Property Hunter Magazine Property Hunter Magazine Issue 52 - March 2014 | Page 51

however, if you are willing to take a very big gamble, Croatia is expecting to be out of recession in 2014. It has to be said, however, that adoption of the euro is unlikely to happen for two to three years – and is that a good thing anyway, these days. ECONOMY: Croatia has been in recession pretty much since 2009. There are real hopes of a recovery in 2014, but this depends on EU growth and there hasn’t been much of that lately. CAPITAL GROWTH: Prices were still heading south in 2013 and are likely to continue doing so in 2014. RENTAL MARKET: 2.73 percent rental yields are hardly better than Italy. Still, if you have a problem tenant, you can send around some ‘thugs’ who may be happy to remove your tenant for a fee! FINANCE/MORTGAGE ACCESSIBILITY: Let’s face it, no serious lender will want to lend you money to invest in property in Croatia unless you can convince them that they will get it back somehow. VALUE: It’s cheaper to buy a house here than Latvia ─ but why would you? 3. SPAIN Spanish property developers have been trying all sorts of incentives to attract investors into its property market in 2013. The result, another 7.6 percent fall in property prices which wipes off nearly 40 percent in total prices in some areas since the peak of 2007. The problem with Spain is that its people are dealing with a deep recession – and foreign investors know they can go there and negotiate for bargain prices. This means every discount brings a further fall in prices. It has been part of a vicious circle that has been going on for years. Spain managed to avoid the list last year, because we thought that things surely couldn’t get any worse for the country, and that the bottom had been reached. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the case. Everyone trying to sell property in Spain is willing the market to recover, yet the numbers just keep on falling to the point where nobody knows how long it will be before the bottom is finally reached. Still, there is a bright side now with Spain. Fitch, the credit ratings agency, has removed the country’s negative outlook, even though Moody’s (another major credit ratings agency) continues to see Spain’s creditworthiness as “just above junk”. Even unemployment has fallen, though it remains at more than 25 percent. Countries with high unemployment and 0.1 percent GDP growth don’t make ideal destinations for property investors, however Spain must surely be one to watch in 2014 if the market does hit bottom. ECONOMY: Bring out the Cava (these are hard times!). Things are looking up after another tough year. Spain finally made it out of recession in 2013. CAPITAL GROWTH: You may have lost another 7.6 percent this year. Still, at least we can look forward to better things to come – just not yet. RENTAL MARKET: Still poor at 3.45 percent or