Eagle Quest Properties

Arancha Ibarra considers herself one of the lucky victims of Spain’s housing collapse.

After struggling to find a buyer for her renovated two- bedroom apartment in Madrid for two years, Ibarra found a tenant for 750 euros ($1,066) a month, becoming one of the 1.5 million second-home owners thrust onto the country’s rental market.

The number of properties for rent in Spain climbed 55 percent in the past two years to 3.3 million, the highest since the Ministry of Housing started collecting the data in 2004. Rents in cities, including Madrid and Barcelona, are falling for the first time in seven years with declines of as much as 8 percent, according to Madrid-based property research firm Idealista.com.

“Those who need to sell but can’t are being forced to lease,” said Fernando Encinar, co-founder and head of research at Idealista.com, Spain’s largest real estate Web site with 308,000 listings for rent and purchase. “We haven’t seen this number of properties for rent since the 1950s.”

via Spanish Rents Fall in Worst Housing Glut Since 1950s (Update1) – Bloomberg.com.

LaSalle Investment Management on Monday said investor sentiment in the European commercial property sector had stabilised, that repricing had found a floor and that there was rising interest in the UK market.

In its 2009 Mid-Year Update, the U.S. real estate investment firm said, looking forward to 2010, investors should capitalise on the reversion to more sustainable pricing in commercial property, although deals will need to withstand falling rents.

This could be achieved by long leases or by picking properties that were so attractive to occupiers that they will weather the recession without this protection, LaSalle said, adding retail offered the best investment prospect.

via LaSalle says European comm. property sector stabilised | Currencies | Reuters.