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ancient rock forwith the region’sof the oldest in the – some g’ lookout mations Peninsula. new geo- New ‘floatin Iberian blends into its SPECTACULAR has been featuin wildest corner The minimalist structure with no flashy logical viewpoint the Canta- opens wild surrounds,mountain majesty and unveiled high in offering Asturias res – just pure raw geology. brian Mountains, of one of of appears to float 360 degrees of panoramas valley, the lookout jaw-dropping giving visitors valleys. in the above the landscape, Spain’s most dramatic La Farrapona sleek an up-close enPerched near the Valley, rugged Salienciaplatform was de- c o u n t e r steel-and-w ood & Sanchez Arquidesigned by Puerto public a tectos after winning run by Somiedo sign competition its Sustainable Town Hall under Tourism Plan. point of the Set at the highest
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KET ON FIRE LUXURY MAR
inthe top 10%. fuelled by strong The surge is being – particularly from ternational interest– combined with donorthern Europelow interest rates and demand, is By Walter Finch Zamo- mestic economic recovery. property market ongoing with tighter budgets, fall, dropping 9%, SPAIN’S high-endof cooling, with luxentry point to luxSpain’s For buyers Soria saw prices Sanshowing no signsjumping an average of Mallorca remains luxury ra offers the cheapest– followed by Palen- Only Ceuta remained flat. Toledo, each while where with Palma de tury. €240,000 and Pamplona ury home prices year. exclusive market, , near Madrid, follows – the ury – just ta Cruz de Tenerife and Huelva (€293,250). at Guadalajara while Madrid itself has most now start at €2.1 million 15% over the past thresh- cia (€290,000)level, the Baleares top the posted modest 4% gains. at homes jump, the study looking Idealista looked - pushing the only city to cross the €2 million provincial €2.95 According to over €860,000 – the a 35% At at 28% portal by climb starting study The 10% luxury homes provincial capiin seen prices homes costing threshold (the top hikes have been growth list with followed by Malaga province data from all of Spain’s May 2024 and capital’s luxury price) to €1.85 million. old. most dramatic price showed more modest places. from €1.29 million, and Madrid (€1.56m). where tals and regions between 26%, Barcelona of properties by some unexpected meanwhile is up up by at 8%, with luxury defined en- (€2.2m) Real ranks lowest, leads the charge, in May 2025. Malaga has officially are both Oviedo, in Asturias, by an astonishing San Sebastian with prices Ciudad gets you a top-tier home in million, while Lugo and Las Palmas with prices rocketing €225,000 million-euro club, healthy demand 22% confirming Spain and the Canar- tered theat €1.045 million. 43% in just 12 months. starting historic city’s football both the north of It comes as the back to La Liga ies. a centeam just got promoted in a quarter of for the first time
goes loco property market y Spain’s luxury across the countr as prices soar
The style that took Baroque to the extreme and then on to the Americas in our Property Magazine inside
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‘IT WAS LIKE A TERROR ATTACK’ EXCLUSIVE
Witnesses describes the horror of bar Airbnb explosion in Spain that claimed two lives crackdown AIRBNB is clamping down on illegal holiday lets in Mallorca after striking a deal with island authorities to clean up the site. The home-rental giant has teamed up with the Consell de Mallorca (pictured above) to kick off rogue listings that don’t play by the rules – including dodgy digs without a licence, and even listings for vans and tents. The site has already axed more than 130 shady listings flagged by local officials – and now a new system will allow authorities to report rule-breakers directly to Airbnb. As of this week, any new listing in Mallorca must include an official registration number, or it simply won’t go live. Airbnb is also bringing in tech to block fake or badly formatted licence numbers, making it easier to spot fraud and dodgy operators. The move comes amid mounting pressure on the island to tackle illegal tourist rentals that are pushing up property prices and straining local services. Airbnb bosses say they’ll also roll out a campaign to educate landlords on the new legal rules – or risk getting booted off the platform.
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A BRITISH tourist has described the terrifying moment a bar exploded around her while she was ‘buying a shirt from a market stall.’ Debbie Scholefield, 48, a former paramedic, was visiting her mother in the Mar Menor region when she was caught up in the tragedy on June 19 that claimed two lives and injured around 20 others. “I was standing at the stall right next to where it went off,” the Huddersfield resident told the Olive Press.
By Walter Finch
took place on Avenida Salvillo, with the two market stalls where Debbie was standing hit hardest. Debbie described how she got to her feet in a daze, the back of her legs lacerated, as two women stared at her before hurrying to sit her down. After checkBomb ing that her “I thought someone had set off mother was a bomb – glass and debris went unscathed, whooshing past my head, then it hit Debbie told me. I was thrown forwards, blasted the Olive Press how clean off my feet.” set The blast occurred in the Lo Pagan she area while a weekly street market about trying to help the walking wounded with her paramedic training. “There were a lot of head wounds, people shouting and screaming hysterically, but most people were standing,” she said. Two women were seriously injured in the blast – a 56-year-old Spanish woman and the owner of the bar where the explosion originated, a 38-year-old woman from Morocco. “I saw her there with severe burns, walking in circles, so I went over to help her,” Debbie continued. “But when I got there, I was shocked. I knew immediately that she wasn’t going to make it. I knelt down, trying to reassure her, dressing her in loose clothes to protect her burns from the sun.” HELPED: Debbie Scholefield B o t h women died in Established 1989 hospital a week later. EMERGENCIES: L i s a , 51, was Tel: 636 308 789 in her Dr. Alex Kerkoc Portillo kitchen Dra. Mª Magdalena Coll Abrines in San Dra. Gema Dávila Pedro C.C. Mercadona, 1˚, 17/18 Son Caliu, del Pi07181, Calvia, Mallorca n a t a r Tel: 971 681 439 www.theeuropeandentalpractice.com (Murcia)
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AFTERMATH: The bar was destroyed and market stalls devastated when an explosion at a bar went off. “It sounded like a terror attack, like a bomb had gone off,” the real estate worker told the Olive Press. “It was a sound that was really, really scary. We all jumped out of our skins, absolutely not having a clue what had just happened.” Lisa, who lives on the same street as the bar, rushed outside to witness scenes of devastation. “Then all of a sudden, chaos – just pure chaos,” she said. “People were screaming and shouting, and it felt to me like we were under attack.” The British resident described seeing ‘blood, blood, blood and people covered in glass shards’ as emergency services rushed to the scene. “There were splintered vegetables everywhere, metal – it looked like a bomb had gone off. Literally.” The tragedy took a sinister turn when the Guardia Civil’s investigation concluded the blast was deliberate, with experts finding a cut to the rubber casing on a gas butane cylinder inside the bar.
Notorious
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” said Lisa, adding that the bar had a notorious local reputation. “It was very well known for its dealings with drugs, prostitution, that
kind of thing,’ she explained. ‘It wasn’t particularly a good place. It was not a nice place to frequent.” Lisa’s suspicions were immediate following the explosion. “My first thought was that they were cooking up some drugs in the back, and it’s all gone wrong and blown up. That’s the kind of place it was.” She said the bar, Casa Javi, had suffered a serious fire about a year ago, also affecting a home above. Police were regularly called to deal with fights, and residents claimed the bar had been a ‘clandestine’ brothel under previous management.
Crime
Officers had hoped to interview the bar owner about the explosion, but she never regained consciousness before passing away. It means the exact details behind the explosion may never be known. The night before the blast, San Pedro Policia Local officers found the bar owner walking strangely on a beach, possibly under the influence. While no crime was committed, she was ‘known’ to police. The tragedy has deeply affected the local community. “I think a lot of the community felt really terrible for the three people seriously injured,” said Lisa. “The worst thing was people were going out to do their vegetable shopping, browsing around the market, only for it to become the last day of their life. That’s pretty freaking awful.”