El Mundo leading net-paper in Europe

As a reader from the first day of the independent Spanish newspaper "El Mundo" and an avid user of its edition on the internet, I almost feel proud that this edition has not only beaten all Spanish competitors, but is also the newspaper in Europe most widely read on the web. During last October "elmundo.es" reached a total of 7,2 million readers, visiting 239 million pages.

We must remember that the internet penetration in Spain is only 35%, well below the countries of northern Europe, and that the information of El Mundo is only published in Spanish. With this in mind it is great that the newspaper holds spot 230 among all internet pages in the world, while the German "Bild" is number 265, "The Guardian" from UK is 300, the Swedish "Aftonbladet" holds spot 307, "Times" is 636 and "El Pais" 853.

Among the newspapers of the world, "El Mundo" is beaten on the web only by
"New York Times" (spot 77), "Washington Post" (169) and "USA Today" (216).

www.elmundo.es is well worth a visit!

Buying the streets

The promoters in Spain have earned much money over the last years. So much that they are now buying almost any land that may become building plots. The rush to buy is sometimes creating incredible situations:

A property company in Pilar de Horadada (Alicante) bought on a public auction 127.000 m2 land within the urbanisation "Pinar de Campoverde" for 640.00 Euro, that was inscribed in the property register as agricultural (finca rustica). The land was registered in the name of the company "Caja Territorial de Madrid S.A." that had gone broke and left much debts.

When the promoters took the time to find out where the land they had bought was situated on the urbanisation, it become clear that they had bought the streets of the development, that "Caja de Madrid" had ceded to the town hall several years ago, without this being reflected in the property register.

Brave step by minister

The Minister of Environment in the national government, Cristina Narbona, has iniciated procedure to have a great part of the gigantic hotel under construction on the beach of Carboneras in Almeria, demolished. The hotel is being built in the beach zone of the natural park Cabo de Gata, with 22 floors and 400 rooms. The demolition will affect all that has been built within 100 metres from the waters edge, that is half of the hotel.

This is a correct and brave step by the minister, disregarding the great financial interests behind the promotion as well as the building permit issued by the mayor from her own party.

Paris is burning, will Madrid burn as well?

The riots in the suburbs of Paris and other French towns have attracted a lot of attention in Spain, a country that have given papers to almost 900.000 illegal immigrants in less than a year, with many more gathering on the shores of Northern Africa to follow.

Newspapers, radio and TV are asking: Can the same happen in Spain? There are all shades of answers to the question.

A great difference between the French and the Spanish immigrants is that most of the ones rioting in France are second generation immigrants, still not integrated in French society, but kept on the fringes, disillusioned and without hope.

The immigrants in Spain are new and fresh, still with hopes to become an accepted part of society.

Spain must now solve the difficult task of integrating its many new immigrants. If it does not manage, also Madrid may be burning if the second generation is still "foreign".

The president of the constructors on Costa Blanca, Ramon Jerez, has in a newspaper interview recently told that there are 11.323 companies working in his sector, with 66.566 employees, without any sign of crisis. To be able to maintain the construction boom, he is demanding the construction of desalination plants all along the coast, to solve the problem of water.

On the 24th of October I referred in this blog to the sharp warning issued by the hotel lobby of Spain, Exeltur, against continuing the present construction activity. Exeltur is afraid this can lead to a crisis in tourism.

The construction companies are not at the sharp end of the property sector. A crisis in the sector will always start in sales. When the sales agents and companies are no longer able to deliver new clients to the promoters, they may go slow on starting new projects. But they will not stop the building projects already sold in a previous period and contracted with the construction companies. From the sale of the dwellings in a building project to its finishing, lies a period of 18 to 24 months.

Reports from all over Spain tell us that sales are slowing down. We are afraid that the continuation of the construction boom and and desalination plants all along the coast will stimulate this trend.

More desalination plants

The president of the constructors on Costa Blanca, Ramon Jerez, has in a newspaper interview recently told that there are 11.323 companies working in his sector, with 66.566 employees. To be able to maintain the construction boom, he is demanding the construction of desalination plants all along the coast, to solve the problem of water.