Archive for May, 2010
Getting the right answers.
Understanding the law in Spain is never straight forward and I have always found it difficult to get reliable free advice. Of course there are the ‘bar stool experts’, people that do a normal job during the day but by night inexplicably turn into Spanish legal experts. I am amazed by how many people turn to the ‘bar stool expert’ for answers to very important questions, after all the answers probably come from the ‘bar stool expert’ before them or maybe even the one before that! Would we ask the plumber or electrician for their advice in having heart surgery? And I certainly wouldn’t ask the heart specialist to mend my leaking pipes if I wanted the job done properly!
Lawyers giving free legal guides.
Recently I was searching the web for an answer to a specific problem and yes, as usual, I found conflicting answers on different sites. Then quite by accident I came across a site by a group of Spanish lawyers offering free legal guides on many different topics, and the site was in English. I spent some time looking around the site and the information is quite comprehensive. The most important thing is the site is compiled by Spanish legal professionals so the information is sure to be accurate. No more rental contract
The site is called iAbogado, why not take a look around. I now have it saved in my favorites and I’m sure it will become a regular reference tool in the future.
Recipe: Tostados
Summary: I always thought this was a typical breakfast of Spain. I now know that it is actually the typical breakfast of Andalucia.
Ingredients
- A day old barra (baguette)
- A peeled clove of garlic
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh tomato
Instructions
- Slice the barra lengthwise and toast until golden.
- Rub the toasted side with the garlic clove all over.
- Take the tomato and slice in half and rub vigourously over the toast.
- Drizzle lots and lots of olive oil onto the toast let it soak in.
- Add a little salt to taste.
Cooking time (duration): 5 mins
Meal type: breakfast
Culinary tradition: Spanish
In business? Your welcome.
This is your personal invitation to join us at the Deja Vu Centro Comercial Elviria on: Thursday 3rd June 2010, from 18:30 till whenever.
Deja Vu, Informal Networking, bringing positivity back to the Coast.
An opportunity to meet like minded people and develop business relationships in a social environment.
Why not bring a friend and come see what its all about.
Welcome drink and tapas courtesey of Caser Seguros.
Meet people that have lived and worked on the Coast from 21 days to 21 years. This isyour chance to develop a TRUSTED network in a relaxed social environment. Build up TRUST, make FRIENDS and BUSINESS will follow. Please bring a friend and/or feel free to extend this invitation on to trusted sources.
REMEMBER, NO SPEECHES, NO AGENDA.
This is also your chance to meet members of such networks as; 4 Business Global, Business 1st and the British Chamber of Commerce as well as many others in a less formal manner.
Our Sponsors Caser and our host Darren Higgs look forward to welcoming you.
No – not real dinosaurs! Mijas Town Hall have recently announced that they have been looking at creating a large Jurassic Park tourist attraction somewhere in the area. There was talk about it being at the Mijas Hipodromo, but it now appears that the site will be the ‘Finca El Ahogaero’ on the Camino de Coin road.
The 200,000 square metre park, to be called ‘Jurapark Mijas’, will have workshops, exhibition halls, open air arenas and leisure areas. They have called upon the expertise of several international institutions to make sure the park is as authentic as possible, recreating the different species of dinosaurs.
Investing in the area
Here is a great example of people having faith in the return of the tourism industry to the Costa del Sol. The council of Mijas are looking to invest some 12 million euros in the project which they think will take around 18/24 months to complete. They anticipate the creation of around 190 jobs both directly with the park and indirectly. It’s great to know that the various authorities are trying to attract the tourists back to the area.
We’ve all seen the empty bars and restaurants, and I don’t just mean those that have closed down! The owners must be ready to pull their hair out, the continual bad weather this year can’t be helping and they must all be praying for a good summer season.
Let’s hope that they can hold on long enough to benefit from the initiatives talked about in my previous blogs – tourist pathways leading into the mountains from Marbella, the newly improved promenade (or maritimo as John keeps reminding me) in Marbella, the improved chiringuitos in all areas, the improvements being made to the beaches along the coast – and the list goes on.
Keeping the faith
Keeping our heads down and working hard over the next few years may hopefully be rewarded with brighter times ahead. So as Leapy Lee says in his brilliant column ‘Keep the faith’!
Meet new friends in Marbella
New venue for June’s TweetUp. We are moving to East Marbella to hopefully give new people the opportunity to come along if they havent made it already.
Join us for our monthly informal TweetMarbella in Terra Sana ELVIRIA.
Whether you tweet a little or a lot, tweet for business or pleasure, TweetMarbella is an excellent opportunity to put a face to that tweet or make new contacts.
Starting at 6.30pm, this is a casual, friendly tweetup open to everyone.
More information? Click here.
The Costa del Sol has been very badly hit in recent years by the slump in the
housing market. Many developers have had to shut their businesses, whilst others have stopped developments mid build.
The unfortunate scandal of illegally built properties has only helped to escalate the problem, with thousands of new properties left empty and going into disrepair because they haven’t been given the official paperwork.
A good time to buy
The Junta de Andalucia have just launched a new website called (only in Spanish I’m afraid) www.tuviviendaenandalucia.es They hope that by bringing a huge amount of unsold properties onto one site, and by attracting buyers with special mortgage deals through the various banks and other financial institutions, that things will start to move again.
This initiative is only for 2010, so if you’re thinking of buying, now’s your chance. There are some 700 properties listed for the Malaga region so far by developers, and more than 2800 properties available through the links to financial institutions.
For a property to be eligible for the site it has to meet certain criteria. It must be newly built and ready to move into, or be completed before the end of the year. It must also be up for sale at the mortgage value which must not exceed 245,000 euros plus tax.
How it works
The Junta de A
ndalucia and the 19 financial institutions who are participating in this have come to an agreement. For those properties included in this scheme the mortgages available will be for 100% of the price, with no deposit needed and no commission charged.
Each loan will be for between 9,000 and 15,000 euros, depending on the applicant, and will help to reduce the monthly mortgage payments over the first eight years.
For the first three years you would pay only the interest on the loan, then from the fourth to the eighth year the loan would help to reduce the payments by around 150/250 euros a month.
Have a look at the website, we have, it’s amazing. We struggled to find 2/3 bedroom properties over 120,000 euros. There’s a special simulator on the site which allows you to work out how much of a loan you’d be entitled to and an estimate of how much the mortgage would be over the years.
Don’t leave it too late
As I said earlier, this scheme is only available in 2010. With tax deductions for the purchase of properties no longer applicable after the end of the year and IVA going up in July, now really is a great time to look at getting on the property ladder!
Sunday 30th May
This Sunday sees the annual traditional procession in honor of San Roque, the patron saint of Monda. The procession will go from Plaza de la la Constitución to the Chapel of San Roque, starting 8:30 a.m.
The climb to La Alpujata will include a performance by the Monda Rocío Choir, who will entertain the saint’s devotees. The procession will take a break at Higuerilla Blanquilla at around 9:15 to replenish energy levels and take refreshments.
During the day
A Catholic service, organised by the local Fraternity of San Roque will take place in La Alpujata. Other activities during the day include a women’s football match, Monda v Ojén, a wagon competition and, back in Monda, a concert by the band “Rondalla Pan con Aceite” at the Parish Church of Santiago Apóstol.
This weeks look at the euro and the pound with currency expert Keith Spitalnick.
Revised GDP figures due
Tuesday 25th May will see revised GDP figures. These are likely to be rounded upwards, but not by much. Lord Jones of Birmingham (Digby), politician and former Director of the CBI has urged the new Chancellor of the Exchequer to address the deficit through tax and not through regulation. The British banking sector accounts for 7% of our GDP, but over 24% of tax income, so to alienate this sector with increased scrutiny of their activities.
Germany’s ban
Germany’s ban on naked short selling has seen a surety come into Europe. Although temporary, the measure taken by the German chancellor has forced the hand of speculators and cornered them into unwinding their positions. Market sentiment remains unchanged; the addressing of the sovereign debt issue can now be debated rationally without the need to quarterise the money markets.
Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel’s announcement on short selling any sovereign bonds, credit default swaps and shares in Germany’s top ten financial institution was supposed to bring calm to the markets – instead it had the opposite effect. Euro-Dollar hit a fresh low, sliding to 1.2140 before recovering significantly after rumours of the Fed and ECB checking prices at major banks (which is tantamount to direct involvement) and stock markets around the world suffered further falls. There was widespread condemnation of the move, the main fear being that the regulations would scare investors away from the Eurozone just at the point when it needs them the most (BNP Paribas reported major capital flight to Switzerland yesterday). It is also a blatantly political move masked in economics, designed to garner support from the left and shore up Merkel’s government. The effectiveness of a one country ban on short selling can be summed up with the example of Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest financial institution, who after the ban was introduced ceased trading in CDS’s between 7am and 9am until they realised the ban only applied in Germany and promptly resumed normal business through their London office.
Bank of England minutes
The release of the Bank of England minutes yesterday shows a continuation of the dovish stance of the MPC. They again voted unanimously in favour of keeping interest rates on hold and remained cautiously optimistic that the economic recovery would pick up pace the latter part of this year and into next. However, with inflation still above the target level of 2%, a rise in interest rates later this year cannot be ruled out.
For more information on currency exchange you can click here.
Frigiliana is a beautiful village not far from the coast in the Costa del Sol. If you’re in the region of Nerja then it’s well worth a visit to see this fantastic 
little village.
It has won several prizes in recent years for best-preserved village and the National and Andalusian Prize for Beauty. With it’s pristine white washed houses and steep narrow streets lined with trees and displays of plants and flowers, it’s a great place to spend a leisurely day wandering around.
Recognition wanted by the villagers
Frigiliana hasn’t actually received it’s official categorisation as a ‘Cultural and Historic Preservation Site’ yet. The people of the village have been requesting some kind of recognition from the Junta de Andalucia, who award these categories, for quite a while now and feel it only fair to be given this status.
If you go and have a look around yourself I’m sure you’ll agree, this village is something special and definitely deserves the recognition it seeks.
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