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We have been approached on numerous occasions recently by various Spanish banks and intermediaries, wanting to feature their bank repossessions as part of our distressed Spanish property portfolio.
We have looked into the repossessions market here in Spain, and in our opinion, there are a number of obstacles to overcome before you can successfully (and confidently) promote the concept.
Firstly, as an end-user client looking to buy a cheap Spanish property, you are completely in the hands of the bank and their representatives. I´ve heard nightmare stories about banks changing the askig prices at the last minute, and denying access to photos and property information until a client has committed to an inspection trip to Spain.Secondly, in my opinion only a very small percentage of these Spanish repossessions are actually genuine ´bargains´ - most of the really good properties (eg where the bank are looking to recover a very small debt on a property that is worth considerably more) are snapped up by bank staff (or those ´in the know´) while the rest of the dross if offered up with a discount of 30% to 40%, often on large scale developments that the bank originally financed and which now resemble ghost towns. Often in this scenario, the developer has gone bankrupt and the bank needs cash to salvage something from the situation. Very often, the true value can be much lower than even the discounted price from the bank.
Repossessions they may be, but as far removed from a genuine bargain as you could get.
I have said it so many times recently, I´m going blue in the face! – you can only boast of bagging a Spanish property bargain If all of these criteria stack up:
- LOCATION
- QUALITY
- PRICE
Just because something is cheap and has been heavily discounted, this does not necessarily make it a good deal. But people will always be suckered in by all those fabulous words that we see in the media – REPOSSESSIONS, CHEAP SPANISH PROPERTIES etc.
Please, please, please – if you don´t want to become another victim of the Spanish property market ´collapse´, stick to the best areas and work from there – you may have to be a little patieent, but you´ll be surprised by the gems that you can find.
comments
e rodriguezsaid
I do not fully agree with your view on repossessed property in spain.
spain, same as england, are at present forced to sale below market price, purely because people cannot afford it.
spain in particular, has an astronomical number of properties that had been built on speculation, and because they are second ownership they become too expensive a toy, as for the banks even they are limited as to how many properties they,ll want to buy, since to make profit,those properties have to be sold, and as present it’s harder then it has ever been
share your opinion 
