Fractional ownership

Fractional ownership also known as part ownership is not to be confused with time share.

A typical scenario is where three friends or family members decide to purchase the freehold of a property jointly. Each absolutely owns the freehold of one third or other agreed part of the freehold. Among the advantages are:

• less capital is tied up by each individual.
• a larger or more prestigious property may be purchased than where the group purchase individually.

Clearly a usage and management agreement has to be drawn up by somebody, such as a lawyer, qualified to do so, setting out the rights and obligations of the individual owners. This type of agreement is well established and is not unlike the articles of association of a private limited company that sets out the inter-relationship of the individual shareholders (owners).
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Buy Tenerife

The Irish investor has become a very potent force in the market place over the last five years and indeed much more adventurous. However these investors run the risk of being badly burned particularly in Turkey.
There is a development in Bodrum in south west Turkey: Orient Palace; where the Irish investor is alleged to have placed 30M€.
This project has been heavilly marketed with 'guaranteed rentals' among other very attractive features. We have, in an earlier post, given our views on guaranteed rentals.
In any event, the project has apparently ground to a halt with a multiplicity of financial and legal problems thus placing these investors in a serious risk situation.
This again highlights the dangers of entering unproven markets that have a different commercial culture and without, obviously, having proper professional advice.
Tenerife has been proven as a holiday destination, as an investment destination and as a retirement home destination with a full social infrastructure including health, cultural and all commercial and sports and social facilities. This is, of course, apart from guaranteed sun and beach!! Tenerife also enjoys a unique investment tax regime.
PCI is your Irish estate agent in Tenerife.
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Recession and opportunity...

The stock exchanges, ever 'market psychology' driven beasts, have been panicking since the new year. I think that property in the short to medium term, is always a better bet not least because it is under your own control, is tangible, fullfils a basic need now and in the future and, unless there is a total global disintegration,will always be in demand. Most economies are much more soundly based than their stock exchanges would suggest.

Sometimes it is good not to follow the herd but rather to go against the trend. If one can sustain medium term holding costs the time to buy is when the lemmings are selling. Here in Tenerife; patricularly in Playa de las Americas, Costa de Adeje, Fanabé, Puerto Santiago, Los Gigantes and other well known holiday destinations in Tenerife that time is about now.

It is a buyers market. But 'caveat emptor' let the buyer beware. Follow professional channels at all times. There are huge bargains to be had now in Tenerife that will, within a reasonable time, produce very satisfactory gains. The savvy Irish and, indeed, the Russian investors are coming!
We, at PCI as the only fully qualified, registered and bonded, Irish Estate Agents in Spain are ready!!
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Carnaval: S/C de Tenerife

The theme for the 2008 Carnaval is 'magic'. You need to learn some new words to understand the Carnaval

• Coso: This is a street procession.
• Murga: A singing group, the members of which have written their own lyrics that are usually critical of local politicians or local well known personalities.
• Comparsa: This is a dance group made up usually of friends or family who wear stunning costumes a la Rio de Janeiro.
• Rondalla: Similar to the murga but with somewhat more gravitas!
• Entierro de la Sardina: The burial of the sardine - a huge paper version - reflecting the mourning that comes from the ending of yet another carnaval. It has something of the symbolism of the singing of Pobre de Mi at the ending of the Fería in Pamplona.

When the carnaval ends in Santa Cruz it then moves on to Los Cristianos, San Isidro and Los Gigantes so there is no excuse!!
www.carnavaltenerife.com
During carnaval time is a great opportunity to look at property in Playa de las Americas, Los Cristianos and Fañabé since traffic is usually quiet in the south while the revellers are northward bound!
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Return to Siam Park, Tenerife

Siam is the ancient name for Thailand.

Siam Park, described by its promoters as the new or second generation of waterparks will shortly be coming on stream in Tenerife south. Completion date has been delayed because the international builders and subcontractors, due to the uniqueness of the project, have had no prior experience. Opening date is now expected to be towards end of March 2008 and it will certainly prove to be a world class attraction to ad to those magnificent facilities already available in Tenerife. Watch this space!! Meanwhile visit:
www.siampark.net
Tenerife will be even more of a holiday maker's and investor's dream than ever before.

Meanwhile next month - February 2008 - the famous carnival returns to Santa Cruz. Apart from Rio de Janeiro this is apparently the biggest carnival in the world. visit: www.carnavaltenerife.es
By:

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Town Planning in Spain, Tenerife

This concludes for the moment, our original blog on the topic entitled 'Town Planning: Demolition'.

Arguably nobody has improved on the definition of Town Planning enunciated by the late Professor Lewis Keeble, in his ‘Principles and Practice of Town and Country Planning’, almost forty years ago.
The art and science of ordering the use of land and the character and siting of buildings and communication routes so as to secure the maximum practicable degree of economy, convenience and beauty.
From this definition some fundamental principles of successful Town Planning emerge:

The promotion of accessibility; accessibility of homes to work, shops, schools and entertainment, of industry to sources of labour, power and raw materials and so on. It would hardly be going too far to call Planning a study in accessibility.

The employment of resources as economically as possible, so as to achieve the greatest possible measure of improvement with necessarily limited means.

The separation of incompatible land uses from each other and the association of compatible or mutually helpful uses and finally

The carrying out of all development in as visually pleasant a manner as is practicable.

Planning, in a general sense, may be defined as the predetermination of a course of action. Perhaps, in a democratic society, we should be talking about Planning by demand. The problem here though is that conscious consumer wants are limited by experience and knowledge. By and large you can only want that which you know…what planners really need to know therefore, is what people would want if they understood on the one hand the full range of possibilities and on the other all the practical limitations.
We may return to this topic later as it will certainly become more relevant to Tenerife and the property investment sector in Tenerife and the Canary Islands generally.

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Property in Spain, Tenerife

Spain: Town Planning. Demolition!

Until fairly recently, any conformity with international Town Planning norms and building regulations in Spain generally and the coastal tourist areas, including the Canary Islands, specifically appeared to many observers to be purely coincidental.
Operation Malaya, phase one of which has just culminated in Marbella, provided a rude awakening for such observers. This was a judicial inquiry into town planning corruption that saw lord mayors, lawyers, notarios, police chiefs and promoters, among others, in prison. This town-planning control ‘virus’ is now spreading throughout Spain and its islands. The most recent manifestation was the very public demolition of a half million euro villa in the Alicante area of south west Spain just this week in January 08.
The problem appears to have been that, though the villa had the approval of the local town hall, such approval was in contravention of land use zoning i.e. it was built on rustic land. The town hall, for one reason or another, acted ultra vires. The buyers acted in good faith under advice from a local abogado (solicitor). Nonetheless, the Spanish government has determined that the villa is illegal and has clearly indicated that this home is the first of many ‘thousands’ to be demolished.
Caveat emptor! Let the buyer beware. A properly qualified, honourable, estate agent (API) wouldn’t have allowed a client to commit such commercial suicide. Estate agents should remember that, while the vendor from whom they may have derived over inflated fees may disappear to Botswana, or some such exotic destination, they also owe an obligation - at least of integrity - to the purchaser with whom they may have to ‘live’ for many years!

• In our many years of experience in the property sector in Spain none of our clients have ever had a problem for the simple reason that we do our professional homework properly!
• Everything, including shortcuts, is fine until something goes wrong!!
  To be continued.
  
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Best known Resorts in Tenerife

Tenerife tourist destinations.
Traditionally, the best known tourist destinations have been Playa de las Américas, Los Cristianos and the Costa del Silencio. Now there are a whole lot of new areas including:
El Médano: famous for its huge natural beach and wind surfing.
Palm Mar: a quiet cul-de-sac at the ocean’s edge between Los Cristianos and the Costa del Silencio.
San Eugenio: overlooking Puerto Colon. Here is the PCI office.
Torviscas: between San Eugenio and Fañabé
Fañabé: probably the most prestigious address in South Tenerife extending to
La Caleta: once a delightful little fishing village, now with wonderful sea food restaurants and a hotel.
Playa Paraíso: now a self contained ocean-side community with 5 star hotels, banks, shopping and entertainment.
Callao Salvaje. Ocean-side self contained village.
Playa San Juan: Ocean-side self contained village.
Alcala: Ocean-side self contained village.
Playa de la Arena; Puerto Santiago & Los Gigantes. Three in one village! These three delightful ocean-side villages link with each other terminating under the famous giants; Los Gigantes.
In any of these delightful locations you can buy holiday homes, retirement homes, apartments, villas, bars and restaurants together with hotels, golf courses, sites and land.
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Tenerife: Problems and Opportunities

All the indications are that 2008 will be a buyer's market in Tenerife; a veritable year of opportunity. The market has peaked. There is a surplus of supply over demand that will take about a year to absorb when the market is once again going to resume it's upward trajectory. Therefore if you have ever thought of :

• buying a holiday home in Tenerife.


• an investment property in Tenerife.


• a villa in Tenerife.


• golf in Tenerife


• land in Tenerife.


• an Irish, qualified, registered and bonded estate agent in Tenerife

then, now is the time to make contact with

pci-international.com

Tenerife: Post Christmas

Tenerife is slowly reverting to normal life, commercial and otherwise after the Christmas and new year celebrations. Today; Tuesday the weather is beautiful and the beaches are crowded with tourists enjoying an all too brief reprieve from the miserable weather in their home countries.
Here's wishing all our readers everything good for 2008.

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Property in Spain, Tenerife

January 1, 2008. Everything is quiet. Here, in Playa de las Americas at 9-30 Tuesday, there are still dozy stragglers strolling home from their noctural activities having given up hope of seeing a 'free' taxi.

The Canarians know how to party and, of course, the party will go on until January the 6th (little Christmas in Ireland!) but here El Día de los Magos (magicians or wise men) when gifts are exchanged. Since the 6th falls on Sunday the following day Monday will be a holiday when all major businesess and professional offices will be closed! Hence normality will reluctantly return after the 7th January.
As I write these few words the blissful sound of silence prevails, unusually, in south Tenerife.
Happy 2008 to everybody and prudent property investment whatever destination you chose for your hard earned funds.
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