Latest news with #Hernando
Business Times
a day ago
- Business
- Business Times
Madrid's ghost towns revived as Spain's housing crisis escalates
[SESENA, Spain] The first call came two minutes after estate agent Segis Gomez posted a listing in Sesena, a development near Madrid that gained notoriety as one of the so-called 'ghost towns' created when Spain's property bubble burst in 2008. Half-built and half-empty for more than a decade, these days the squatters have gone from this development 40 km south of the capital and middle-class families, driven out of the city centre by an acute housing crisis, are moving in. Construction, meanwhile, has restarted. Demand is so strong in Sesena that Gomez has a waiting list of 70 people for each property. Property prices have recovered their original value after plunging to less than half during the crisis, he said. As anger grows over the cost of housing in Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made providing affordable homes one of his main goals – even as he encourages population growth through immigration. The size of the challenge is clear in Madrid, which grew by 140,000 people in 2024, but only registered permits to build 20,000 new homes. Short supply is being exacerbated by a boom in holiday lets, record migration and onerous planning laws. 'The problem is that we can't match supply and demand quickly enough. So prices go up, or people have to trade price for distance,' said Carles Vergara, a real estate professor at IESE Business School in Madrid. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Tuesday, 12 pm Property Insights Get an exclusive analysis of real estate and property news in Singapore and beyond. Sign Up Sign Up Sesena has been adopted as a commuter town as Madrid overflows, even though it is located in the neighbouring Castile-La Mancha region and still lacks good transport links to the capital and public services, which caused homebuyers to reject it in the past. Its founder and original developer, Francisco Hernando, had a vision of 13,000 affordable apartments with gardens and swimming pools on the Spanish plain where author Cervantes set his best-known work Don Quixote, but the project became a byword for speculative greed and corruption. Only 5,000 homes ended up being built. Hernando, who began his project in 2004, failed to tell homebuyers he hadn't secured access to water or that the town had no public transport or schools. Hernando died in 2020. When the market collapsed, initial investors saw the value of their property plummet, while many homes ended up in the hands of banks. Today, Sesena teems with life as parents drop children at its three schools, drink coffee in its bars and visit recently-opened gyms and pharmacies. Impact Homes, a developer, is constructing 156 one-to-four bedroom apartments it expects to complete this year. Next door, another building has already pre-sold 49 per cent of its units, it said in an email. 'Sesena is at 100 per cent,' said Jaime de Hita, the town's mayor. Nestor Delgado moved to Sesena in 2021 with his family from Carabanchel in south Madrid because an apartment cost 20 per cent less to rent. In May, he bought a house with his wife for 240,000 euros (S$352,105). 'We chose (Sesena) because we can afford it,' Delgado, 34, said. The trade-off is rising before 5 am to be among the first in the queue for the 6.30 am bus to Madrid to arrive at his construction job by 8 am or face an hour's wait for the next bus. Other ghost towns are also coming back to life. Valdeluz, a development 75 km east of Madrid originally envisioned to house 30,000 people, was abandoned a quarter of the way through when the property bubble burst. Mayor Enrique Quintana told Reuters the town's 6,000-strong population is swelling with people from Madrid and could expand by 50 per cent in the next four years. A development on the edge of the village of Bernuy de Porreros, 100 km north of Madrid, which as recently as six years ago was mostly abandoned, is now bustling with activity as handymen put the finishing touches on homes. Lucia, a 37-year-old state employee, bought her house in April. Her daily commute to Madrid involves a 15-minute drive to the train station in Segovia and 28 minutes on the high-speed train, which costs her 48 euros for 30 trips thanks to a frequent traveller discount. The development began to revive when Spain's so-called bad bank Sareb, which was set up to take bad loans from the financial crisis, in 2021 began selling the homes for as little as 97,000 euros. Four years later, one property was resold for double that, said resident Nuria Alvarez. Until recently a relatively compact city, Madrid is on the way to becoming a metropolis like Paris or London, with commuter zones stretching beyond its administrative boundaries, said Jose Maria Garcia, the regional government's deputy housing minister. The metropolitan area's population of 7 million will grow by a million in the next 15 years, the government estimates. Madrid has a deficit of 80,000-100,000 homes that's growing by 15,000 homes a year and plans to build 110,000 homes by 2028, Garcia said. Sesena, meanwhile, is once again dreaming big. Its mayor, de Hita, said the town is securing permits for a new project dubbed Parquijote, with a proposed investment of 2.3 billion euros to build a logistics park that will create local jobs, along with 2,200 homes. It's no quixotic fantasy, de Hita said. 'This time we have learned from what happened,' he said. 'It is fundamental that we look for growth by learning from the past.' REUTERS
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Madrid's ghost towns revived as Spain's housing crisis escalates
By Corina Pons and Charlie Devereux SESENA, Spain (Reuters) - The first call came two minutes after estate agent Segis Gomez posted a listing in Sesena, a development near Madrid that gained notoriety as one of the so-called "ghost towns" created when Spain's property bubble burst in 2008. Half-built and half-empty for more than a decade, these days the squatters have gone from this development 40 km (24.85 miles) south of the capital and middle-class families, driven out of the city centre by an acute housing crisis, are moving in. Construction, meanwhile, has restarted. Demand is so strong in Sesena that Gomez has a waiting list of 70 people for each property. Property prices have recovered their original value after plunging to less than half during the crisis, he said. As anger grows over the cost of housing in Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has made providing affordable homes one of his main goals - even as he encourages population growth through immigration. The size of the challenge is clear in Madrid, which grew by 140,000 people in 2024, but only registered permits to build 20,000 new homes. Short supply is being exacerbated by a boom in holiday lets, record migration and onerous planning laws. "The problem is that we can't match supply and demand quickly enough. So prices go up, or people have to trade price for distance," said Carles Vergara, a real estate professor at IESE Business School in Madrid. Sesena has been adopted as a commuter town as Madrid overflows, even though it is located in the neighboring Castile-La Mancha region and still lacks good transport links to the capital and public services, which caused homebuyers to reject it in the past. Its founder and original developer, Francisco Hernando, had a vision of 13,000 affordable apartments with gardens and swimming pools on the Spanish plain where author Cervantes set his best-known work Don Quixote, but the project became a byword for speculative greed and corruption. Only 5,000 homes ended up being built. Hernando, who began his project in 2004, failed to tell homebuyers he hadn't secured access to water or that the town had no public transport or schools. Hernando died in 2020. When the market collapsed, initial investors saw the value of their property plummet, while many homes ended up in the hands of banks. MADRID'S EXPANSION Today, Sesena teems with life as parents drop children at its three schools, drink coffee in its bars and visit recently-opened gyms and pharmacies. Impact Homes, a developer, is constructing 156 one-to-four bedroom apartments it expects to complete this year. Next door, another building has already pre-sold 49% of its units, it said in an email. "Sesena is at 100%," said Jaime de Hita, the town's mayor. Nestor Delgado moved to Sesena in 2021 with his family from Carabanchel in south Madrid because an apartment cost 20% less to rent. In May, he bought a house with his wife for 240,000 euros ($272,808). "We chose (Sesena) because we can afford it," Delgado, 34, said. The trade-off is rising before 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) to be among the first in the queue for the 6.30 a.m. bus to Madrid to arrive at his construction job by 8 a.m. or face a an hour's wait for the next bus. BACK TO LIFE Other ghost towns are also coming back to life. Valdeluz, a development 75 km east of Madrid originally envisioned to house 30,000 people, was abandoned a quarter of the way through when the property bubble burst. Mayor Enrique Quintana told Reuters the town's 6,000-strong population is swelling with people from Madrid and could expand by 50% in the next four years. A development on the edge of the village of Bernuy de Porreros, 100 km north of Madrid, which as recently as six years ago was mostly abandoned, is now bustling with activity as handymen put the finishing touches on homes. Lucia, a 37-year-old state employee, bought her house in April. Her daily commute to Madrid involves a 15-minute drive to the train station in Segovia and 28 minutes on the high-speed train, which costs her 48 euros for 30 trips thanks to a frequent traveller discount. The development began to revive when Spain's so-called bad bank Sareb, which was set up to take bad loans from the financial crisis, in 2021 began selling the homes for as little as 97,000 euros. Four years later, one property was resold for double that, said resident Nuria Alvarez. Until recently a relatively compact city, Madrid is on the way to becoming a metropolis like Paris or London, with commuter zones stretching beyond its administrative boundaries, said Jose Maria Garcia, the regional government's deputy housing minister. The metropolitan area's population of 7 million will grow by a million in the next 15 years, the government estimates. Madrid has a deficit of 80,000-100,000 homes that's growing by 15,000 homes a year and plans to build 110,000 homes by 2028, Garcia said. Sesena, meanwhile, is once again dreaming big. Its mayor, de Hita, said the town is securing permits for a new project dubbed Parquijote, with a proposed investment of 2.3 billion euros to build a logistics park that will create local jobs, along with 2,200 homes. It's no quixotic fantasy, de Hita said. "This time we have learned from what happened," he said. "It is fundamental that we look for growth by learning from the past." ($1 = 0.8797 euros) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Harrisburg junior Jackson Hancock discusses his first season with Tigers boys' tennis
Watch Northwest Rankin softball celebrate its MHSAA 7A championship over Hernando Watch as Northwest Rankin softball celebrates its MHSAA 7A championship after a 9-0 win over Hernando on May 15. It's their third consecutive title. 0:22 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Hernando couple looking for suspect that drove into their property
HERNANDO, Miss. — A Hernando couple could be out of thousands of dollars after someone crashed into both of their vehicles and their garage over the weekend and took off running. That couple is now calling on the community to help them find the driver. The Garrity Family said shock was their initial reaction after they were awakened by the sound of their property being hit. They said it's a situation you just can't make up. The moment you see the dark-colored SUV hit their vehicle is about the same time their dog began to alert them. The vehicle, believed to be a Chevy Equinox or something similar, was seen driving away moments after the collision. Accidental photo captures moment MS man saves couple from burning truck By the time the couple got outside to assess the damage, the SUV was gone and their truck and Jeep were damaged, their garbage can was crushed, their garage was totaled and even some potential structural damage inside. The family said that while this has been a lot to process, their community has been there to support them as they look for answers. 'We've got neighbors right behind us that came over the very next day or the same day actually and we were all playing super sleuth, driving around looking for the car, walking down the street picking up the parts that had fallen off of their car and stuff like that, trying to find the matches,' Mike Garrity said. 'That's how we ended up finding what kind of vehicle it was because one of the part numbers was lying on a piece that was in our driveway.' 'And the bigger pieces, the police took [them] with them once they came and took the report,' Bobbie Garrity said. The family said that due to it being a holiday, they will have to wait to get estimates on the damages. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
South Walton run-rules Hernando in state semifinals
(FORT MYERS, Fla. (WMBB) – The South Walton baseball team run-ruled Hernando 17-2 in the Class 3A State Semifinals, advancing to the state finals for the second consecutive season. The Seahawks advance to the 3A State Finals, where they will face either Bishop Verot or Miami Springs on Tuesday, May 20. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
