News archive for February 2010
New Development plans
Since 2004 Nueva Andalucía and Las Chapas have registered the highest increases in the population, which now exceeds 140,000 people It is the hardest part of any revision of an Urban Plan (PGOU), whether in a town of large dimensions, where endless time is needed, or a small municipality where marking out the areas and […]
Brits buying in Spain again
The hoped-for green shoots of the economy in the UK were showing their heads in Birmingham last weekend, when thousands of people turned out for the “A Place in the Sun” exhibition held at the NEC. International property shows in the UK had been in the doldrums over the past months and some of the […]
Spanish government propose increase to retirement age
Last Friday the Government approved a draft bill that would raise the retirement age from 65 to 67, an idea strongly opposed by the country’s largest labour unions. The plan aims to “guarantee the sustainability” of the Spanish retirement system through to the year 2030, Deputy Prime Minister María Teresa Fernández de la Vega told […]
Marbella mayor comments on new urban plan
There are two images of Marbella: one, that of a town where irregular construction has been made legal; the other, a town where local residents protest that they have not been taken into consideration. Which one is the closest to reality? Both images are real, but the truth is that not all the negative effects […]
A good time to buy
Euribor (12 months), the interest rate normally used to calculate mortgage payments in Spain, fell 0.8% in January compared to the previous month. – Euribor now stands at 1.232%, the second lowest level on record. – Euribor rose a fraction in December, suggesting that, after 14 consecutive months of falls, a change of trend might […]
Goya winners – the Spanish Oscars
Daniel Monzón’s hard-hitting prison drama ‘Cell 211’ emerged as the big winner at last night’s Goya Awards ceremony in Madrid. ‘Cell 211’ took eight awards in total, including best film, best director (Daniel Monzón), best adapted script as well as best actor for Luis Tosar’s portrayal of a prison inmate. The other hotly-tipped film, Alejandro […]
40% of jobless unlikely to find employment
The Employment Ministry has designed an index of vacancies for the registered unemployed, and it shows that 39.9 percent of the total number of people who were registered late last month had only a bleak chance of finding jobs. According to the data, about 1.6 million belong to this category out of the 4 million […]
Spain unemployment figures rise to 3.5m
The number of unemployed has risen once again in February, 154,058 more people have lost their jobs, bringing the total unemployed to nearly 3.5 million. The sectors most affected are agriculture, services and construction. Although the increase was less than in January, when it rose by 198,838 people, the total number of unemployed is now […]
Penalty points system amended
EVEN before the penalty points system launched three and a half years ago for driving offences has been fully implemented across Spain, the traffic department has decided to reduced the number infractions that will see drivers penalized via this system. In Spain the system works the opposite way round to the UK. All drivers start […]
Consumer spending on the up
Consumer spending increased slightly in the last quarter of 2009, the first rise the country has seen in two years. Spending increased by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of last year, compared with the third, whilst the GDP for the same period continued to drop, albeit only slightly, with a fall of 0.1%. According to […]