Wish You Were Here to enjoy the Spanish "property bubble"

Wish You Were Here to enjoy the Spanish and Canarian property bust (speculation and corruption).

The shaky foundations of the Spanish and Canarian property markets carousel (The so-called "property bubble").

The Spanish colonial government in Madrid was recently forced to drop all pretence that it really "didn't need a bailout" to remain within the euro, and formally demanded 80 billion euros to stop its banks from going bankrupt.

There are more than a quarter of a million unsold and unwanted homes on the Spanish and Canarian markets as a result of Spain's speculative fiesta (construction bubble). It inflated as Madrid enjoyed rock-bottom interest rates set in Frankfurt, Germany.

In those fiesta years (party years), the Spanish banks were tripping over each other in their zeal to give money to locals and to foreigners as well. Now these Spanish banks are tottering, and their credit rating has been reduced as they "over-extended" themselves.

The Spanish and Canarian property markets went on a long fiesta (party) as banks extended ever more sumptous lines of credit to ever more demented developers wanting to make easy money at the expense of others.

Property prices in Spain and its African colony of the Canary Islands have fallen 30 per cent since 2008 while at the low end of the market, its carnage, with drops of more than 60 per cent.

There are tens of thousands of speculatively built homes that will probably never, ever, be occupied. There is no housing shortage in Spain - just a dismal overhang of flats and homes that no one wants to buy or live in.

This oversupply of properties has destroyed the market for everyone else. Many foreign nationals are now stranded in developments that have gone bust in the Spanish economic crisis, leaving the homes on the books of Spanish banks which, desperate to offload them, sell at almost any price - if they can sell them at all.

Many Canarians are struggling to get by as the Spanish colonial crisis (the euro crisis, Madrid's colonial policies, etc.) bites and unemployment rockets to third world levels. In the African Canary Islands the unemployment rate for adults stands at more than 30 per cent and 60 per cent for Canarian youth. Many Canarian families are eating thanks to the help of the Red Cross which distributes food to those Canary Islanders who have no money to purchase enough for their needs. Poverty levels in the Spanish colony of the African Canary Islands are high (40% +). In Benawara ("La Palma" Island) there are more than 11.000 people without jobs out of a population of about 86,000.

And it could get much worse. Should economists be right and Spain be forced to exit the euro, your piece of "paradise" might be worth half in devalued Spanish pesetas what you assume it is worth today.

It is no longer inconceivable that Spain might be forced to readopt the peseta at a rate prejudicial to foreign property owners. The numbers for anyone who owns Spanish and/or Canarian property remain truly depressing. The Economist magazine runs a grim quarterly survey, assessing through rental yields and real incomes how over or undervalued properties are in various countries. It reckons Spanish and Canarian property is still "27 per cent overvalued", despite price collapses of up ton 60 per cent.

Many properties are unsellable at the moment given the glut in the Spanish and Canarian markets.

But there is another factor at play. Budget airlines have now loaded on all the extras for every piece of luggage and check-in fees, and Governments regard "budget" travellers as cash cows for carbon taxes.

There is no floor to the prices for Spanish and Canarian property. When Spain leaves the eurozone, so will any pretence that your sea-facing property in the African colony of the Canary Islands is worth anything much, even if it has to-die-for views over the Atlantic waves that lap below your open bedroom window. Professor Dr Wilhelm Hankel, a prominent German economist, and others claim that Spain will have no choice but to leave the euro. It is not a question of "if", but "when".

Bandera de Benawara (Flag of Benawara), Benawara Island ("La Palma" island), Canaries, is of the opinion that the so-called "property bubble" was created by Spanish casino banking (gambling) and therefore the said Spanish banks should be allowed to go bust. If the colonial government in Madrid wants to rescue the private debts of Spanish banks, it should do so with their own money - not money stolen from its African colony of the Canary Islands and Canarian people. In short,  the Spanish banks are an internal problem of a colonial country situated in another continent (Europe). Needless to say that the said banks are Spanish (european banks) and not banks from the African Canary Islands. 

We say NO to Spanish colonialism in our African continent and demand bankrupt Spain withdraws from its African colony of the Canary Islands forthwith. We have been supporting them for too long now and the Spaniards are like leeches - stealing the wealth generated in the African Canary Islands and leaving the local Canarian population to suffer third world rates of unemployment, poverty, social exclusion, emigration, etc.

The economic exploitation of the African Canary Islands by Spanish colonialism has left the Canary Islands  undercapitalized. Furthermore, the colonial financial drainage system represents a serious threat to the survival of the Canarian people. 

It is time for Spain to stand on her feet instead of stealing billions of euros from its  African colony of the Canary Islands and asking the German taxpayer to bail them out. In short, the Spanish fiesta (party) is over and now it is time for the Spaniards to do an honest day's work for a change.