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Property
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developers to provide 1-bed accommodation. “When plots go to tender, people offer different ideas, and the allocation panel will want to maximise government policy”, Sacramento insists.
Mortgage availability is not a problem. State-owned Gibraltar International Bank chief executive, Lawrence Podesta, explains: “We have lent some £170m for mortgages and we can take on quite a bit more as our deposit base of over £700m is greater than expected, which means we have enough to lend another £22-30m for the Government properties and substantially more in the open homes market, subject to a tiered approach on risk levels and 50% concentration limit in any single development project.”
Christian Bjørløw, Jyskje Bank chief executive, concurs: “Availability of home loans is not an issue. Demand for mortgages last year was quite slow, but we have seen a slightly higher demand this year.” Jyske bank had helped to finance a few large developments.
NatWest reports Gibraltar mortgage demand in line with last year, but adds: “We have financed a number of developments over
the last year, which will bring more properties onto the market and future mortgages. There is still likely to be demand from developers for commercial projects, but on a smaller scale.”
Lawrence Isola, chief executive of Europort Developments remarks: “I have some concerns about the amount of construction going on, never mind the high number of planning applications for more going in. When this big round of building is completed, a large number of apartments will be available for rent or for re-sale with a high number of speculative investors seeking to get a return, because people think everything sells well in Gibraltar.”
Kings Wharf is a bayside development of three blocks: the first, Quay 27, delivered 130 units in 2011. At Quay 29, where 120 apartments are expected to be ready in March next year, “up to 80% are owner occupiers”, Isola asserts. In Quay 31, almost all 83 apartments priced between £350,000 and £1m were sold late in 2017 “to a list of clients known to be looking for a home to live in and
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tower blocks already dominate Gibraltar’s skyline
a commercial developer will want to do so.” Now over 1,400 more “affordable” social homes on three estates are promised for Gibraltar residents “from August 2019 until the end of 2021”. Non-Gibraltarians can only
buy after 10-years’ residency! There are “other strategies” for frontier
workers, “because we recognise that there are a lot of people, working in key industries, who want to live in Gibraltar and they are not family people”. Government is encouraging
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Gibraltar International
www.gibraltarinternational.com