As prices hit rock bottom in a depressed economy, overseas investors are scooping up prime City and coastal real estate Although hundreds of Spanish families are still being evicted every day for defaulting on their mortgages, foreign buyers have returned in force to the country's depressed property market. New data from the Bank of Spain last week showed that foreign purchases in 2013 exceeded 6bn...
There are undoubtedly signs that the Spanish economy is going to improve. Now austerity itself is Madrid's problem Unemployment is at crisis levels, but there are signs that Spain is turning a corner. After four torrid years characterised by soaring numbers without work and a crumbling banking system, demand for Spanish debt is suddenly buoyant. Last week Madrid borrowed 5.6bn on the international...
The end of the property boom left this historically poor part of Spain in dire straits, with unemployment approaching 40% As a destination it conjures images of beaches, whitewashed villas and endless olive groves. The sun shines as brightly as ever in Andalucía, but behind the brochure image lie poverty, soup kitchens and a growing sense of desperation. According to new data produced by Eurostat,...
As property prices in many countries collapse, we ask: Is this the right time to try and bag a bargain? Fancy a five-bed, four-bath lakeside villa with a swimming pool in Florida, less than 20 minutes drive to Walt Disney World on the market for $259,900 (£154,500) compared to the $360,000 it fetched just after construction in 2005? Or how about a two-bed, two-bath villa in the Spanish countryside,...
Ground-penetrating radar equipment to be used in hope of finding remains of Spanish author of Don Quixote For years, Fernando de Prado felt he was tilting at windmills in his quest to find the remains of Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes. Continue reading... ...
Report paints picture of heavy-handed government response to country's growing social movements The Spanish government is using fines, harassment and excessive police force to limit the right to protest, Amnesty International warned in a new report released on Thursday. Continue reading... ...
Caixabank and Sabadell loan data provides signal that economic turnaround is feeding through to banks and borrowers Two big lenders have heralded the start of a turnaround in the Spanish banking sector after the ravages of the financial crisis, with Caixabank and Sabadell reporting fewer bad debts in the first quarter of 2014. Spain's financial industry has struggled to recover from a 2008 housing...
Spanish newspaper publishes chapter from unseen manuscript We'll See Each Other in August, which could be the final work from the late Nobel laureate An extract from an unpublished manuscript by Gabriel García Márquez, in which the late Nobel laureate writes about a married woman having an affair on a tropical island, has been published in a Spanish newspaper. Continue reading... ...
Pei-Shen Qian, acccused, along with two Spanish brokers, of conning New York art collectors, will likely escape extradition A 75-year-old painter accused of forging works by artists such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning for a $33m fraud scheme in New York appears well placed to avoid prosecution and up to 45 years in prison, as he has moved to China. Pei-Shen Qian was on Monday...
Enric Duran in hiding and unapologetic after obtaining dozens of loans and handing out money to social activists They call him the Robin Hood of the banks, a man who took out dozens of loans worth almost half a million euros with no intention of ever paying them back. Instead, Enric Duran farmed the money out to projects that created and promoted alternatives to capitalism. After 14 months in hiding,...
Authorities seek to extradite Jose Carlos Bergantiños, who is accused of having dealt in millions of dollars of counterfeit art A Spanish businessman suspected of having dealt in millions of dollars of fake art and wanted for fraud in the United States has been arrested during Easter festivities in southern Spain, officials said on Sunday. Art dealer Jose Carlos Bergantiños Diaz was arrested...
PM's encounter with sea creature while on holiday in Lanzarote is not the first time that a jellyfish has caused him pain David Cameron is known for floating serenely above the political fray, suffering very little damage to his own reputation even as his government is forced into U-turns or his ministers are forced to resign . But on holiday in Lanzarote this week the prime minister's luck ran out....
Catalan sculptor whose creations can be seen worldwide, and most notably on Gaudí's Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona The sculptor Josep Maria Subirachs, who has died aged 87, is mainly associated with his controversial sculptures for the Passion Facade of Antoni Gaudí's famous Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona. When Subirachs accepted his 1986 commission, he insisted on two...
Statistics reveal top five worst hit areas for joblessness are in Spain where almost 6 million people are without a job A day after Spain's second-biggest bank predicted it would take 10 years for employment to return to 2007 levels, more grim statistics revealed that seven of the EU's 10 worst employment blackspots are in Spain. The top five worst hit areas are in Spain, where almost 6 million people...
Prime minister and his wife pose for photographers while sipping coffee in Canary Island resort of Teguise The prime minister, David Cameron, and his wife, Samantha, joined the crowds soaking up the atmosphere on Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, as their Easter break got under way. The couple sipped coffee in a cafe by the beach in the popular resort of Teguise, which was once the capital of the island....
Spanish state vessels have unlawfully entered British waters around Gibraltar more than 600 times since start of 2013 Spanish government vessels have unlawfully entered British territorial waters around Gibraltar more than 600 times since the start of 2013, according to official figures. There were 496 incursions in 2013 and 112 in the first three months of 2014, the figures disclosed by the British...
Email mistakenly sent to marketing student, saying 'try to get him for free', illustrates wage race to the bottom A little marketing experience to pad his CV and maybe some spending money. That's what Alejandro Abad was hoping for when he applied for an internship at the Madrid office of Innwise, a Spanish marketing company. What he got, a few hours after submitting his application, was an email, mistakenly...
About 1 million buyers sign up to bid online in Spanish inland revenue's annual auction of assorted confiscated goods A Jacuzzi in the Canary Isles, an art deco theatre in Asturias, shares in a second division football club and 50 brassieres are just some of the items on offer at the Spanish inland revenue's annual auction of confiscated goods. About 1 million buyers have signed up to bid at the online...
Andrew Bush's ex-girlfriend, Mayka Marica Kukucova, detained in Slovakia on suspicion of consumed intentional homicide The former girlfriend of a British millionaire wanted in connection with his murder on the Costa del Sol has been arrested, Spanish officials have said. Businessman Andrew Bush, 48, was found dead early on Saturday at a property near Estepona, west of Marbella. Continue reading......
Parliament expected to vote overwhelmingly against proposal, but Catalan government will go ahead with 9 November vote Spain's parliament votes on Tuesday on whether to allow a request from Catalonia to hold a referendum on independence a request they are set to reject overwhelmingingly. The parliamentary confrontation threatens to widen the gulf between the central government in Madrid and Catalan...