Business over Tapas 603

A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily
at Foreign Property Owners:
Prepared by Lenox Napier. Consultant: José Antonio Sierra
More information on Business over Tapas
October 9 2025 Nº 603

Editorial:
Co-ownership is becoming quite the thing these days, and it all works beautifully if you get along with everyone and no one pulls out or dies and leaves his share to a cousin. Indeed, if one of the co-owners does pass away, their share of the property goes to their heirs, who become the new co-owners or "co-heirs," requiring a legal process to define and adjudicate the inheritance.
Let us look at the case of several children inheriting a single property – to be divided up peacefully, but then in time, maybe the children of the children become involved. It’s a mess. Should you buy a property with, as it were, a bit missing (now owned by a cousin who lives in Argentina)? Certainly not. Google AI says: ‘A property with multiple owners is legally known as ‘un proindiviso’, a joint ownership or co-ownership, where the property is not physically divided, but rather each owner has a share or percentage of the entire property without a specific, delimited portion. This situation commonly occurs after an inheritance or a joint purchase. To sell, modify, or enjoy the property, the agreement of all co-owners is generally required, although any co-owner can request the division of the property’.
Many years ago, I was living with a girlfriend in a large house (with three kitchens) divided into five shares by the grandfather. For some reason, we had two fifths. When the old auntie died (she lived upstairs), my companion became the owner of another chunk of the house: closing off a door, and with an outside staircase, it became a rental. This after the old girl had failed to leave a will, and the other relatives (about twenty of them showed up for a meeting) had agreed to waive their share of the three rooms in question.
A fourth fifth belongs to some company, and they had never used or claimed it. We knocked a hole through the wall and occupied it as an office.
The fifth fifth, that’s to say, the remaining bit, belonged to a cousin who rented it out to African field workers.
A house like that is largely unsaleable, unless my friend were to previously buy the cousin out (no doubt he would be after a sizeable chunk of money) – and probably ratify the two rooms she took from the company who had ignored them ever since they were sold (along with a piece of land) by another cousin some forty years previously.
No doubt the abogados could help.
So, the lesson here is – don’t buy a house with various owners – even if one of them ‘never shows up’. If you inherit a property, or rather part of one, then maybe insure it heavily against a surprise fire.
I used to know an English poet (and his elderly mother) who would spend a few months each year in Bédar (a charming village in Almería) endlessly searching for something that rhymed with ‘orange’ (or for that matter, naranja). They had a gypsy family living in the same small and rather cramped house – since they owned a share. Rather a large gypsy family as I remember.
Unsurprisingly, they didn’t have much in common with John and his mum, although they would all enjoy an occasional evening with John’s guitar.
In answer to all of this, I was intrigued to find an advertisement from some outfit that can solve your co-ownership problems by buying you out. They say: ‘Not owning a home in its entirety is difficult, but being able to sell your portion doesn't have to be. Find speed and security with a company that buys your share’ (I’ve got their address if you’re interested). One can only imagine how they turn a profit.
As for getting rid of the Argentinian co-owner (and his seven children), perhaps it’s for the best to hope that he never shows up. If you still want to buy, then – says the always helpful Google AI – ‘to purchase a property with multiple owners (a joint ownership), you must obtain the consent of all co-owners for the sale, sign the purchase agreement with all of them, or have one co-owner sell their share to another owner, and process the purchase through a public deed before a notary…’. Good luck with that. If on the other hand, you are thinking of just buying one share, or maybe winning it at cards, then I would say you need to think again…
Divorce, inheritance, another usufruct co-owner, a fellow with bagpipes and dibs on the bathroom… all these and other reasons make a quiet and enchanting little house in a forgotten pueblo – or maybe a flat off La Gran Vía – an utterly hopeless proposition.
Huh! We didn’t even get to time-share…

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Housing:

From LaSexta here: ‘In Spain, owning a home has become more of an investment than a right. While thousands of young people are still unable to become independent, a portion of the real estate market is moving at the pace of those who buy apartments not to live in, but to do business. Housing, which for years was a symbol of stability and future, is now, for many, an asset with which to make money. Meet Edgar Sánchez, real estate expert: "I build an apartment with four bedrooms, renting it out by room, and the two large ones cost 500 euros each, the small ones maybe 250 or 300"’.

And here’s an ‘influencer’ called Ramón Serrano, who tells a TV talk-show "I buy, subdivide, rent by room, and repeat. It’s my recipe for a lucrative real estate business. Within reach of anyone who isn't afraid of success. With this system, I already have 60 rooms on the market, which I rent for between €400 and €800 each".

Two interesting articles from Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight:
‘Spanish home sales hit 18-year high – but foreign demand falters. Foreign non-resident buyers seem to be turning off Spain, with their purchases down sharply even as overall home sales hit an 18-year high. Is political rhetoric to blame? The Spanish property market has just delivered its strongest first half sales figures in nearly two decades, according to the Housing Ministry. A total of 379,777 homes changed hands in H1 2025, the highest level since the bubble days of 2007’. More on this here.
‘Spanish voters split on housing solutions along party lines’ here. It says that ‘Right-leaning voters tend to blame lack of new construction, high taxes and red tape, while left-leaning voters overwhelmingly single out tourist rentals as the main culprit driving up costs and reducing supply…’

From The Olive Press here: ‘The real estate sector in Spain is facing a big labour shakeup with fines being slapped on big firms like Engel & Volkers’. We learn that ‘Labour inspectors have increasingly targeted so-called ‘autonomos falsos’ – workers classified as self-employed when in reality they are full time employees. This misclassification has allowed agencies to swerve social security contributions, but effectively maintain an exclusive relationship with the worker…’

‘The casting process for renting apartments in Valencia is getting tougher: "Now they're asking me to be a doctor or a civil servant". The widespread introduction of default insurance requires tenants to triple their rent, something that's difficult because rents in Valencia average over €1,100. With this scenario, landlords are narrowing the filter and opting for people with good salaries…’ Item from Levante here.

El País says that Andalucía is becoming increasingly urban while bleeding out in rural areas. The Regional Government is developing a strategy to address the demographic challenge to try to correct the serious territorial imbalance. Currently, more than 50% of Andalusians live in thirty cities (mainly in overcrowded areas such as the Costa del Sol or the Guadalquivir Valley), while 80% of Andalucía is rural and is slowly but steadily emptying’.

From The Olive Press here: ‘Wake-up call for Brits: Second homeowners in Spain face travel bans when 90/180 ‘blind eye’ regime ends on October 12th’. And then there’s a similar piece from The Daily Mail here: ‘Brits could be banned from holiday homes for ten years and hit with heavy fines for flouting EU's 90-day rule as new crackdown comes into force’. It’s of course true for all non-EU citizens.

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Tourism:

From The Corner here: ‘In the first eight months of 2025, the number of tourists who visited Spain increased by 3.9%, reaching 66.77 million, the highest figure in that period in the INE’s Frontur series. The main sending countries during this period were the United Kingdom (with nearly 13.2 million and a 4.3% increase), France (with almost 9.2 million and an increase of 0.1%), and Germany (with over 8.2 million, a 2.0% increase)…’

From Spain in English here: ‘Spain sets new tourism record with 22.3 million foreign visitors in July-August’.

El Levante says brightly, ‘US plans for Spain: millions of Americans will arrive in the next three years. They love the gastronomy and the cultural and historical wealth of our country’.

The Majorca Daily Bulletin brings: ‘With half term on the horizon in the UK and the introduction of the new entry and exit scheme, there is another matter for UK travellers to the European Union to be well aware of. The British government has banned travellers from the European Union from entering the UK with sandwiches, cheese, cured meats such as ham, raw meat or milk, to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease following a growing number of cases across Europe...’

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Finance:

The labour market gained 31,462 workers in September, and unemployment remains at its lowest level since 2007. The employment figure is the third-highest figure for this month in the series. The government celebrates "exceptional data" and highlights the sharp decline in temporary employment’. Público has the story.

From The Corner here: ‘The General Council of Economists (CGE) has revised its GDP growth forecast for 2025 upwards to 3%, four tenths higher than its previous estimate, following the recent update by the National Statistics Institute (INE), the dynamism of the first two quarters of this year and the strong performance of domestic demand and the labour market, among other factors…’

El Blog Salmon writes of ‘The "Spanish dream": where six out of every ten new jobs are now being filled by foreigners’.

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Politics:

"It's easier to dig trenches than it is to build bridges, and this climate damages the country to its core. Politics ceases to be a space for solutions, and the country is being torn apart. It's a game in which no one wins, everyone loses". No, it’s not who you think. It’s El Mundo quoting Alberto Núñez Feijóo here.

From The Guardian here: ‘In Spain, what once seemed impossible is now widespread: the young are turning to the far right. Migration is barely mentioned – instead, failed policies on housing, wages and employment are driving young voters into the arms of Vox’.

From 20Minutos here: ‘The government proposes including the right to abortion in the Constitution. The executive branch has also announced, through a decree, that it will prevent women from "receiving false or unscientific information," such as the so-called "post-abortion syndrome" recently championed by the Madrid City Council’.

El Mundo notes that ‘The Gaza crisis is already polarizing Spanish society: a left-right divide amid protests and the use of the term "genocide". Almost 79% of Spaniards are deeply concerned about the situation in Gaza. Only a small minority condones Israel’. Some graphics show that leftie voters are pro-Palestine, while right-wingers are unsure. Politically, of course, it’s good for the Government.

There’s even less doubt about Carlos Mazón (he of the Valencia floods). 82% of Valencians think he should resign, while 90% insist that he should not present his candidature in a future election. The numbers are at El Levante here. (You can see why the PP has put all its hopes in the hands of the questionable justice system, it’s the only card they have left…)

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Israel:

‘Among the 50 Spanish crew members aboard the Gaza flotilla seized by Israeli authorities are two former members of ETA: José Javier Osés Carrasco and Itziar Moreno Martínez. Both were aboard the vessel Sirius, the same one on which former Barcelona mayor Ada Colau was sailing’. The story comes from 20Minutos here.

From El País here: ‘Ada Colau (ex-mayoress of Barcelona), upon her arrival in Barcelona: "They mistreated us, but it's nothing compared to what the Palestinian people are suffering". The former mayor returned on Sunday night to the Catalan capital together with ERC councillor Jordi Coronas, who also denounces abuses by the Israeli authorities’. One of the Spanish female prisoners held in Israel is reported by 20Minutos to have bitten a nurse while being examined. She could get five years jail for terrorism.

Wednesday: ‘Israel intercepts the second flotilla, with eight Spaniards on board: "All are safe and will be deported immediately"’. One is a councillor from Más Madrid.

Meanwhile, says elDiario.es, dozens of demonstrations around the world, and visibly massive ones in Spain, once again fill the streets with solidarity with the Palestinians in the face of a very uncertain future.

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Health:

A mess in the Andalusian health service, the SAS. From Espacio Andaluz here: ‘Since January 2024, the SAS has been aware of "long-term" delays in informing Andalusian women that their tests were "suspicious" or "almost conclusive" of breast cancer. Delays, as those affected have reported, having reached "months and even up to a year"’. Público says that ‘A report by the Regional Government warned in 2023 of higher mortality rates from breast cancer in Andalucía than in the rest of Spain. Two years ago, the study by the Ministry of Health called for improved early diagnosis, whose poor performance has now left some 2,000 women without the results of their screening’. A rather weak explanation came from the regional president Juanma Moreno: "When there are signs, nothing is said to avoid generating anxiety" (La Voz del Sur). Later, El Xornal de Galicia had: ‘The hidden breast cancer issue: The Moreno Bonilla administration's negligence could sink the Andalusian regional government financially’. It says: ‘More than 2,000 women are facing uncertainty: a health disaster with deadly consequences and the right to compensation in the multimillions from the regional government. The SAS has officially acknowledged that more than 2,000 women with "inconclusive" breast cancer screening tests were not informed in a timely manner, leaving them in a situation of anxiety, life-threatening illness, and, in some cases, with diagnoses in advanced stages that could have been avoided…’
Lastly, ‘The Andalusian High Prosecutor's Office is investigating’ says elDiario.es here.

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Corruption:

After I lost (sold?) my newspaper back in 1999 and was left broke and with a huge mortgage on my family home, I began working with a Spanish friend who ran the local COPE Radio franchise. I was a ‘talking head’. Along with this, I became the partner in his El Indálico (a Spanish free paper) and in The New Entertainer.
This monthly English-language paper (around 10,000 copies) lasted about five years and carried some adverts, but no news; just original stories and essays about Spain. One regular contributor was Andrew Ming, who brought bitter tales of an old and rumpled private dick called Larry Kovaks who lived in Barcelona (Spain’s ‘Gypmeister Central’) and knew all the scammers, from pickpockets to prostitutes, robbers, killers and drug-dealers: in short, a whole crew of JDLRs (just doesn’t look right).
Andrew has just written to me to say that he has another Kovaks story that needs to see the light of day.
Here’s Romagnoli’s Revenge. It’s NSFW by the way…
For more stories, visit Larry Kovaks PI —Spain's Premier Tourist Detective here.

While I agree that José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán deserve everything that they’ve got coming, one complaint from the PP is a little thin. Photos were displayed the other day in some right-wing newspaper (probably in all of them) showing a couple of envelopes stuffed with cash directed to Ábalos (courtesy of the ever-vigilant UCO). The envelopes had the name of the PSOE printed on them and – worse – were window envelopes. You can read written on one: 2,928.26€. Yes, and you can see the coins too, and the céntimos. Now, if I was bribing or tipping a deputy, I’d probably round it up to ten thousand and use a plain envelope… but that’s me. It turns out that, of course, this was just petty-cash paid out against receipts.

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Courts:

Peinado might be the straw that breaks the back of the Sánchez camel, but he’s not one to be proud of his ingenuity. In his recent legal argument, a document of six pages accusing Begoña Gómez of one thing and another, it was discovered that a page and a half had been plagiarised, copied if you will, word for word, without credit, from an article he found in a judicial magazine. Público has the story here. At the same time, Peinado has denounced eight personalities for touching on his honourability. These include the two current ministers Fernando Grande-Marlaska and Óscar Puente, together with the ex-minister Pablo Iglesias and several senior journalists. He’s looking for 200,000€ to help swell his retirement fund… Later: Whoops! Plus another seventy thousand from Gabriel Rufián from the ERC. Meanwhile, the Prosecutor's Office (and Begoña Gómez) request the dismissal of the entire investigation.

From The Olive Press here: ‘Spain’s Attorney General to stand trial over allegations he leaked secret files on the Madrid president’s boyfriend to the Media. The Supreme Court has announced a November trial of Álvaro Garcia Ortiz over alleged leaking details about Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s partner’ (don’t worry, it was in the public domain already).

El Huff Post has: ‘The Supreme Court summons Ábalos and Koldo García to testify next week following the UCO (Guardia Civil fraud squad) report. On October 15 and 16, the former minister and his former advisor will have to respond to alleged cash transfers investigated by the Guardia Civil’.

There’s no such rush for the biggest fish of them all. From LaSexta here: ‘The judge in the Cristóbal Montoro case extends the investigation until 2026 to question the former minister and the other suspects. The judge believes it is necessary to continue with the investigation and to extend the investigation period for another six months. From Ara, we read: ‘Montoro's poisoned inheritance. The State estimates that the rulings against the former tax official's actions represent a cost of more than 11,000 million euros’.

Up there in Moaña (Galicia), the wife of Alberto Núñez Feijoo has a house with an illegal walled-off private beach. elDiario.es says: ‘The Feijóo family appeals to the National Court to try to maintain private access to the beach from their villa. The PP leader's partner is playing her last card, through an administrative dispute, after the government rejected her request to retain the 215-square-metre plot of public land on the beach until 2037’.

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Media:

From the fact-finding site Newtral here: ‘Last summer, at the height of racial tensions that sparked waves of violence in Ireland and the United Kingdom, a website dedicated exclusively to chronicling crimes allegedly committed by foreigners appeared in Spain. “Is mass illegal immigration the beginning of a war with Morocco and will Europe be conquered by Islamists?” asked one of the first articles published on Invadidos.com, a website created in July 2024 that, in just one year, has become one of the main hubs for anti-immigration narratives in Spanish…’ Newtral investigators have found that Invadidos.com is two Seville-based agitators writing under false names while being financed by the Russians.

‘Vox says that if it governs, it will enter the RTVE (State Radio/TV) with either a "chainsaw or a flamethrower". Vox deputy Manuel Mariscal has warned the RTVE president that if they were to govern, "we won't do like the PP, which disassociated itself from Radio Televisión Española when it won an absolute majority," but rather, "the question is whether we will enter with a chainsaw or a flamethrower"’. The story at Público here.

An old one from InfoLibre (November 2024, paywall) is currently doing the rounds on social media. ‘Retired Supreme Court Judge Martín Pallín: "We are facing a permanent judicial coup d’état"’.

El Plural brings us ‘Transport Minister Óscar Puente's review of El Mundo after the latest hoax about PSOE payments to Ábalos’. Minister Puente is one of the best – and most wounding – of all the government speakers.

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Ecology:

From Energías Renovables here: ‘Solar energy reached a historic milestone last June by becoming, for the first time, the European Union's primary source of electricity. According to the latest data from the EU statistical office, Eurostat, solar energy accounted for 22% of all electricity generated in the EU in June of this year, surpassing nuclear energy (21.6%), wind energy (15.8%), hydroelectric energy (14.1%), and natural gas (13.8%)…’

From The Olive Press here: ‘Spain now boasts among the cheapest energy in Europe – and it’s thanks to renewables’.

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Various:

From ABC here: ‘The Ávila City Council will consider changing the train station's name to 'Teresa de Jesús'. Business over Tapas partner José Antonio Sierra, the promoter, is seeking support for this initiative, which he has sent to both the mayor and opposition groups’.

El Reto Histórico recalls ‘When his sailors nearly threw Cristóbal Colón overboard. Columbus's first voyage to the New World nearly failed due to a mutiny on board’.

The Madrid-born hoaxer Baldomera Larra (1835 to 1915) is remembered as the first person to come up with the pyramid fraud (aka the Ponzi Scheme) says Wiki here.

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See Spain:

From Noémi at A World Through My Glasses here: ‘Okay, so Barcelona has a lot going on: …amazing food, sunny beach, mountains, parties, history, and streets oh, so beautiful you’ll want to photograph every corner… But nothing – and I mean nothing!!! – prepares you for the Sagrada Família’. (Hat tip to Colin)

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Letters:

Catch Begoña, You've Caught Pedro: Very good post. Tragically, the fascists are on the rise everywhere and have immense backing.
Even a country as successful as Spain currently is not immune.
Emma

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Finally:

An energetic folksie song: Kinnia with La Danza del Cuervo Negro on YouTube here.