Spanish developer Nozar next to be hard hit

Spanish developer Nozar has become the latest developer in the country’s hard hit property industry to suffer grave financial problems.

A company spokesman said it had spent four months trying to resolve the situation but negotiations with bank creditors failed to reach an agreement.

It has now started proceedings which could ultimately lead to bankruptcy and liquidation.

It follows in the footsteps of other giants of the Spanish property market including Martinsa Fadesa, Tremón, Aifos, and Constructora Pedralbes.

The news comes at a time when the Spanish property industry is still suffering despite improvements in the markets in other European countries such as the UK, France and Germany.

According to Marc Stucklin, of Spanish Property Insight, it shows that the market has still not recovered sufficiently to keep major players like Nozar afloat, more than a year after the developer Martinsa-Fadesa went into administration.

He believes there could be more high profile casualties as it has been suggested that the banks have decided to stop bailing out developers and swapping debt for property.
 
But not all is doom and gloom in Spain. UK based Almanzora Group announced that it has sold properties worth almost €5 million in the Almeria region of south-east Spain in the past three months.

It says that there are signs that in some sectors the market is improving.

‘Over the years, the property market in Spain has proved to be extremely cyclical, much more so than it is in the UK.

This recent market activity suggests that the wheel is turning again, at least for the better quality, more individual, properties in new and progressive upwardly mobile locations,’ said sales and marketing manager, Simon Coaker.

‘Prices have been at their lowest for six years but are bound to start rising again if sales of such properties continue at this level. No matter how great the oversupply of poor quality, mass built apartments, in secondary locations around the old tourism centres, the actual supply of good quality individual properties in relatively new, less developed, locations which are the future of residential tourism in Spain remain in short supply,’ he added.