- Business
- Childbirth & Education
- Legal Formalities
- Motoring
- Other
- Pensions & Benefits
- Property & Accommodation
- Taxes
- Airports and Airlines Spain
- Paramount Theme Park Murcia Spain
- Corvera International Airport Murcia Spain
- Join us for Tea on the Terrace
- When Expat Eyes Are Smiling
- Meet Wincham at The Homes, Gardens & Lifestyle Show, Calpe
- QROPS 2014
- Spain Increases IHT in Valencia & Murcia
- Removals to Spain v Exports from Spain
- The Charm of Seville
- Gibraltar Relations
- Retiro Park : Madrid
- Community Insurance in Spain
- Calendar Girls
- Considerations when Insuring your Boat in Spain
- QROPS – HMRC Introduces changes that create havoc in the market place
- QROPS – All Change From April 2012
- Liva & Laia : 15th November
The real estate arm of bailed-out Spanish lender Bankia said it raised 550 million in 2012 from selling foreclosed properties, 19% more than in 2011, as tax breaks fuelled a year-end rush.
Bankia Habitat said on Tuesday it had independently sold 1,100 such properties in December alone, 70% more than in November, and just before the bank had to move 22.3 billion of rotten real estate assets to a so-called bad bank.
The bad bank, known as SAREB, was set up as a condition for four of Spain's nationalised lenders, including Bankia, to receive 37 billion in EU aid last year, after they were hit by a property crash dating back to 2008.
SAREB took the foreclosed assets at an average discount of just over 63%. Bankia Habitat said it had sold properties in 2012 with price reductions of between 40 - 60%.
The group said that the year-end sales were also helped by tax breaks on housing purchases which ran out in 2013.
SAREB also did not take foreclosed properties valued at less than 100,000, or property loans of under 250,000, assets which remain in Bankia Habitat, within the Bankia group.