Minister to take turn as realtor with Spanish property roadshow

Spanish Public Works Minister José Blanco is to turn real estate agent as he embarks on an international roadshow to persuade investors to buy holiday homes in Spain. He is to visit Britain, as well as France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Russia in an attempt to help reduce the glut of unsold properties, estimated at one million, left over from the burst real estate bubble.

At one point Spain was building almost as many homes a year as France, Britain and Germany put together. Today the country is building only about a 10th of the number of houses at the height of the boom in 2007, sparking a sharp rise in unemployment, which is currently at 20 percent, more than double the average in Europe.

Blanco kicks off his marketing tour on May 4 in London. UK citizens accounted for 31.5 percent of all houses bought by foreigners in Spain in 2009, but one of the many factors working against Blanco's sales pitch there will be the sharp depreciation of the pound against the euro.

According to leading appraiser Tinsa, house prices have dropped by 19.3 percent from their peaks at the end of 2007. Prices, however, have fallen by a lot more on the Mediterranean coast where the glut of unsold homes is particularly high.

Spain's banks are also sitting on billions of euros' worth of unsold land and houses acquired as a result of foreclosures or from struggling real estate developers as a form of loan repayment.

Getting the unsold real estate assets of their books would help free up more funds for lending and help improve their levels of solvency.