Assetz® News - Train to take the strain in Spain

Train to take the strain in Spain

11th March 2008 |

Those who believe the Spanish market is past its best may be barking up the wrong tree. Not because there hasn't been a property market correction, not because there isn't a global credit crisis and not because many investors looking for new hotspots are looking away from the crowded, overdeveloped, been-there-done-that costas, but for another reason.

For those prepared to look around, the reason soon becomes evident. While some of the markets in Spain have been saturated, there are new developments in infrastructure that have opened up and are continuing to open up new possibilities, bringing tourists into hitherto unknown areas and making existing ones more accessible.

Much has been written in recent times about the impact increases in low cost airline services and new airports have had. But down on terra firma another trend may be helping to open Spain up more. Spain's railways are speeding ahead.

A rapid rail link has recently opened between Madrid and Barcelona, which those purchasing buy-to-let property in either city may value as it enables tourists to whom it is let to see more on their trips through the capacity to reach the other city and see its sights. But James Dearsley, European sales director for overseas property firm Atlas International, said the benefits could extend way beyond the cities themselves.

He stated: "The new train link probably will have an effect on other areas of the country like the Costa Blanca and the Costa Calida, all that area, in the way that it will get people from the cities to the coast a little bit quicker."

Describing the Spanish as being like the French with a major exodus from the cities to the coast in the summer holidays, Mr Dearsley added: "This rail link will increase that shift of people from the cities to the coast."

For this reason, he suggested, there could be a major boost for the Spanish residential market.

But if this link will help the Coasta Blanca beyond Barcelona, then the same may be true of the coast around Malaga, for the southern city also now has a rapid rail link with the capital.

Earlier this month Easier.com suggested that the key effect of this would be to ensure that Madrilenos who would normally undergo one very long and hard 1,100km drive from the interior to the coast will now be able to spend more time in their coastal apartments now they can hurtle between the two cities by rail.

Adam Dale, director of Duchy Estates, said this situation would be helped by developments such as the arrival of new golf courses. He also noted that there were plenty of bargains for buyers on this stretch of coastline, stating: "Property prices here are also lower than in the salubrious suburbs of Madrid so they may be pleasantly surprised with what they can get for their euros."

In fact, it may not be just people from the Spain's capital who will be whizzing down to Malaga. Last month the Guardian's Robin McKie noted that with the links to Paris and the Channel Tunnel beyond that, it is possible to reach Malaga from London by rail in just 21 hours.

All this may not even end there. While reporting last month on an increase in visitor numbers to Spain in January, Airflights.co.uk noted that contract bids were being invited for a rail link from Malaga to Estepona along the south coast. More and more, it seems, new possibilities may be being opened up by the train in Spain.