Tuesday 16 January 2007

New terminal opens at Alicante Airport


The new terminal at Alicante’s El Altet Airport opens today (Tuesday), increasing the airport’s capacity up to 22 flights an hour from the previous 18. Operational capacity will increase to 24 flights an hour when 24 new check-in desks come into service this summer. Baggage reclaim and check-in will remain in the main terminal until then.The number of boarding gates are also increased, from 12 up to 16. There are still plenty of cranes around the airport, so it would be fair to say that the facelift at Alicante Airport will continue for some time.

Tuesday 9 January 2007

Happy New Year

And what better way to start the new year than a new reduced rate of Spanish Capital Gains Tax which came into force on January 1st - more on this below, but first:
We have noticed that compared to recent months, visitors and traffic to our website, and more importantly, property enquiries and viewings have probably doubled over the last few months. Busy is good of course and it suggests that the property market is alive and kicking and that we at Ultimate Homes are doing something right!!
Since we started, we always wanted to offer clients the best quality of product available within the specified budget, and we are starting to see the results with many of current viewings being with clients who have become disillusioned with property tours to Spain and being shown property in areas / locations that were totally wrong.
The way that English-speaking buyers are starting to wise up, quality is bound to be the key attribute in future.
2007 is going to be a buyer's market. If you are hoping to buy, go for quality. If you are hoping to sell, lower your price expectations.
Back to the Capital Gains Tax - no doubt this will boost the property market, as the drop in capital gains tax on property sales for non-residents in Spain which fell from 35% to 18% has been well-received.
This change by the Spanish Government follows a European Court ruling deeming the previous tax regime to be unfair to non-residents. Holiday home owners and property investors alike will benefit from thousands of pounds of savings as they will have to give up 50 per cent less to the Spanish tax authorities than they did previously and landlords too will be able to cling onto more of their rental yields. Furthermore sellers of property in Spain will also enjoy a reduction in the withholding provision that non-residents pay upon completion down from 5% to 3%.
A CGT rate of 18% markedly improves Spain’s housing market competitiveness respective to other popular overseas property hotspots such as France. The Spanish lifestyle and it’s sunnier climes continue to lure British buyers and it remains the second most popular destination in which to settle overseas accordingly to recent research published by the Institute for Public Policy Research in December, which said that 760,000 Brits have selected the Iberian peninsula as their home in the sun. (With thanks to Nubricks for the info).
All the best for 2007!!

Tinsa €/m2