A digest of this week’s Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners:
Prepared by Lenox Napier. Consultant: José Antonio Sierra
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Editorial: Business over Tapas
Madrid is an interesting city.
How it became the capital of Spain (remember that word, ‘capital’) is an interesting story as well.
There wasn’t much going on in Madrid back in the XVI Century. It counted with a small population and of course it wasn’t on the sea or even on a decent river (the Río Manzanares is almost always nothing more than a trickle, although in the last week it’s certainly true to say that it has reached its highest level in donkey’s years). Madrid’s main industries were of court, religious or political interest rather than making anything useful. Other nations had their capital cities where they could enjoy good communications and better trade.
One of the city’s attractions for the Royal Family was the gigantic private hunting park, 16,000 hectares in size – which took up a full quarter of Madrid and which was and is to this day closed to the commoners: the Monte de El Pardo. There’s a huge palace there, General Franco was one of its tenants.
King Juan Carlos even built a house in the park for his lover Corinna Larsen, without anyone – including his Queen – being any the wiser.
The fence around the Monte de El Pardo is 66 kilometres long.
In 1561, when Madrid with its modest population of 20,000 became Spain’s capital city, there was no port, no industry, no commerce, no cathedral, no university, and no navigable river. But, it was found to be the exact geographical centre of Spain (the Puerta del Sol is marked by a stone slab called Kilómetro Cero. Also, and on the bright side, there were plenty of fallow deer and stags for the king’s enjoyment in the giant park just along from the future palace.
The previous Spanish capital, from 1519 to 1561, had been Toledo (it was also the country’s largest city), although it’s true to say that the seat of power has tended to jump about a bit along the Spanish timeline (including Seville – twice – in 1729 to 1733 and then again between 1808 and 1810), plus Cádiz, Córdoba and don’t forget Cangis de Onis in Asturias, where la Reconquista began, along with Valencia, Barcelona, Gerona, Figueras and Burgos – these last five during the Spanish Civil War), but from the point of view of the Monarchs, Madrid was far better suited (and they didn’t have to share the limelight with the tiresome Toledo bishops).
One of the cleverest of the grandees, back in the first half of the XVII Century, was Francisco de Sandoval y Rojas, the first Duque de Lerma. He is described as ‘the most powerful man during the reign of Philip III. He became immensely wealthy through his skill in corruption, influence peddling, and the sale of public offices’. He persuaded the king to move his court to Zaragoza in 1601 (having previously bought up most of the better real estate there) and then talked the king into returning his court back to Madrid in 1606, having been busy in the property market in that city too.
Some traditions in Spain are just too good to die.
The Duque ended up under a cloud, as sometimes happens when speculators are found out (viz, current events), but he built a large palace for himself in Lerma, a building which is now a Parador Hotel, to keep himself busy.
His elegant solution to his financial chicanery was to ask the Pope to make him a cardinal (senior churchmen had full immunity in those times, similar to that enjoyed by today’s politicians) giving rise to a popular saying:
‘To avoid the rope,
Spain’s greatest thief,
Pays off the Pope’.
“Para no morir ahorcado / el mayor ladrón de España / se viste de colorado”.
Again, it’s maybe safe to say, some things never change.
……
Housing:
More houses need to be built, Spain needs more builders too. From 20Minutos here, we read that ‘According to the Banco de España, 500,000 properties are needed to cover the volume of families formed in recent years. To make up for the shortage, the construction industry association estimates that 700,000 new workers will need to be hired…’ In short, immigrant workers are welcome, says the article.
‘More than 20,000 homes for sale in Spain are occupied by squatters: these are the worst-affected areas’. Sur in English has the details. Spanish Property Insight finesses the details: ‘Squatting is back on the rise in Spain after two years of decline, with Catalonia once again leading the charge in both the number of cases and legal actions. According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior’s Statistical Portal of Criminality, there were 16,426 reported cases of squatting in 2024, an increase of 7.4% from the 15,289 incidents in 2023. These figures include crimes of unlawful entry and usurpation reported to the police but do not account for cases resolved privately, such as through payments or eviction services…’ From InSpain News here: Spain’s squatted property market: Where is the problem worst? Thousands of homes occupied illegally are now up for sale—impacting prices, buyers, and the wider housing market’. We read: ‘Typically, squatted properties are listed at 40% to 60% below standard market value’.
Who would buy a house with a squatter inside? How many homes can one squatter be inhabiting? How many squatters can one fit under a bridge? Some solutions at an essay with Javier Finance titled ‘I’ve been thrown out of the house and I have nowhere to go’.
From El País in English here: ‘The diary of 82-year-old Marjorie Kanter, kicked out of her Madrid home: ‘I didn’t think you could start from scratch at this age’. The American writer has vacated the apartment she lived in for three decades after her lease was not renewed. In her own words, she has ceased to be ‘profitable for the city’s gentrifying interests’’.
From El Huff Post here: ‘The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has identified more than 15,200 illegal tourist apartments in Madrid and asks Mayor Martínez-Almeida to remove their listings. The Madrid City Council has been provided with the exact addresses and information that allows them to identify the owners’.
Aren’t those mini-pisos adorable? No, says elDiario.es here, they are not. Clever photography and crafted prose (‘minimalist’, ‘cute’, ‘compact’, ‘nests’ and so on) hides the fact that there’s not enough room in these cubby-holes to swing a cat. On the other hand, there’s an enthusiastic video on YouTube here (in English, a 29m2 mini-piso set in Barcelona) which wouldn’t agree with the above called ‘Never Too Small’.
‘The beautiful Spanish town where you’re welcomed with this sign: «Traveler, stay and experience it with us». A small town in the Granada Alpujarra region surprises travelers with an unusual welcome message. A destination that invites you to more than just a visit’. The village is Pampaneira in the high mountains – El Confidencial has the details.
From Idealista here: ‘The European Commission has confirmed in a letter to the government of Andorra that it may include provisions in the association agreement to limit the acquisition of real estate by non-residents, similar to the system in Malta, specifically targeting second homes…’
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Tourism:
From La Nación here: ‘Europe has once again postponed the implementation of the ETIAS travel permit for foreigners. The document was supposed to come into effect in July of this year, but it has been postponed until the end of 2026; the goal is to «make the Schengen area even more secure»’.
……
Finance:
From La Información here: ‘The Spanish economy grew 3.2% in 2024, driven by household consumption and improved investment. The INE confirms that GDP grew 0.8% in the fourth quarter despite the slowdown in the Eurozone, interest rates remaining at high levels, and heightened uncertainty due to the crises in Ukraine and the Middle East’.
From VozPópuli here: ‘Spain will have a margin of 24,000 million euros to spend on defence without increasing the deficit. Spain, like the rest of the Member States, will be able to activate the escape clause in April and safely increase defence spending by 1.5% of GDP without increasing the deficit’.
The Chinese ambassador to Spain: «We appreciate Sánchez’s change of heart with an additional 10,000 million euros in investment». The diplomat links Moncloa’s gesture toward Chinese electric cars with a wave of investment from the oriental country’. The story at El Mundo is here.
The average pension payment this month to Spain’s 10,313,634 pensioners stood at 1,308€ says La Moncloa here. (Thanks Jake)
‘Study lays bare the ‘constant stress’ of being self-employed in Spain’ according to a piece in The Olive Press here.
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Politics:
20Minutos reports that ‘Sánchez announced on Wednesday that the Government will have a cybersecurity and defence industry plan ready before the summer and he called on the EU for the creation of a European army, saying that «only» with an EU army «will we guarantee lasting peace in our region.» (With video). Furthermore, the president claims that Spain suffered 1,000 cyberattacks against critical infrastructure last year.
Público publishes a survey which says that the PP would need Vox to form a government. ‘The PP has been declining in the polls for a year now, but Feijóo could still govern thanks to Vox. The conservatives have been falling in the polls practically since March 2024. The PSOE and Sumar have contained their decline but remain far behind the right’s absolute majority’.
Having agreed to return the European People’s Party (EPP) Congress to Valencia, Feijóo now says he likely won’t be attending the event. From Antena3 here. ‘The president of the Partido Popular, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has announced that neither he nor his deputies nor senators will attend the European People’s Party (EPP) Congress, which will be held in Valencia on April 29 and 30. The Spanish Partido Popular is the host for this event. The venue was decided before the DANA, and the president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, is expected to attend, provided «his schedule allows»’. Feijóo disingenuously explains that there is a plenary session of Congress on those dates and that he will attempt to travel back and forth, but that the rest of the parliamentarians will remain in Madrid.
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Europe:
From Newsweek here (I couldn’t resist this one): ‘Donald Trump suggests the US could join the British Commonwealth’.
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Corruption:
From elDiario.es here: ‘The Supreme Court rebukes Manos Limpias (a kind of far-right wackadoodle organisation) for its complaints against Pedro Sánchez, his wife, and the government based on «press clippings». The Criminal Chamber rejects a new complaint from the far-right pseudo-union against the President and sanctions its strategy of bringing press reports to court to attempt to open legal proceedings’.
‘Whether it’s Willy Toledo, Lalachus, or Noelia: This is how Abogados Cristianos (a kind of modern Sagrada Inquisicíon) uses the courts to impose their ultra-Catholic agenda. Although varied, their history of legal action maintains a common pattern: confronting any demonstration they consider contrary to their ultra-Catholic values’, says Público here.
A key point in the inquiry into José Luis Ábalos is the luxurious estate he apparently owns in Colombia which La Unidad Central Operativa (Spain’s fraud squad) claimed was valued in the local property registry at a cool 2.1 million dollars. Unfortunately, the Colombian $ isn’t quite as strong as the US one, and the value of the house has now been revised by the cops to a rather more manageable 751 euros. 20Minutos has the story here.
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Courts:
A serial killer called José Jurado ‘Dinamita’ Montilla has been locked up for his activities. He spent time in prison for four killings in the eighties but was released in 2007. Now he has killed twice again says El Mundo. With video.
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Media:
The Conferencia Episcopal Española (Wiki) sinks a fortune into its far-right TV channel called La Trece (Wiki). We read at El Independiente that they are ‘down’ by no less than 110 million euros since they began broadcasting back in 2010. The (wealthy) CEE also controls both La Cope and Cadena 100 radio stations. Maybe they should have been helping the poor instead…
The PSOE and its allies file a reform to sanction pseudo-media outlets in Congress. These are the broadcasters or web-news pages that specialise in bulos, misdirection and fake-news.
Worth a try? ‘How KillBait works. Our editors, along with any registered user, can submit news they find interesting simply by providing the URL to the system. Our artificial intelligence (AI) system automatically analyzes each news item, generating an objective summary of its content and, if necessary, suggesting an alternative title…’
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Ecology:
From 20Minutos here and following heavy rains in Central Spain this weekend: ‘Talavera de la Reina (Toledo), saddened by the collapse of the Roman bridge: «It’s a disgrace for the city, we ask for everyone’s help»’. A video of the bridge coming down thanks to the flood-water is here. In fact, it’s not Roman at all – it was built in 1227 on some ancient Roman pilings which had formed a long-lost passage and was repaired (and rebuilt) a number of times since, the last repair being in 2002. But fear not, it will be rebuilt once again.
The critical La Gaceta has: ‘Spain wastes rainwater due to a lack of infrastructure and a National Hydrological Plan’. The article says that inefficiency plagues Andalucía and Murcia while other regions are obliged to release excess water. Diario As carries the item – ‘Almería enters the dark side of water reserves and announces a full drought with only 10% of water in its reservoirs’. On a brighter note, the Doñana wetlands are once again restored and, as Cadena Ser says, the lagoons there have recovered and the local fauna is proliferating once again.
‘The European Commission has given the green light to opening seven rare earth projects in Spain. Brussels has approved the promotion of 47 critical mineral projects throughout the EU. The goal is to achieve its own reserves to avoid dependence on China’. El Huff Post features mineral reserves for lithium, cobalt, tungsten, copper and platinum found in Orense, Cáceres, Badajoz, Ciudad Real, Huelva and Seville. The mines in question, says elDiario.es here, ‘…are in the hands of global giants, the ultra-rich, and executives fined by the CNMV’. The news-site gives chapter and verse.
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Various:
Following articles about the number of foreigners living in Spain, here’s one about the Spaniards living abroad: El Economista says that there more than three million of them.
We have been warned to stock up on supplies for three days in the event of some unexpected calamity. 20Minutos says here we should keep in a supply of water, canned foods, medicines, batteries (for the radio, presumably), plus a book or two, a toothbrush and maybe a pickaxe. El País also carries the story. It’s all in case of ‘wars, cyberattacks, pandemics or the effects of global warming…’ Will three days of supplies be enough? Better be safe and budget for a week.
‘Six hundred years of the Gypsies (‘Google Translate’ prefers ‘Roma people’) in Spain: «When I say my last name is Montoya, they refuse to rent me a place». The Roma community continues to be a victim of normalized racism in our society. In 2025, they will celebrate six centuries since their arrival in the Iberian Peninsula, with the aim of educating about their contribution to Spanish identity and culture’. El Huff Post reports here.
From EuroMundo Global here: ‘Irish author Aidan Higgins (Wiki) and his forgotten novel set in the Costa del Sol’. Balcony of Europe takes its name from a feature of the Spanish fishing village Nerja where it is set. The novel is carefully crafted, and rich in embedded literary references, using Spanish and Irish settings and various languages, including Spanish and some German, in its account of the daily life in the beaches and bars of Nerja of a largely expatriate community.
A road-story from The Guardian here: ‘I travelled 2,000 miles from Italy to the tip of Spain – on horseback’.
121 Clicks has a portfolio of ‘Stunning Portraits of Spanish Gypsies by Pierre Gonnord That Resemble Old Masters Paintings’ here.
‘Ibiza Undressed – Uninhibited Clubbing in the 1980s (NSFW)’ from Flashback here.
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See Spain:
20Minutos brings us ‘The small village of Bádenas (Teruel), sheltered by three mountain ranges: a haven of peace with just 24 inhabitants’.
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Letters:
Hiya Lenox, before I forget after my upteenth G&T in Sunny Spain as an immigrant… you say from your informants that they say we don’t want to integrate… in my experience that’s bollox, tried but they don’t want to know, lovely though they are
. As you know I live in France as well… entirely different, they are glad to receive input there, and I have been welcomed on my village committee, fat chance here eh?
Abrazos R
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Finally:
Carlos Santana is giving a concert at the bullring in Murcia on August 1st. Here he is on YouTube with Michelle Branch and The Game of Love.
