09.28.09
Posted in Gran Canaria news at 7:36 am by admin
Paradise Boulevard in Gran Canaria is currently lined by beautiful date palm trees. The trees have grown to such a size that they are encroaching on power lines and causing cuts in local electricity supplies. The 7,200 volts in the power lines kills the trees when they come into contact.
The city are having to look at a way of selling of the trees. The trees have been up for bids since early 2008 but little interest has been shown.
Recently a bidder has been found but it will take a year to replace the trees.
A company has come forward that will sell and deliver each tree one at a time if necessary and pay the government 500 euros per tree.
The main problem being that the trees will not be removed in order but randomly depending on each customers needs.
The Date Palm tress will be replaced with Foxtail Palm trees.
No better solution has been found as yet so it looks like a sporadic approach is the only option.
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Posted in Commercial property Spain at 3:58 am by admin
The Commercial Property section of Spain’s property market has an increasing share of the European market.
In absolute terms the market has shrunk, it is shrinking much less in Spain.
Investment activity came to 1.85 billion euros in the first half of 2009. It seems that investors and funds have noticed that their are some good investment opportunities in Spain. It should be noted that Spain had some of Europe’s biggest property deals in the first half of 2009, two of the nine transactions were for more than €200 million. Amongst the bigger deals was the acquisition by Orion Capital of the Plenilunio shopping centre in Madrid costing €235 million.
Since the market high point in mid-2007, the best yields in Spain have increased by between 200 and 225 basis points. In comparison there was a European average rise of 136 bps for the same period.
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Posted in Canary island news at 3:27 am by admin
According to a recently printed article the Canary Islands are attracting thousands of visitors from across Europe for their health care service.
Over the period of May to October in health centres across the Canaries over one million non residents are treated. The majority of this group are retired British and German nationals. The health care comes at a cost of 20 million euros.
British residents are drawn by the lack of queues and that smokers can still obtain treatments without having to first go on a give up smoking programme.
Visitors from Belgium and Holland come for dialysis treatment as their national health service does not cover this treatment.
Free health care is not only exclusive to EU citizens either; many users are from family members of Latin American immigrants living in Spain; once they obtain resident status they return to their own country to undergo an operation which they can then claim through the Spanish national health system.
During summer in Tenerife, in the municipalities of Adeje and Arona around 60% of their patients are foreigners who, after an initial consultation, go on to have surgery before returning home.
The most popular operations are hip or knee replacements, heart surgery or treatment for tumours.
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Posted in Canary island news at 2:59 am by admin
The Bank of Spain finally has some good new for the Spanish property market. For the first time since December 2006 the amount of bad loans on the market has finally dropped.
Confidence is still slow to return as market analysts have noted that interbank activity has remained subdued.
“A lot of aspects of the market are back to normal. But one thing is to look at levels and another is to look at the activity around the number and we see activity is still fairly subdued,” said Gianluca Salford, a strategist at JP Morgan in London.
“Banks are still in a deleveraging process and it’s not clear lending by the banks is the best use of their money at this point in time,” he said.
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09.25.09
Posted in Canary island news at 1:57 am by admin
A little optimism is returning to the UK property market. This will have a positive knock on effect for the property market in the Canary Islands.
Recent figures have shown that property prices in the UK are at a five year high. The figures were published by the ‘Land Registry office’ who are seen as a very reliable source of information in this field.
The report goes on to say that the increases in prices are especially market in London based property. House prices increased by 1.7% in July, this being the largest single increase since July 2004.
The land registry office were not alone in quoting this good news. In agreement with them are Savills who reported sales in the London area rising by 52% on the same period a year ago. Marking a three year high for them. The largest players being cash rich investors snapping up bargains.
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Posted in Canary island news at 1:41 am by admin
At long last there is a viable internet connection alternative to Telefonica. Vodafone have launched their own internet service in the Canary Islands. Vodafone can now offer internet connectivity all across Spain. No longer does Movistar have the Spanish monopoly on this market.
Vodafone Spain have installed a total of six telephone exchanges across the islands. New customers to this service will receive free installation, a wifi router and a USB modem for mobile internet connection.
The new Vodafone service will start at 29.90 euros per month for speeds of up to 6 mega bits per second.
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09.23.09
Posted in Canary island news at 7:05 am by admin
Jameos del Agua in Lanzarote has the worlds longest lava tubes. It is here that Thomas Llife from a Texas University has discovered several new species. Among the species discovered, two new species of worms and one crustacean were found.
One of the new species of crustacean, which belongs in the ‘Remipedia’ class, is one of the most primitive species known to man. Another has poisonous fangs strong enough to kill a shrimp. This species is at least 200 million years of age and was around when dinosaurs where alive.
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Posted in Canary island news at 6:59 am by admin
East Londoner Peter van Kets is set to row single handed across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to Antigua. He will undertake the 5,500 km journey in a rowing boat specially designed by himself. The 7.1m by 1.8 m boat is made from carbon fibre. Peter’s target time for the row is 50 days but he has enough supplies to last him 120 days. In 2007 he completed a two man row across the Atlantic and lost 14 kg. He is preparing this time by fattening himself up beforehand. Van Kets used to be a teacher but is now a full time adventurer. In 2012 he is preparing to row around the world.
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