Banco Santander. A Major Spanish Success

Banco de Santander has developed from a small regional bank to become one of the major players in European banking and the biggest bank in Spain over the last few years. It has now decided that it wants to dominate the European scene, starting with the UK, as it does the Spanish banking scene. In Spain where Santander goes the other banks soon follow and it seems that they have started to open the tap to new mortgages, a tap that has been closed now for almost a year. Expect other Spanish banks to follow.


Banco De Santander HQ in Sao Paulo

So what made the Santander strong in the current market? Spanish banks never bought into toxic debt to the same extent as other European banks as they were too busy being parochial in Spain by funding developers here, hence the huge construction boom of recent times, and also they looked to Argentina and other Spanish speaking South American countries as well as Portuguese speaking Brazil to develop their brands in new markets. So busy were they that when all of the newly repackaged toxic debt from the States was offered they didn't even bother looking at it. So now they are cash rich and picking up good deals like Abbey, Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley in a sort of Buffett way, buying in at the best time.

So why is the Spanish housing market dropping so much, just like the UK market? The major reason that transactions in Spain are down 26% this year is the lack of availability of credit. The 33% drop in mortgages given out is one of the proofs of that. People still want to buy but cannot because of the restrictions on lending and therefore the market in dropping in price bringing in even more people who want to buy. Obviously there is an oversupply of two bed two bathroom flats in coastal areas but the latent demand for the larger conurbations (Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao) is still there as the population grows year on year and rural depopulation increases as people look for opportunities in the cities. If the Santander open the taps again expect the Spanish market in the major towns and cities to perk up, especially if, and that is a big if currently, it coincides with a drop in interest rates from the European Central Bank.

So what will be the next target for Santander in the UK and when will the Competition Commission start looking into their adquisitions?

Still Positive?

I have read so many negative blogs about the situation in the UK today due to banking failures in the States and the stock market plummeting that it surprises me that there is anyone left in the country. Why don't you just leave and join the exodus? So anyway, if anyone wants to come and join us here in Valencia please make sure to bring a few things.

1) The intention to learn the language
2) A positive can do attitude
3) Respect for the culture of the country even if that means putting up with goats been thrown from towers etc...
4) Money. Two years of it minimum so that you have time to learn the language and set up a business you can be proud of.
5) An intention to add something to where you are. Remember givers gain.

We will be delighted to help you.

Referring back to my blog last week on Ecademy and to my podcast from the weekend which you can listen to here have a look at the positivity pouring out of the first and the news from Valencia and Spain too. It is not all doom and gloom. If you still decide you want to go then get in touch, ask me about anything regarding living in Spain or particularly Valencia and start planning your future. Remember you do have a choice. Sit back and let the media batter you into following the crowd into a recession or get off your touche and do something to make your life better.

(The photo refers to a house newly reduced to 345000 Euros to live the good life in Turis. Stunning place reeduced because the owners have moved back to Buenos Aires and need some cash. See it here)

Is Spain encouraging entrepreneurs at last?

The mayoress put in a by law that it was illegal to rent out balconies overlooking the pit lane for the recent European Grand Prix in Valencia. Therefore straw hats and pens became must have ultra expensive items for those petrolheads wanting to see a car stop, get filled with petrol for eight seconds and get out quickly.

How? Well as the law was in place eBay and others suddenly became totally inundated with Straw Hats and Pens for 1000 Euros with a free invite over to the owner's house to watch the Grand Prix. Entrepreneurship comes to Spain, finally and just in time to head off the biggest crisis and crash in history, it must be, it says so in the papers!!!

A Story About Falling in Love With Spain

Here is a great story illustrated with art by Lynda who writes the story about her development as a painter. She has a three week exhibition coming up in Barcelona so if you are around at that time then get yourself there, Lynda will be delighted to see you.



A Love Affair with Spain and Horses

By Lynda Cookson

Having emigrated from South Africa to Ireland in 2001 I found I missed hot-country colours. I had visited Spain as a twenty year old backpacker way back in 1974 and would quite happily have stayed there if life's path had let me, so I snapped at the chance to exhibit my work in Spain at Barcelona's Sala Barna in 2005. Selling a painting was just one of the highlights of my two-week trip - I lost six kilos from spending eight hours each day tramping the streets, getting lost and loving the places I found by accident, gazing at the architecture and absorbing the sights, sounds and language of the city … and still I didn't see everything I would have liked to see.

The markets in particular are my favourite places. Bustling, colourful and noisy with non-touristy everyday life. They're a people-watcher's haven and I ate like a queen - fish, salads and fruit. One day I was amazed to come across a wooden box teeming with live snails for sale! That's not something I had seen in my life before.



Jose, the art director at Sala Barna became a temporary mentor to me and taught me much about abstract work. How, I'm still not quite sure because his English was a few words only, interspersed with many 'um's' and 'er's' and my Spanish consists largely of the sound of dictionary pages being madly turned in search of each word. It must have been the telepathy of abstract artists!

The turning point in my career as a painter happened in Barcelona that week. I found the most amazing book, in Spanish, rich with images of wild and spirited horses. I fell in love, knew I should try and find the same book in English somewhere, but was unable to put the book down until it securely belonged to me.

I went home, picked up my brushes and stopped trying to be a conventional painter. I acknowledged that art comes from the heart and soul, switched on the music which makes the blood in my veins sing … and now happily paint free-spirited horses which charge around the canvas in rebellious and powerful colours. I paint other things too, but the horses are my love and my life as a painter.



My artist's statement is part of my life's philosophy and explains my need to work with many layers of paint, whatever the subject I am painting. I am interested in what I call the 'behind music'; the masks of protection and the layers of learning people develop and build up through their lives; and how they learn to live with those masks and layers; and how they achieve their wisdom.

The 'behind music' is all the parts of a symphony concert in their separate forms, all the patterns of sound, the individual notes, the individual instruments, the emotions elicited, the energy expended and the people involved, which unite to make the complete piece of music so beautiful, soul-reaching, acceptable and exciting to the masses of people who listen to it.



Happily I have a three week solo exhibition coming up in Barcelona at the Sala Barna with the Opening Night on Friday 26 September 2008. It's the end of my contract with them and I would love to meet as many people there as possible … because the more people I meet then surely the more excuses I have to return to Spain again and again and again.



To join us at the exhibition in Barcelona on the evening of 26 September or to let me know the best places to find non-touristy Flamenco dancing please …
email me at lyndacookson@eircom.net
Or call me on +353 (0)91 571 983
Visit www.lyndacookson.com

Spanish Invention

To put a positive spin on this is difficult but the ingenuity of it is fantastic. In discussing the biggest sporting b**tards the Guardian have pulled out this beauty from Spain. The full report can be found here with a myriad of other suggestions in the comment section

4) The Spanish Paralympic basketball team, Sydney 2000

They pretended to be mentally disabled so they could win the Paralympic gold medal. They pretended to be mentally disabled so they could win the Paralympic gold medal. You just can't go any lower than that. It was only once the team had won the learning-disabled gold that it was revealed that the players hadn't actually been disabled. Not only were 10 of the 12-man squad entirely learning-able, some of them were actually club basketball players. Their coach actually instructed them to dumb-down their play because the ease with which they were winning was making people suspicious. Even then they tore through the competition, notching up a 24-point win over Russia in the final. "There were two or three players who could have competed in our national basketball league," observed Australia's coach. "What they did with, and without, the ball was way above what any of our athletes could have achieved." Sensing that they were on the brink of being rumbled, the team were kitted out in false beards and spectacles to disguise them on their return to Spain.

Fantastic ruse don't you think?

More About a Beautiful Guest House

My friend Amanda down in Cordoba has updated her website and it now looks even more appetising to visit. Have a look here Just a short drive from the beautiful white town of Iznajar, if you want a really good place to wind down with a great hostess then this could be the place for you.

Some Good Press Finally

The Sunday Times this week has come up with a greta selection of the 22 best coastal restaurants in Spain. Do you agree with their choices? Two are in Valencia and I have had the privilege of going to both of them. One day I will get to El Bulli though. Check out the article here

Have a great day

The Drought Must Now Be Over

Rain, rain and more rain. Seville's Easter Week and Feria, since Fallas in Valencia, most football matches from the last few weeks of the season. If you have seen any coverage of Spain on the TV or images in the press recently it was probably accompanied by raindrops falling on the reporters or players' heads.

A month and a half of rain in Valencia virtually every day and the images from around the rest of the country have convinced me that if the country complains about lack of water this summer then there is a conspiracy about. As the saying in Spain goes "En Abril aguas mil" (The equivalent is about April showers) What it doesn't mention is May and June too.. So right now I am off out to get myself wet before the summer heat arrives.

Valencia Tourist Numbers Growing

In the first quarter of 2008, 1.6 million international tourists visited the Region of Valencia, according to the Encuesta de Movimientos Turísticos en Frontera (FRONTUR) survey of inbound tourist movements. This figure represents an 8.7% increase on the same period of the previous year, putting the Region of Valencia above the average growth figure registered for Spain as a whole (3.3%).


The survey reveals that in the first four months of the year, a total of 15.2 million international tourists arrived in Spain. The Region of Valencia was one of three regions that registered the highest growth in foreign tourism in comparison with last year, along with Madrid and the Canary Islands, and is now the fourth most visited region in Spain. This positive outcome is largely due to outstanding growth in tourism from the main country of origin, the United Kingdom, which increased 4.4%, as well as from secondary countries of origin, France and Scandinavia mainly, which currently represent 52% of all international visitors to the Region of Valencia.



April, the strongest month

April was the busiest month for destinations in the Region, with an increase of 4.2% in international tourism, a figure that contrasts sharply with the trends observed in other Spanish tourist destinations, where foreign tourism has decreased by 1%. In turn, these figures show that Valencia has been one of the least affected regions by the negative impact of this year's early Easter Break. In total, 483,000 tourists visited the Region of Valencia in April, 43.6% from the United Kingdom and 16% from France. These figures denote an increase in the number of visitors from these countries in comparison with April 2007: the British market has grown 1.2% and the French market has increased 17.4%. There was also a significant increase in visits from Italian and Scandinavian tourists, with increases of 16% and 54.9%, respectively. In April 2008, 4.7 million tourists arrived in Spain, 1% less than the previous year. However, when comparing the figures for March and April 2008 with the same two-month period the previous year, a 2.9% increase is observed in the influx of international tourists to Spain, which translates into 250,000 more arrivals.

Air travel and hotel accommodation

The vast majority of foreign tourists who visited the Region of Valencia came by plane. According to the survey, in the first quarter of 2008, 81.7% of all arrivals were by air. El Altet Airport, in the province of Alicante, was the main point of arrival for these visitors, accounting for 72% of all visits with a year-on-year increase of 30.9%. Manises Airport in Valencia also experienced growth of 27.1%. As for the rest of the country, close to 12 million tourists travelled to Spain by air in the first four months of 2008, representing a year-on-year increase of 4.9%. Road travel, on the other hand, experienced a decrease of 3.1% in the flow of tourists. In terms of accommodation, foreign tourists tended to opt for hotels, with an increase of 5.8% in comparison to the first quarter of 2007, which has led to a decrease in the figures for accommodation outside hotels. Over 10 million tourists stayed in Spanish hotels, representing 66.5% of the total. As for travel arrangements and organisation, in the period from January to April 2008, most foreign tourists preferred not to go on a package holiday (68%), whereas the remaining 31% did choose this mode. Both options, however, experienced year-on-year growth of 4.1% and 1.5%, respectively.

Fernando Torres Ad

Well combining a couple of things dear to me, Liverpool and football of course, this video on you tube of the new Nike advert in Hungary is rather cool.
The effects of Torres, Benitez and the like at Liverpool has meant that many schools have changed to Spanish as the second language above French and there is a great appreciation for Spanish cuisine and culture in this year's European City of Culture. Check out the video.