Tenerife and the Spanish Coastal Protection Law

Tenerife has always been a popular tourist destination even before the jet age and that is not surprising, Tenerife has a perfect climate and a wealth of established tourist facilities and activities.

It is not surprising that Tenerife is a popular choice for holiday home owners and expat residents alike. If you are thinking of buying a coastal property in Tenerife it is advisable to be aware of the Spanish Coastal Propection Law. Not all Tenerife coastal property is legal and the law is complicated. The Law in Tenerife is the same as in Spain but it is up to the local government to enforce it and there lies the contention.

In 1988 a Spanish Coastal Law was passed and it was designed to protect the Coastline, particularly beach areas and areas which are within 100 metres from the point of the highest tide ever reached, defined as the “protection zone”. The law also defined a “Zone of Influence” which extends a further 400 metres inland from the protection zone. Within the 400 metre zone of influence development may still permitted but restrictions are applied depending on distance inland, the harshest restrictions being closest to the protection zone.

Most developments since the law was passed comply with the law but you should check out the situation if you are considering buying any property within a coastal protection zone or zone of influence. You lawyer should be able to determine where the protection zone starts in consultation with the local authority or a land law specialist.

Much publicity has been given to the situation regarding properties built within the protection zone prior to the 1988 Coastal Law being passed. Some concessions have been granted but some properties have already been demolished in Tenerife and others are under threat of demolition. Enforcement of the Law has been erratic but it can happen at any time and thousands of properties are at risk.

You should therefore check the law regarding any property which you are thinking of purchasing which may fall within the jurisdiction of the 1988 Spanish Coastal Law.

Be warned, once you have purchased it may not be possible to prevent your Coastal Property from being demolished.

Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Tenerife Estate Agents for Tenerife Property Sales and Long Term Rentals

Tenerife Storms – Severe Weather Warning

Ironic it is that Tenerife has been lashed by severe storms for the second time in three weeks, another severe weather warning was issued earlier this week. Ironic it is because Tenerife was officially declared by NASA as having the best climate in the world, all year-round. Although exposed far out in the Atlantic Ocean, the Canary Islands do not normally have all those swirls we see on the weather charts which depict wind and precipitation. The Canary Islands are an exceptional weather phenomenon.

At the beginning of February, Tenerife was lashed for several days by thunderous storms and heavy rains which caused serious flooding and landslides in many areas. There are times on this Island when you wish for rain because it is very rare and only occurs to the north of the Island during the winter months and mostly at altitude. I had wondered whether I would ever see water running down the many Barrancas in Tenerife and during these three days they were running like alpine rivers awash to the sea. The Island was surrounded by a muddy ring of water for a while until the orangey coloured run off eventually dissipated deep into the Atlantic Ocean.

Less than three weeks later the same thing happened again. This time the thunderstorms were not only accompanied by heavy rain but also high winds up to 120km/hr winds. Wave after wave of storms occurred over a 48 hour period. A number of inter island flights were cancelled due to the high wind and schools were closed. The sea lashed the coastlines and in Playa San Juan part of the sea wall collapsed into the sea. This time the Island also suffered total power loss for several hours which affected one million people. That is all you need when you want to listen to the weather forecast to see how bad it is going to get and when it is all going to end. Most Tenerife radio stations went off air due to the power loss.

This evening the thunder storms stopped, the high winds dropped, power was restored and the sun even came out again just in time for sunset. Hopefully it will it be spring here again in Tenerife tomorrow but we still have snow on Mount Teide. On the south coast of Tenerife it is late evening and the temperature in around 18 degrees. Tomorrow hopefully we will see sunshine and the temperature rise to 22 degrees which is the norm for Tenerife at this time of year. Despite the February storms it would not be fair to complain about the weather and climate in Tenerife.

Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Estate Agents Tenerife for Tenerife Properties

Euro Pound Exchange Rate Report – 15th February 2010

15th February 2010

The single currency struggled to make any gains over a generally weak Pound last week as news from Greece continued to grab the headlines. The Greek economy, which has struggled since the recent downgrade in its sovereign credit rating, has now began to have a major affect across the entire Euro zone as fears of its high debt levels loom. With other countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland also in high levels of debt, small cracks have begun to show in the Euro for the first time since its introduction. The outcome for Greece now suggests a bailout from a larger EU nation such as Germany or an exit from the Euro all together.

By Wednesday investors looked towards the UK as the Bank of England unveiled a conservative report in which the UK inflation outlook was revised down, increasing the possibility of further quantitative easing. The QE scheme which in simplistic terms involves pumping more money into the UK economy is more than likely to weaken the Pound and drive down GBP/EUR rates. BoE Governor Mervyn King said it was far too soon to say QE was finished, leading analysts to believe concerns over the UK economy would continue to hamper sentiment towards Sterling in the longer-term. As a result Thursday’s rate saw a 3 week high in favour of Euro and highlighted the fragility of the Pound.

However, any minor gains were short lived as all attention turned back towards the Euro zone and the lack of detail over the problems facing the Greek economy. Consequently GBP/EUR moved steadily back towards the 1.15 barrier only to break through by Friday lunchtime as news filtered through that a bailout would have to wait. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that any bailout procedure would not be exercised until March time at the earliest. As a result GBP/EUR peaked to 1.1517.

With both currencies weak and the market particularly volatile it may be worth discussing the possibility of a forward contract with your Currency Broker. This will allow you to lock in to a rate for up to two years in advance and safeguard you from any losses. Finally, with only a 0.3% difference in debt levels between the UK and Greece, widespread speculation has began hinting that the UK could find itself in a similar situation, suggesting it may be important for those purchasing Euros not to become complacent with the recent turn in GBP/EUR rates.

If you have yet to open a trading facility to gain access to commercial rates of exchange click here to open an account today.

Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Estate Agents Tenerife for Tenerife Properties

2-3 Bed Apartment Centre of Playa San Juan Tenerife

This is an opportunity to purchase a modern resale apartment at a very good price, in the heart of the village, two minutes from the new beach.

The apartment has two bedrooms but was originally thee bedrooms so it could easily be converted back. The bonus here though as it stands the apartment has a very generously sized living area with balcony which includes the open plan kitchen. The main bedroom is generous with a private terrace, the second bedroom takes two twin beds and there is a family bathroom.

Nice views along the coast and up to the mountains from the balcony and the property is in the main street so everything is close at hand.

Playa San Juan is an up an coming fishing village which is growing into a town and it is now beginning to benefit from tourism. The new TF1 motorway extension, when complete, will enable Los Cristianos to be reached in 10-15 minutes. Property prices will surely rise here in the future.

Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Playa San Juan Estate Agents for Playa San Juan Property

Euro Pound Exchange Rate Report – 8th February 2010

8th February 2010

Last week was a relatively stable week for GBP/EUR exchange rates showing little more than a 1% movement between the high and low point of the week for the currency pairing. The slight movement seen in the market came after the Bank of England’s decision to hold interest rates and pause their much-publicised Quantitative Easing program. This may have been seen as a positive in many investor’s eyes however the market did not reflect this. This linked to the rolling debt problems in Greece and Spain; makes it even more surprising that Sterling has failed to make significant gains against the single currency. With a potentially difficult week ahead for Sterling exchange rates, the importance of staying in close contact with your exchange rate broker is imperative as any bad data could damage the inherently fragile Pound and greatly magnify the cost of overseas purchases.

Opinions released yesterday evening by the Ex-IMF chief economist, Simon Johnson, said that the UK should be viewed as lying in the same category as the Spanish and Greek Economies. The debt problems in these two economies have been heavily highlighted in the last week, and any similar trend seen in the UK could have catastrophic consequences for the Pound. Any clients looking to purchase Euros, may wish to investigate a forward contract with their exchange rate broker. This allows the client to protect their interests by purchasing ahead with a deposit at the prevailing rate for anything up to two years in advance.

Looking to the week ahead we have figures due for; Germany’s consumer price index, the UK’s trade balance and most importantly on Friday the GDP estimate for the fourth quarter in the Eurozone. As demonstrated earlier; data releases do not always have an obvious and immediate impact within the currency markets and further underlines the relevance of speaking with your currency broker.

If you have yet to open a trading facility to gain access to commercial rates of exchange click here to open an account today.

Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Estate Agents Tenerife for Tenerife Properties

ITER Tenerife possible new renewable energy source

Research is underway to see whether heat from Tenerife’s active volcano can be harnessed as a new renwable energy source. A reasearch study is being carried out by Petratherm on behalf of ITER, the Institute for Renewable Energy in  Tenerife.

We all know that deep beneath the earths’ surface there is an immense amount of energy in the form of heat. The study will determine whether this Geothermal Energy can be capured and utilised to increase the prospects of Tenerife becoming a self sufficient island in terms of renewable energy. Due to the topography of Tenerife and because it has an active volcano the prospects of finding heat sources are thought to be high.

Subject to a sufficient heat source being found there are plans to build two geothermal plants with a capacity of 50 to 100 MW each to meet a high proportion of the Islands Energy needs.

The proposed heat recovery systems for the geothermal plant will consist of hot aquifiers (hydrothermal systems), or injecting cold water into hot dry rocks. Hot water can then be extracted and used for thermal applications, or to produce electricity if the water temeperature is high enough.

Reducing the use of fossil fuels is highly commendable and Tenerife is already exploiting renewable energy sources like wind power and Photovoltaic cells (PV).

As a Chartered Engineer I am very sceptical about whether the Petratherm study will produce positive results for a number of reasons;

Firstly, the earth’s crust is 20KM thick on average and the chances of finding Tenerife to be any different are quite remote, unless they strike a hot core. Secondly with heat also comes pressure which could make it difficult to safely tap into a geothermal heat source.

Thirdly if you look around Tenerife you will see a huge variety of geological matter which came originally from beneath the Earths crust. Most of this matter is very friable and would create problems with water based heat recovery, especially at great depth. Heat recovery could be an expensive option.

Obviously the study will determine the answers to some of these points and it is right that all avenues to harness new renewable energy sources are explored.

Personally I would rather see the money spent on research into bio-diesel fuel harvesting using algae farming. Tenerife would be an ideal place to farm algae due to the amount of sunshine we have here. Algae can grow prolifically and double it’s volume in 24 hours under the right conditions. Algae also absorbs greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide so there would be a trade-off here with carbon emissions from the continued use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels will always be necessary, the problem is that they are becoming depleted and Algae farming could be a great solution for Tenerife. Algae farming can produce bio-diesel fuels and ethanol very cheaply with some very positive ecological benefits.

This sort of technology is already being used in Mexico with some great results, a lot of the research has already been done so it would not be costly to investigate this option.

A blog can be a voice for all sorts of views, come on ITER, why not investigate this alternative renewable energy technology.

Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Estate Agents Tenerife for Tenerife Properties

Good news for British Property Buyers in Tenerife

Last week has at last provided some good news for Euro purchasers after Sterling made gains against the Euro. A raft of broadly Sterling positive and Euro negative data was the dominant reason behind the shift in trading levels which saw them move from a low of 1.132 (interbank level) on Monday to a high of 1.162 (interbank level) on Thursday. In real terms on a purchase of €200,000 this represents a saving of over £4500 in market movement alone between Monday and Thursday. This is good news for property buyers in the Euro zone, including Tenerife.

Tuesday saw the start of Sterling’s run with the release of UK Q4 GDP figures which confirmed that the UK was no longer technically in a recession. The figures were however somewhat disappointing to the market, showing a growth of just 0.1% but falling some way short of the expected 0.4% growth. This perhaps prevented Sterling from gaining against the Euro even further and drew out the sceptics speculating that results are archetypal of an economy approaching a ‘W’ shaped recession.

Despite this the Pound continued to rally towards the end of the week as concerns over Greece’s huge debt problems continued to weigh heavily on the Euro and indeed the rest of the Eurozone.   Rainer Bruederle, Germany’s economic minister, said soaring deficits could have ‘fatal effects’ on the region sharing the European single currency. Fears are mounting that if Greece is not rescued by richer countries such as Germany and France, investors may start to lose confidence in other European member states.

For those buying Euros, a forward purchase has become a much more attractive proposition, whereby one can secure a rate of exchange at today’s rates for a fixed point in the future. However, for those selling Euros and converting funds back into Sterling that last week has highlighted just how quickly the market can move against you.

If you have yet to open a trading facility to gain access to commercial rates of exchange click here to open an account today.

Blog posted by Expedia Property SL – Estate Agents Tenerife for Tenerife Properties