Now is the best time to buy in Spain..

Welcome again, and with no great cheer being offered by Mr G. Brown in his budget for either those who already own their property or first-time buyers looking to get onto the property ladder, now is a better time than ever to make the move overseas to Spain or start building your property portfolio.

With hundreds of resale properties for sale on the Costa Blanca and many new property promotions in the area, why not take advantage of the huge reductions on properties here with Central Property Bureau.

We have property starting for only 79,000 Euros that is only 60,000 pounds sterling, now is the definatley the time if you have been thinking of moving to Spain. Due to the amount of property available, prices are beginning to drop and we have already seen the results in recent sales and enquiries, so contact Central Property Bureau or visit the Central Property Bureau website, for a quick property search click here.

Don´t get left behind !!!

Which overseas buyer are you ?

People who buy a home abroad fall into categories, rich, poor, level headed, impulsive, plus a few in between, says Damian Barr.

Once upon a time there were those who owned a second home abroad. They bought it for pre euro peanuts and did it up slowly. It was something lovely, a farmhouse somewhere predictable, like the Dordogne.

There they enjoyed long holidays with their children and their friends and their children. They were the fortunate few. Now, it seems, everyone is doing it. More than a quarter of a million Britons have turned the daydream into a reality, according to Caxton FX, an independent currency company. Almost half of those have snapped up homes in Spain and France. But, as Provence becomes provincial, we're looking further afield with more than a third of homes now being bought outside Europe.

We now move quite comfortably between countries, not counties, and sometimes even between continents. A second home is a must have.

Some people even have two homes, or three or four or more. Others have a much,loved bolt hole in a tried and tested territory. For twentysomethings desperate to buy something, anything, anywhere, Bulgaria is better than nothing.

So are you an Intrepid Investor, a Level Headed Long Termer, a Jetsetting Bon Vivant, a Serial Buy to Letter or a Rampant Renovator? And will you all live happily after? Read on to find out.

Intrepid Investors

The Intrepid Investors are cash poor and time poor. They have "freelance projects" rather than jobs and have never even thought about a pension. They make lots, spend more and surf the bottom of their overdraft. Their busy lives are a series of deadlines and the next big one is finding a place to buy. Although they no longer live at home, their parents are piling on pressure to settle down.

Easier said than done when your natural habitat is edgy but expensive Shoreditch in East London. They've considered Glasgow but they're not sure how good the sushi is up there, and it's too cold. Despairing Mum and Dad are even offering a deposit of 50,000 GBP's.

The Intrepid Investor hasn't seen that much money since the last student loan. It seems a waste to put it straight into a property in Britain just as the market is levelling off. Why not buy abroad? At their local gastropub that night a group of Intrepid Investors discuss the possibility of finally getting on the property ladder and making some easy money. A friend freshly returned from travelling (again) believes Eastern Europe is a bargain. The beer is certainly good, and there are plenty of cheap flights.

Financed by their parents and fuelled by dreams of capital appreciation and potential rental income, the Intrepid Investors are off, scouring the internet for bargains on the eastern fringes of Europe.

Serial Buy to Letters

Such is their grasp of geography and global affairs, Serial Buy to Letters could well work for the UN. As it is, they are a lawyer or City worker with more money than time. They communicate by BlackBerry. When it comes to money and markets they know what's what.

What's more, they have the cash to take advantage of prevailing trends. They were among the first to buy off plan and they know their way around the most complex contract.

To spread the risk the SBTLs cast their nets wide. Yes, there are the corporate lets in big cities like Madrid and Frankfurt. But there are also the holiday apartments in countries such as Turkey and even Brazil. No single property costs more than 150,000 GBP's.

These are not homes, they're investments, each a carefully considered piece of a perfect portfolio. The SBTL hasn't seen them all but can tell you about the square footage and what they're worth.


The full story from Times Online

The crack down on "Black money"

The Government in Spain is stepping up on new laws to help stamp out the use of "black money" in property purchases across Spain.

To help reduce tax liabilities for a seller, they will often ask a purchaser of the property to declare that they are buying at a price which is much less than the original price advertised, then pay them the difference in cash "black money".

The under declaring of purchase price benefits the seller if he has a Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liability & the buyer from a stamp duty perspective.

CGT is payable even on gains on main residences in Spain. Spanish residents pay 15 per cent & non-residents pay 35 per cent at the moment.

Better solicitors will always suggest that their clients don't agree to under declare. They will also work with the client to come up with a suitable compromise with the vendor which might involve paying a bit more but knowing there will be no problems in the future.

New laws, expected to come into force later in the year, property sellers & buyers will also have to disclose their tax identification numbers when buying a property in Spain.

This will help the Spanish authorities to see if homeowners do not register their properties & who do not pay tax on rental income on their property or when they sell their property in Spain.

The Government in Spain introduced measures last year to help prevent black money being used in property deals. Now, everyone involved in the property purchase has to state in the deeds of the property what the method of payment is.

It is also becoming harder to withdraw large cash lump sums from banks in Spain without raising suspicion. If you have suddenly withdrawn €20,000 in cash on the day you signed the deeds, then you risk being investigated.

However, the tightening of the regulation is unlikely to result in sudden attempts to claw tax back from those who have previously bought property using black money. It would be relatively easy for the Spanish authorities to track down those who had used black money. Quite often in the contract, both the declared price & the actual price are written there, so it wouldn't be difficult to trace people who had under declared.

There are also steps being taken to ensure landlords disclose rental income. Many landlords try to escape revealing this income, again to avoid paying tax on it. But tenants now have to include the property registry number on utility bills and other contracts, so it will be clear when a property is being lived in and when it is vacant.

You normally find it is when people are paying cash from their own purse or raising the money from their own UK properties that they can be drawn into this.

As well as risking fines by not declaring money during a purchase of a property, remember that there are other ways in which you can lose out.