The biggest-selling British jazz artist of all time, singer, songwriter, pianist and multi-instrumentalist Jamie Cullum is in concert on Thursday, 4 August, at one of the most dramatically beautiful venues anywhere on the Costa del Sol – Fuengirola’s landmark Castillo Sohail.

The Londoner’s latest album and his first in 4 years, The Pursuit has been described as an expansive labour of love embracing the full range of the artist’s diverse talents and far-flung musical passions,  covering more stylistic ground than anything he’s done previously. And where better than an atmospheric Moorish castle overlooking the Mediterranean to see and hear Cullum performing tracks from it.

Doors open at 8.30pm. Tickets (€35) are available from www.ticketmaster.es and in Fuengirola, from Halcón Viajes (T. 952 477 954).

This gig was originally scheduled to take place at the Marbella bullring, so if you already have tickets for that venue, don’t worry, the organisers – Riff Productions – say they will still be valid!

Another nice article for those of us involved in Spanish real estate, and well, if they’re going to write it, I’m obviously going to blog about it.

The Daily Telegraph picked up on the stat that 8 out of 10 Britons looking for a holiday home abroad are interested in those countries worst hit by the recession. And in their analysis by a long way Spain is the most popular.

Plenty of other comments and quotes to back up their position, but all of this has its own downside, we ourselves wouldn’t be happy seeing all manner of hype and urgency reports in the British press spreading to our market once more.

We saw too many fly by night, here today gone tomorrow types, looking for a quick market kill in yesteryear, and we don’t want to see them here again. It is a fact that the British media should take its fair share of blame and shame for a considerable amount of ‘fanning the flames’ in building up our market over years, only to then shoot it down.

The article is good news. If it has you excited to come and take a look, then fine, our advice would be, just don’t leave your brain on the plane. It is potentially a great time to buy indeed, but you have to buy right, which should be from somebody with a lot of experience and who has a long history of support and involvement with previous clients.

There… you have to make a pitch now and again, especially if people need to be steered in the right direction, otherwise articles like this one from the Telegraph can actually do more harm than good.

From:           Martina Heynemann

To:                Team VIVA

Sent:             Friday, 01/07/2011, 15:20

Subject:        Foreign investment in Spanish property up by 28.7%

Hi guys!

Well, here’s some excellent news from Spain’s Diario Expansión website which reports that during the first three months of this year, foreign buyers invested no less than €1,130 million in Spanish property. That’s 28.7% more than in the same period of 2010.

What’s more, according to the latest data released by the Bank of Spain, it’s the first time since 2008 that the total has broken through the €1,000 million barrier, and in fact the Spanish real estate market hasn’t seen such a huge increase for almost a decade.

Of course we all know that the number of overseas property investors started to decline back in 2003, before going into free fall in 2008 and 2009,  so let’s all hope this reversal of trends continues!

But while foreign investment in Spain is showing such a marked increase, Spanish overseas investment is apparently still falling and quarterly figures haven’t risen above €600 million since 2007.

Apologies to those of our Blog readers who don’t speak Spanish, but if you’d like to know more, then please pop in and we’ll be only too happy to give you a full breakdown of the article.

Martina Heynemann

VIVA Managing Partner

Well, I’m hardly going to ignore a headline in the British press like this one really.

It is part of a process that’s building and after many years of highly negative press, it seems inescapable to most now, that well, what goes around comes around and our day is perhaps here once more.

Along with other articles I’m blogging about though, it does sometimes pose the question: Is this a good or a bad thing?

Well it’s not me asking the question. This time it’s Citywire and Linton Chiswick reporting on what they say is rare good news for Spanish property owners.

So I’m not going to stop them. Lots of stats here, and comments about good value, plus firm buy investment, and views on how the market can only fall so far. Continue Reading

George Benson

Nothing tells you more eloquently that the summer concert season is just around the corner, than when the George Benson billboards start going up all over the Costa del Sol! Performing in Marbella for the third time in as many years, the multi-Grammy award winning jazz guitar legend and R&B, pop and soul vocalist has been wowing audiences for more than 40 years.

Doors open at the Hotel Puente Romano Tennis Club at 8pm on 25 June, supporting act 9pm, George Benson 10pm.

Ticket hotline & VIP reservations: Tel.+34 951 082 134

Tickets (from €30 each), from El Corte Inglés, www.ticketmaster.com and www.rocklounge.com Continue Reading

Well there are enough naysayers about the place these days, so in line with one or two other posts, I’m happy to report that from all sides of the British press we seem to be picking up some ‘stand up’ arguments for Spain and its economy.

I love the Guardian for this article

It’s really good to see a bit of balance to the arguments out there.

Well, jeeze, it’s nice to see the British press reporting some good news, but it isn’t really just for British homeowners, where it applies then it’s very good news for everyone.

The Telegraph reported recently that there was to be an amnesty for ‘illegally’ built homes under a new regional government initiative in Andalucía, in this reported instance relating to 11,000 homes in the Axarquía region. Continue Reading

Nope, that’s not an invitation to supper chez moi. We’re talking reality TV shows here. So if you think you’re the ultimate dinner party host, have always wanted to be on the telly and would jump at the chance to win yourself a cool £1,000, then now’s your opportunity… Continue Reading