"It's worth £500k but you can have it for £300k"

Meedley_Wah

Hey,

I'll be honest I'm not interested in buying a house at the moment but I was watching one of those property shows where people are moving abroad and it raised me a question.

The two couple were looking at Villas in Spain (I think) and the lady/host was like "This one is on the market for £300,000 however, someone made an offer at £280,000 which was accepted but they couldn't secure the mortgage so it's in your budget. And the great news is, recently it was valued at £500,000."

How does that work!? How is it valued at such a high price but being sold for so cheap? Am I missing something? The couple were able to pay in Cash so surely you'd buy it and then just put it on the market straight away and make a mahoosive profit?

(The figures I gave there are just rough by the way, I can't remember the exact figures)

Thanks!

Daryl

thelem

That's presumably an unrealistic valuation, or "recent" means two years ago. The Spanish property market is terrible at the moment, so maybe the buyers need to sell quikly and that's the only way they can do it.

Or they could be lying, but that seems unlikely if you know a camera is rolling.

blackshirtuk

Meedley_Wah wrote: »

And the great news is, recently it was valued at £500,000."

Define "recently" and you may get your answer.

I would guess "recently" means a few years ago it was worth £500k,

dimbo61

The spanish dream of retirement in the sun has for some turned into a nightmare.
Yes its nice waking up to warm sunshine and sea nearby BUT the spanish health system costs money and its not free like the NHS.
The pension many people retired on is not enough to survive in spain and enjoy life!!
Many people paid far too much for a small place in the sun and cant sell because no one is buying.
huge new modern estates with lots of new furniture/kitchen ETc or an old run down place with old fashioned furniture.
Getting a spanish mortgage ??? with many spanish banks not lending.
The list of problems goes on BUT if you are a cash buyer and have funds to enjoy life in the costa del sunshine
25% youth unemployment

jamie11

dimbo61 wrote: »

25% youth unemployment

The youth unemployment figures are much higher than that, about 42% I read recently in the Costa Blanca News, the overall figure for all ages is about 25%.

The problem selling here is that first you have to more or less guess what value you need to put on your property, then see if there is any interest, currently there is a house on our Urbanisation that has been for sale at E300,000 for the last 3 years with a huge 'Se Vende' banner across the whole of the front of it saying that price. That banner has, more or less, set the values for the whole of the estate. It is very difficult to set a higher price even if your property has a lot more features than that house. You'd think the vendors would have the sense to realise that and lower the price until they get interest but it's not happening.

C'est la vie!

seven-day-weekend

It was never worth £500k. People are often unrealistic about the market value of their property (especially in places like the Spanish Costas).

It's worth what someone will pay, that's all.

We have recently sold our Spanish house (not on an urbanisation, nor on the coast) and have actually made a small profit because we bought at a realistic price nine years ago and sold realistically too.

paddyrg

thelem wrote: »

Or they could be lying, but that seems unlikely if you know a camera is rolling.

Remember TV is terrible at fact-checking...an estate agent probably span the developer's dream valuation to a 20-yr-old production assistant, and it gets in the show. *ALL* TV cares about is making TV that keeps you watching after the break, and doesn't injure anyone, and is cheap. That's it. If it is cheaper/easier to cheat something than to do it in real life, TV will cheat it every time. Especially for made-by-the-yard reality property shows.

Mobeer

I suspect the owner recently valued the property at 500,000. Then someone else could not get secure a mortgage with the proposed sale price at 280,000, which gives another potential valuation of less than 280k. Perhaps a purchase at 240k would allow a tidy profit to be made in a few years time?

breadlinebetty

The Spanish property market is is in freefall and there's actually some complexes which are like ghost towns as the redisents have just handed their keys back in (unable to pay the mortgage) or walked away from the property as they can no longer afford to live there.........:eek:

Same thing's happening in Turkey, in fact it could be even worse than Spain - what with the much longer flight, more expensive flights, and a thousand other problems too!:(

People can barely GIVE their properties away out in Turkey

vivatifosi

Interesting thread. I've been looking to buy in Spain so as to have a small second home for when we retire. Even though prices have fallen dramatically in Spain, I can still get more for my money just over the border in France than in Catalunya (where) I've been looking. I think there is further to fall.

I was also interested to hear about Turkey. Have heard similar stories about Florida. Flights are more expensive and people are finding it hard to get the rentals to cover the rents.

breadlinebetty

vivatifosi wrote: »

Interesting thread. I've been looking to buy in Spain so as to have a small second home for when we retire. Even though prices have fallen dramatically in Spain, I can still get more for my money just over the border in France than in Catalunya (where) I've been looking. I think there is further to fall.

I was also interested to hear about Turkey. Have heard similar stories about Florida. Flights are more expensive and people are finding it hard to get the rentals to cover the rents.

I've heard that Spain and much of the Med still has further to fall, too.

As for Turkey, that's falling at a dramatic rate. People just can't sell their properties and are lumbered. Unless you go to live out there people who buy a holiday home often forget to factor in all the maintenance that needs doing throughout the year. Then there's burglaries (which are rife in Turkey) and if you only use it for a couple of months of the year it seems a pointless exercise really. Then you've got the ever increasing expensive flights over to Turkey, some of which are hard to find in the winter, or require two flights (stopping off in Istanbul)....

Another thing people aren't warned about when buying in Turkey is that their winters are wet and cold. It's not like Spain where it's milder and drier. Winters in Turkey can be very miserable especially if you're living in a resort which has all but closed for the winter - that's usually October to May - so a fairly long time of having nothing to do and feeling cold. Cos that's the other thing, houses in Turkey are built for the summer - few have central heating or are insulated, so they feel freezing in the winter - even with one of those sooty soba fire things

Sadly a lot of people buy on impulse in a particular resort, and then bitterly regret it after living there for a year or so. Back in 2003/4 people were falling over themselves to buy out in Turkey, and now they're stuck with homes that are almost worthless and/or have fallen into disrepair.

The canny Turks (now they can take out mortgages) are the people buying out there now - and they drive a REALLY hard bargain! And when a Brit really NEEDS to sell to liquify some money they end up selling their place for peanuts. I know someone who paid £125k for a villa back in 2005 and has recently sold it for just £57k They had no choice - the bank was chasing them for the loan they'd taken out to buy it - and THAT loan was set against their home in England!:eek:

I'd advise anyone to rent for a year before buying abroad. There's nothing worse than being seduced by the sun, sea and holiday feel, only to find living there is nothing like the dream you thought it would be. Plus the building regs out there are very different...your wonderful view of the sea or mountains could suddenly be obstructed by an ugly concrete block of flats - taht happens frequently. Turkey is one big building site. They throw properties up like sheds (despite no buyers! lol) and that only makes it worse for those trying to sell as they're competing with brand new properties with all the latest flashy fittings.........

Rent, rent, rent abroad until you really know where you want to stay put!