CONSTRUCTION RECOVERY CONTINUES IN ALICANTE

Albeit rather a rather tentative start, there is no doubt that the recovery in the Costa Blanca construction industry is beginning to take off.

This can be seen in virtually every statistical indicator including the improved social security figures recorded in the province in recent months.

In the first half of the year, there are 468 more employed persons (many of them self employed, in all subsectors of the construction). Alicante is now showing itself to be the most active province within the autonomous regime.

The Social Security Department say that they are experiencing increased contributions from Alicante construction workers, well above those shown in Valencia (130) and Castellón (2), where an increase of 468 contributors have been recorded in the first half of the year contrasted to the 568 contributors that were lost on the Costa Blanca during the first six months of 2013

The improvement was also confirmed last Wednesday by the Association of Professional Workers and Entrepreneurs of the Autonomous Region of Valencia (UATAE) who say that with 34,792 members their figures for Alicante show an increase of 601 personnel in construction.

What is also evident in the province is the number of seemingly derelict and abandoned building sites that are once again being worked on as scaffolding and safety netting is once again going up all along the coast.

According to information released by the Association of Surveyors (Coaata), the demand on employees from this professional group has now also returned to levels seen before the economic crisis.

With 809 sites showing activity with reforms, restoration and maintenance of homes and buildings of all kinds up to 31 May, the figure is almost back to the 2008 levels when 817 sites were being worked at.

The industry seems to be waking up in the province, as shown by the official records published by the Association of Surveyors. In the first quarter they have granted permission for 600 new homes, a figure that may rise to around 1500 by the end of the year.

These are numbers still well short of the 55,000 homes that were built in the Costa Blanca in the boom of 2004 and 2005, but they represent a clear change of pace.

A similar pace was also recorded by the ratings agency Standard & Poors in a new report released on Tuesday which predicts that house prices in Spain will climb by at least 2 percent in 2016. S&P believe that while properties in Spain have fallen by around 30 percent since the country’s economic crisis hit in 2008, the recovery is coming.

The positive outlook stems from "the faster than expected" recovery of the Spanish economy and a subsequent quicker "fall in unemployment" rates, the agency says.

"We have seen a change in trends in the Spanish property market in the last 12 months with the arrival of British and US property funds," said Madrid-based real estate expert Eduardo Molet.

"British funds in particular are taking advantage of the offers in the Spanish property market, and they are here to stay," he added, “with real estate near the coast and in the bigger cities rebounding much faster than elsewhere.”

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/44459/

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