This week, I received another comment on my original Vicios Cultos article. Just as I mangled the 'ocultos' part, it seems I also corrupted the translation of ‘vicios’. Thanks to Roger Cooper who kindly set me straight (again) with these words:

“Vicio does, of course, have the same primary sense as English/French ‘vice’. But, in context, the meaning can be quite different. Just as our ‘vicious’ has moved away from any strict link with ‘vice’, so, in modern Spanish, ‘vicio’ can mean simply ‘defect’, ‘fault’, with no suggestion of moral turpitude."

"A speech defect, for example, is ‘un vicio de diccion’, without any suggestion that, say, a stammerer is immoral. It even has an ironic slang meaning, so that ‘de vicio’ usually means ’’brilliant’, ‘phenomenal’, just as ‘wicked’ does in our young people’s slang, without any suggestion of evil”

Phew, it’s good to finally get that moral turpitude out in the open.

With this 190th newsletter, we’re getting close to the 200th issue of Property Pulse – hard to believe I’ve been sending this out for almost four years now. The actual 200th issue is scheduled for October 21st – due to the summer holiday break.

It’s interesting to take a quick look back on four years of news articles. For example, there were very clear signals a long time ago that the Spanish property market was all set to change. As early as the middle of 2005, we had good cause to suspect the hype around the property market boom.

Also in mid 2005, the Valencian Land Grab Law was all set to disappear. To be fair, the name of the law has changed but we’re still suffering from some underhanded behaviour in that region of Spain as this long list of articles demonstrates.

It was in early 2006 that corruption in Marbella first hit the news. Even though that particular location seems to be addressing its issues, it is, of course, still coping with the fallout from that spate of publicity. Just last month, a similar set of circumstances hit the news concerning Estepona – just 20 minutes down the coast from Marbella.

Still on the subject of illegal building and corruption – this time in Catral, it’s easy to see how today’s story is linked to similar articles stretching back to the middle of 2006.

The perspective I gain from this quick excursion down memory lane is that it will take a while yet for Spain to clean up it’s image – at least as far as property is concerned. Despite moves to operate more transparently, Spain’s system of funding local councils via the process of granting building licences is doomed to perpetuate the current cycle of corruption.

Similarly, the election process in Spain often places opposing political parties in power at regional and local levels. When a regional government instigates a witch-hunt into corruption at the local level, it’s a safe bet they won’t be concentrating on towns where their own political party is in office.

Long term, I am optimistic that Spain will get the better of these vices and defects in their political and legal machinery – because they are doing more than simply paying lip-service to the ideals of transparency. Now that its property market is taking a beating, this would be an ideal time to push through new legislation to systematically eradicate corruption and inefficiency in the housing system.

I’d increase tax revenue with a massive clamp-down on black money deals. This would also produce a core of believable data about the actual value of housing in Spain. With less money changing hands illegally and an official handle on house prices, my guess is that the market would recover more quickly and more predictably.

In the meantime, don’t think of Spain as the accident black spot of Europe – it’s not, not by a long stretch. The issues Spain is tackling are the same in all ‘developing’ countries – they take years to solve and move beyond. If you’re thinking about buying property in Spain, use an independent lawyer and an independent surveyor, take your time and do your own homework.

This approach was true 4 years ago – and it will probably still be true in another 4 or 40 years from now. Let’s hope by that time I’ve found something new to write about in Issue 2,000 of the Kyero.com Property Pulse Newsletter.

Martin Dell, Kyero.com