Torrevieja Estate agents aren’t selling anything, developers are going bust, retail sales are falling by 10% to 15%, local business are struggling

07:55 El NACHO 0 Comments

According to a recent article in the Spanish press the situation in Torrevieja is deteriorating rapidly. Official unemployment has surged from 1,700 in 2005 to more than 5,000 today. Given that the construction sector employs an army of illegal immigrants, who are the first to lose their jobs, real unemployment is likely to be much higher. Estate agents aren’t selling anything, developers are going bust, retail sales are falling by 10% to 15%, local business are struggling, and taxi drivers report that trade is down by 60% to 70%. Social problems such as crime are growing, and there is litter and graffiti everywhere.What is the local mayor’s solution to the problem? More building, of course. Pedro Ángel Hernández Mateo, of the right of centre PP party, and implicated in corruption scandals, wants more town hall control over planning and building in the municipality. In his opinion, building more urbanisations is the future for Torrevieja’s economy. He has also had a good rant about anyone who has ever criticized over-development in the region, including the EU.Torrevieja, a town hall that relied heavily on building licence fees now has financial problems, as the local tax take falls by 7 million Euros thanks to the property crisis.