1% to a current average property price in March 2008 of €198,000, the Costa de Almeria is experiencing an increase in popularity. With great geographic diversity and an unspoilt coastline, it is easy to see why this area is seeing a rise in property prices. A warm climate and around 3,000 hours of sunshine a year sets it apart from other more affordable Costas such as the Costa Verde and therefore the popularity of this area is set to grow still further.

Nearly one million foreign citizens were granted permanent residency in Spain last year, bringing the official total, not counting illegal immigration, up to almost four million non-nationals residing in the country. According to government figures, Moroccans are the biggest immigrant population in Spain with around 650,000 of its citizens living there, followed by Romanians (604,000), Ecuadorians (396,000), Columbians (254,000) and British citizens (199,000). People from EU member countries made up 39% of Spain’s total foreign population in 2007, followed by South Americans (30%) and Africans (21%).

The Spanish tourist board believes that tourism is the driving force behind its country’s rising immigration and revealed that a record 59.2 million tourists hit Spanish shores in 2007 – a rise of 1.7% y-o-y.

The board’s statistics also showed that the Costa del Sol is still the most popular destination for tourists and that the Andalucian region also grew in popularity. It noted that UK citizens were still Spain’s biggest tourist group accounting for 27.5% of all foreign visitors, however, arrivals from North America have risen by 22% in 2007, totalling 1.1 million tourists from the continent.

Low cost airlines accounted for a significant proportion of carriers travelling to Spain, flying 24 million tourists to the country in 2007 – a 34% rise y-o-y. Ryanair led the way carrying 5.4 million passengers followed by easyJet with 4.2 million. Malaga was the principal entry point accounting for 3.6 million passengers travelling via budget airlines, while six out of every ten tourists ended up holidaying on the Costa del Sol.

The real estate boom may be over in Spain, but in some provinces, such as Granada, it isn’t all doom and gloom. Foreign buyers, mainly from Britain and Germany are snapping up one in three properties, and are helping to lift the market during this slow period. Unlike the Spanish buyers, foreign buyers tend not try and push the price of a property down, and trust the professionals to do their job reports homesworldwide.co.uk

A third of all properties sold in the province of Granada are being bought by foreigners, and these are located in areas such as Alpujarra, the Granada coastline, the Lecrin Valley, and the Baza area.

However, it isn’t that sales to foreign buyers have risen sharply over the last few months, more that sales to Spaniards have plummeted, while foreigners continue to buy at more or less the same rate. The proportion of one in three may be higher on the coast though, with many developments aimed exclusively at foreign buyers.

Estate agents have reported that as much as 40 per cent of their properties are sold to foreigners, and the majority are British who are looking for a permanent base, rather than a holiday home. Buyers favour the cortijos (country houses) in the area, and a large proportion of these are owned by foreigners.

A British couple living in Almeria, Spain could see their home demolished to make way for a new rail link. The Telegraph has reported that Richard and Wendy Kaleta were given planning permission to build their luxuary home in Turre, on the Costa Almeria, despite the proposal four months earlier of a rail link on the land they had bought. Now they and three other British couples have been told their properties will be demolished, with no compensation being offered for their buildings.

The Kaletas decided to sell their home in Southampton in May 2001 and retire to Spain. Their new four-bedroom villa was completed in Jan 2003.

According to the local planning office, the proposed route of the AVE high-speed rail link was made public in Dec 2001, four months before the Kaletas were given permission to build. The project was finally approved last autumn and it wasn’t until last year that the Kaletas learned of the plans.

The couple feel they were let down when they bought the land from a local estate agent, who is also a former mayor of the town.

Four out of the twelve houses in the rural development on the outskirts of Turre are to be demolished to make way for the rail link. The remaining houses will find themselves living in close proximity to rail tracks where trains will travel at speeds in excess of 155mph.

“We have been told that we will probably be offered compensation for the cost of the land only and not the value of the property itself…” said Mr Kaleta. “It really is heartbreaking to watch our dream turn sour. We could end up with nothing.”

A British couple living in Spain have become the first expatriates to see their home demolished reported The Telegraph. Helen and Leonard Prior sold their home in Berkshire and spent £570,000 turning an area of scrubland into a villa with heated swimming pool and landscaped gardens. The £570,000 villa in Vera, Almeria is now reduced to rubble.

”We were utterly powerless to stop them,” said Mrs Prior. “We had hoped to spend the rest of our days here but within hours everything we worked for was destroyed.”

Thousands more expatriates living on the Costas could see their homes demolished after it emerged the properties - bought in good faith - had been built illegally. Local corruption and the flaunting of planning laws have allowed swathes of the Spanish coastline to be developed during the last decade.

Last November Spain’s socialist government vowed to pull down all illegally built property on 480 miles of Mediterranean coastline. The Priors, who are believed to be the first British couple to have had their villa torn down, say they did everything possible to ensure they had approval to build their home.

“We used a local builder and lawyer and have documentation from the town hall giving us planning permission,” said Mrs Prior.

She added: “About 18 months ago we were informed that although the local council had approved the building the regional government of Andalusia had not.” After seeking legal advice they were told that although their home had been built on designated “rustic land” it would probably be allowed to remain. But on Dec 16 a policeman came to the door with a demolition order.

“Even as late as Tuesday we were reassured by our legal team that the demolition would not go ahead as it was against the Spanish constitution,” Mrs Prior said. It was not until Wednesday morning when the water was disconnected followed by the electricity that the couple realised what was going to happen.

The couple were given two hours to remove their belongings from the house before the bulldozers moved in.

Expats who own homes in the Valencia countryside are overjoyed as demolition orders are suspended. Valencia’s regional government has announced that 40 demolition orders issued against illegal homes built in Catral’s countryside have been put on hold. In October 2006 former regional planning boss Esteban González Pons stated that 1,270 properties had been constructed without planning permission on land not designated for building, leaving hundreds of British homeowners fearing for their properties.

The issue of illegal buildings is being tackled directly by the Valencia government, who have stripped the local authority of town planning powers and issued demolition orders to a number of households during 2007

However the announcement that orders have now been suspended was the best Christmas present that many of the threatened homeowners could hope for. Despite the fact that the demolitions may still go ahead, many locals are viewing the suspension as a reprieve. The houses most at risk include properties that have been constructed inside and close to El Hondo Natural Park, and eight homeowners who bought properties inside the boundary of the park now face court charges.

Due to the fact that the builders of the properties recorded their status as the promoters of the houses on town hall documents, the buyers have been called to appear before an Orihuela judge on January 29 instead of the builders.

Last year former regional planning councillor Esteban González Pons stated that he would pursue the builders who had made an estimated €80m through selling illegal homes in Catral. At the time he said: “We are going to identify urgently those responsible for the construction of the illegal homes so we can move to embargo their capital and in this way guarantee compensation to people who have bought houses in good faith and who now find themselves with an illegal home which could even be demolished.”

However, to date no builder has been charged with any criminal offence over the construction scandal.

The recent annual Spanish immigration study presented by the Etnia publishing group revealed that there are now 4.48 million foreign residents in Spain, representing almost 10 percent of the 41.12 million population. Of these foreign residents, nearly 17% (761,000 ) are British nationals the majority of whom are based in the traditional coastal resorts of the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca.

It is not hard to see why, 40 years on, Spain remains an attractive destination for Britons looking to relocate; the combination of a sunny climate, low cost of living, accessibility and a stable economy drives its appeal. However with the latest data from the Kyero Spanish House Price Index revealing that average property prices in the most popular provinces of Malaga and Alicante have reached €307,000 (£221,040) and €250,000 (£180,000) respectively, can affordable Spanish coastal living still be found?

The average property price in Spain according to Kyero.com, remains at €248,000 and when considering the 22 most sought after provinces by potential property purchasers in Spain, 64% display average property prices below the national average.

Average property prices in coastal provinces including Castellon (€245,000), Valencia (€230,000) and Tarragona (€229,000) in the east, Murcia (€215,000), Almeria (€199,000) and Granada (€170,000) in the south east and Asturias (€162,000) in the north demonstrate that living on the Spanish coast need not ‘costa’ fortune.

As Martin Dell, MD of Kyero.com, comments, “The majority of British buyers are still looking for coastal locations and with nearly 5000 km of varied coastline from spectacular cliff faces to white sandy beaches Spain does not disappoint. Prices for frontline real estate will always be at a premium but there are still plenty of bargains to be had up to 5km inland and especially in the lesser known costas such as the Costa Calida or Costa Daurada.”

The World in Dubai is probably the most famous artificial island housing development on the planet. With Spain’s coastline being so heavily built up already, developer suggestions for an artificial island near the city of Valencia, just off Malvarrosa beach, suggest a way to meet demand for seafront property in future.

‘La Luna de Valencia’, as the island would be known, would cover 1.6 million square metres. Only a million square metres of that would be land, and the remainder would be canals and channels. Solar energy and desalination facilities will keep the island supplied with power and water. Property would include apartments and villas, with the smallest apartments measuring 40 square metres – enough for holiday use and costing from 300,000 Euros.

Spain’s 1988 Ley de Costas, which governs building around the coastline, expressly forbids the extension of land into the sea, which La Luna de Valencia would do. Given the Spanish Environment Ministry’s current crack down on land-based developments that breach the law, including the demolition of properties built too close to the sea, and concerns about the effect of global-warming-induced sea level rises, the developer is going to have an incredibly difficult time getting planning permission.

The Balearic islands are to freeze all construction along the most delicate parts of coastlines and around the islands’ capitals in according to a report from the Guardian. The plan will come into force immediately in an effort to save some of the most beautiful coastlines on the islands of Ibiza, Mallorca and Menorca, from further development.

Although the full details of the plan have not yet been announced, it is understood that it will place a moratorium on development in one of Mallorca’s largest untouched bays, and in urban marshlands in Ibiza and Palma de Mallorca, where construction work was set to begin. Rural land around the newly constructed Son Espases hospital in Palma, located near a medieval monastery, will also be saved.

During this moratorium the parliament of the Balearic islands will redefine these areas as protected land, meaning that they cannot be built on in the future. There will also be parallel compensation negotiations with landowners and property developers.

Spain’s sunny climate and welcoming people has attracted more immigrants than any other country in Europe according to homesworldwide.com. With high levels of British people relocating to Spain annually, it’s not surprising that the country’s appeal has resulted in it being the European country with the most immigrants.

Foreign residents now comprise almost ten per cent of the total population, adding up to 4.48 million out of a total of 14.12 million people. The ratio is now higher than France, Germany or Britain. The figures also show that seven out of every ten people who move to Spain fall in love with the country so much that they decide to stay.

“There are obvious reasons why Spain is so popular,” says Ian Smith, head of European operations for Halifax. “The climate is ideal, the country openly welcomes English speakers and the emergence of low-cost flights has made travelling to Spain so cheap.”

The influx of newcomers to the country has also contributed to Spain’s consistently improving economy, with immigrants estimated to account for 4.5 per cent of the GDP.

While retirees often do this by employing local builders and paying for other services, younger expats boost an area’s revenue by opening new businesses and creating competition. In addition they have also contributed to a recovery in Spain’s diminishing birth rate.

The Etnia publishing group, who presents the annual immigration study, predicts that, by 2025, 30 per cent of Spain’s residents will either have been born elsewhere, or will be the children of immigrants, leading to an increasingly multicultural population.

According to the British Foreign office, thousands of British citizens who retired abroad end up living in poverty and poor health because they made inadequate provisions for their new life. Data from the Office of National Statistics shows that one million Britons choose to move overseas on retirement, with Spain being a popular choice. In the last 10 years over 75,000 British pensioners moved here. While Spain may be cheaper than the UK in many ways, it is still one of the “more expensive” countries to retire to.

The dream of a new life in the sun can be very alluring. Tales of people who’ve already made the move and TV programmes making it look easy encourage others to follow suit. Unfortunately, as a report by Overseas Property Professional (OPP) explained, “bad financial planning means that many of these retirees find themselves in dire straits. With people now living a lot longer, especially in healthier climes, impoverished retirees are finding it hard to maintain their dream lifestyle.”

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said “It is astonishing how many fit and healthy retirees make no plans or provisions of any kind for their future health and wellbeing when they retire abroad… We are not trying to warn people off retiring overseas – we just want to advise people to make sensible precautions in order to enjoy their retirement abroad.”

To give an example about the situation in Spain, Bruce McIntyre, British Consul in Malaga, has commented: “Sadly now we spend much of our time dealing with elderly British nationals who moved out here ten or fifteen years ago and now cannot manage alone. Sometimes a partner has died and the other is too old or infirm to go out and buy food; sometimes people have made bad property investments or have not budgeted their pensions sufficiently and are living in extreme poverty.”

The OPP report included comments from Spanish property lawyer Mark Wilkins who pointed out that many people buying property in Spain do not fully consider how they will fund their retirement. Even those people who now consider themselves wealthy because their UK property has increased in value considerably don’t do their sums correctly:

“With a growing number of property millionaires in the UK, who may be able to realise the full value of the property when they retire, how much would someone need to fund their retirement - £1 million, £2 million, more? Based on the equation that you need to multiply your required income by 25, £1 million would give you £40,000. Amazingly, many experts suggest that a retired couple will need at least £2 million (€2.9 million) in the bank to give themselves a pre-tax income of £80,000 - and that’s without the costs of acquiring the retirement apartment or villa in the sun.”

The cost of living in Spain may still compare favourably with the UK, but it is rising and therefore eating into one’s retirement pot. As one estate company, Sol Andalusi, admitted, “for early retirees in Spain, inflation is definitely taking its toll”

This summer’s bad weather has led to almost half of Britain considering buying a place in the sun, new research has found. A survey conducted for Yorkshire Bank found that 43 per cent of people were thinking about purchasing a property abroad. The poll of 1,000 people found the biggest draw for buying an overseas home was the prospect of guaranteed sunny weather, cited by 66 per cent of respondents.

A further 55 per cent said the dream of a more relaxed pace of life enticed them to buy a foreign pad.

Spain was found to be the most popular destination for prospective overseas property buyers, with 45 per cent of respondents saying that they would invest in a holiday home there.

An additional 31 per cent of people said that they would buy a property in the country as part of their retirement plans, while 32 per cent of those questioned said they would buy a property abroad as a long-term investment.

Meanwhile 15 per cent said they would consider buying a home abroad as their best option to get a foot on the property ladder.

However 44 per cent of Britons said they feared they could be ripped off as they did not understand the buying process abroad and 35 per cent said they thought they would find it stressful trying to recruit the necessary professionals, such as estate agents and solicitors.

A further 34 per cent said they were concerned about how they would negotiate a sale in a foreign language.

Commenting on the results of the survey, Yorkshire Bank’s director of retail banking Steve Reid said: “Buying a house, let alone buying one in a foreign country, can be a challenging business.

“Despite this, Britons are still convinced that owning property in Spain is a financial decision worth pursuing.”

Regular users of Monarch’s Gatwick - Granada (Spain) route are unhappy about the low-cost airline’s decision to cancel the service according to a report from uk-airport-news.info. Many British homeowners in the area cannot understand the decision, claiming flights between the two airports were always full. The airline claims 62,000 passengers used its Gatwick - Granada route between September 2006-2007, accounting for 5% of the passengers at the Spanish airport.

However, the figures were not enough to persuade the airline to keep the route, and from November 4, the flights will cease. Visitors to Granada will face a four-hour round trip commute as Malaga becomes the airline’s sole south of Spain destination from Gatwick.

A Monarch spokesman said that the route was not cost effective.

The value of British holiday homes abroad has fallen by as much as 15 per cent in the past three months according to an investigation by The Daily Telegraph. A series of second home hot spots across the Continent has had thousands of euros wiped off the value of holiday villas, particularly those along the Mediterranean.

Almost a quarter of a million Britons have bought homes abroad in the past decade, doubling the holiday home ownership numbers and with the majority buying properties as an investment.

The average prices of a two-bedroom apartment in Majorca has fallen from £225,000 to £203,000, a three-bedroom villa in Lanzarote has dropped from £248,000 to £228,000. Prices in parts of Bulgaria, after having shot up in value by 40 per cent last year, have stagnated.

Property experts say that those who will be hardest hit are people who have invested within the past year - especially into new developments - and those who need a quick sale.

This week it emerged that the French property market has fallen in value for the first time since the 1990s, with overall house prices dropping by one per cent in the three months to September.

Last week the Valencia property developer Llanera collapsed, with £520 million of debts, hit by the credit crunch and higher borrowing costs. It also suffered from the oversupply of properties in Spain, which has an estimated 300,000 flats lying empty after a construction boom.

British residents over the age of 50 can call the Infoline 902 003 838 for information on living in Spain. Age Concern is launching an Infoline for British nationals living and on holiday in Spain who are over the age of 50. The telephone service (902 033 838) provides information on social services, medical assistance, obtaining benefits from the UK or how to collect their pensions in Spain.

“The telephone line offers support and a guide to the eldest members of our community who are not sure how to access local social services. It will be a great help for those who are making the transition to Spain from the UK,” said Age Concern board member Sue Mari.

The project is a joint co-operation between the British Consulate and Age Concern. With this initiative they hope to be able to meet the demands of the growing number of British tourists and residents in Spain. British Consulate Bruce McIntyre says it is estimated that there are over one million British expatriates living in Spain. Every year over two million British tourists come to Málaga and 350,000 Britons are believed to live along Spain’s Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca alone.

“This is an exciting development for the expanding British Community in Spain.” McIntyre said. “We hope people take advantage of our services as we further close the information gap

Figures from the Bank of Spain reveal that foreign investment in Spanish property increased by 19.2% in the first 5 months of the year compared to the same period in 2006. The amount invested by Spaniards in property outside of Spain almost doubled over the same period.

The total amount invested by foreigners to the end of May was 2.252 billion Euros, almost the same as the amount invested in 2005, though still significantly below the 2.925 billion Euros invested in the peak year of 2003.

How does one reconcile this increase in foreign investment in Spanish property at a time when the market is clearly turning down?

One explanation might be that many of the off-plan sales made in 2004 and 2005 are only now being recorded as investments as buyers take possession of their properties and complete the purchase before notary. This is the moment when the investment is recorded in the national accounts.

Nevertheless, the figures do seem to suggest that foreign demand for Spanish property has picked up significantly since last year, even though property professionals report that the market is still very slow.