In our first property magazine of 2025, we speak to the leading experts about the year ! h g u o en Just can’t get ahead...
Property
the run a rule over EXCLUSIVE: WeCosta del Sol home u-bends at therichest plumber of the world’s
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new housing spooked by Spain’s has included which on record. as and the best Q4 that international legislation, ndly’ policies such neigh‘tenant-frie This suggests property is ac- rent controls in ‘strained’ into demand for Spanish market heads bourhoods. sold as inimcelerating as the still the most in Nationally, properties in four 2025. THE British are slowdown in vestments account for one al buyers in purchases. that Despite the slight portant internation matic 36% increase buyers also 2023, the 2024 figures indicate re- sales. weathSpain. by which has so farit’s still a Dutch and American they still bought to foreign buyers growth, rising By Walter Finch storm, Spain’s appealwith Brits continuing In Madrid, Despite Brexit here than the showed strongrespectively. the regulatory ered properties robust, more mains 13%, 40% three. charge. who 18% and healthy one in however, virtuGermans last year.Dutch buyers inforeign buyers,which Norwegian buyers, with a collapse to lead thesigns of demand waning, But in Catalunya, where investors dropped cord year for map, With no Only Polish and market looks are getting cold feet, it’s scale than the bought 92,958 properties, ally fell off the its property – larger 63%. only a of four on and in in one creased a staggering is a 6% increase on 2023 record in home purchasesof 2024 was par- the Spanish from to less than maintain its momentum Brits, who bought below Spain’s The final quarter meanwhile, with set to ahead. level ever. last year. been lowest the year 8,728 propertiesbought just 6,230 marginally ticularly strong investors have foreign buyof 2022. The Germans the French 5,025, year from the Spanish 24,985 sales involving ar increase But buy-to-let are the According to data properties and drop of 14% in Land Registry, Polish buyers a dra- ers - a 27% year-on-ye which is a worrying in the market with re- rising stars 2023. it was almost a Overall though,
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Defecating in the bushes, sex acts in broad daylight, and not paying a cent to park right on the beach... the Olive Press exposes the antics of van-lifers as campervan registrations soar by 22% SEE PAGE 6 in a year
GET OUT! Vol. 19 Issue 463
A DESPERATE grandfather is pleading for help after his Costa del Sol home was taken over by British squatters FIVE YEARS ago. Birmingham native Kenneth Jobe, 84, told the Olive Press he ‘hasn’t got much time left’ and is ‘exhausted’ after going back and forth with the courts in a bid to remove the English couple. K.B, an expat of 33 years, and his partner have allegedly failed to pay more than €50,000 worth of rent for the €400,000 three-bed house in Mijas, since 2020 - allegedly helped by a ‘squatter’s bible’ that is used by so-called ‘okupas’ across the country. DEFIANT: British tenant refuses to leave Mijas home
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Pensioner, 84, at wits end after Malaga court refuses to evict BRITISH squatters who owe ‘over €50,000’ EXCLUSIVE By Laurence Dollimore
They have also allegedly moved in their two sons, aged in their 40s a fact they have neglected to tell the courts. The Olive Press contacted K.B, but he refused his right to comment via a lawyer. Jobe, who is still reeling from the death of his own son from cancer last year, thought his nightmare was over when a Malaga court said they must be evicted and the locks changed. But incredibly, the ruling was overturned on appeal last month after the squatters were deemed vulnerable and at risk of homelessness. J o b e said: “I
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just want to get into my home… the tenant is pleading poverty but has two older sons living there.” He added: “On top of that he’s not been paying community fees so they also want him out. “And when I try and negotiate he outright refuses…he’s a really nasty person.”
Desperate
Jobe said he has been battling the family since 2020, when he first filed an eviction notice after they stopped paying rent for various months on the Balcones de Mijas home in Buena Vista. The area is filled with affluent Brits who are ‘sick’ of the squatters’ mess, with one video seen by the Olive Press showing mattresses dumped on the porch, next to multiple cars covered in dust. “It’s tiring me out,” owner Jobe added, “I can’t believe the courts have sided with him, I haven’t got much time left. “I’m just getting desperate. It’s dragged me down and it has cost a fortune on legal fees.” Liverpudlian estate agent Paul Stuart, from local firm Palm Estates, told the Olive Press: “The eviction was cancelled because they claimed vulnerability.
Give our city back! THOUSANDS are expected to take to the streets of Malaga for what could be the largest housing protest the city has ever seen. The April 5 demo, organised by citizen platform Malaga Para Vivir (Malaga For Living), will take place alongside simultaneous protests planned across several Spanish cities. Under the banner ‘Let's end the housing business’ the groups slam Madrid’s measures to solve the many housing issues locals are facing, particularly a lack of affordable rentals. "Housing has become the most important problem for citizens," explained spokesperson Kike España, who called Malaga’s economic model ‘a scam’.
FED-UP: British homeowner Kenneth Jobe (top), while (above) the street of the squatted Mijas home
“They know the law, they’ve got something called ‘the squatter’s bible’, which tells them all the laws and how to get around everything. “They are British and are receiving their pensions and taking advantage of the legal system, it’s a terrible situation.” A family friend, meanwhile,
branded the squatters ‘disgusting’, claiming that when he begged them to move out, they demanded a fee to do so. “It’s absolutely disgusting,” he told this paper. “Poor Ken has spent decades visiting Mijas and it had been his dream to spend his latter years there. “They know all the tricks in the book, Ken lost one of his “Everything in recent decades has been done to two sons in April turn the centre of Malaga into a tourist hub that and it took such only benefits a few, while expelling its neigha toll on him, and bours,” he said. now he is still dealThe platform described government measures ing with this on as ‘completely insufficient’ and has initiated top, it’s vile.” neighborhood assemblies leading up to the He added: “I April protest. pleaded with them The platform is calling for housing to be treated to leave and they as a right rather than a business opportunity. said ‘we will work Activists highlight that in certain areas, such as something out’, around Plaza de la Merced, some 80% of homes and they had the are now used as tourist accommodations. "There are 34,466 people registered as looking nerve to demand a for homes, while there are 7,496 tourist accomfee to move out. modations with 32,132 available places. Does “They are holding anyone think this is sustainable?" asked fellow the family to ranorganiser Noemi Escobar. som, it’s sickening.”