Murcia Today Weekly Bulletin 12th December

It's almost beyond belief that two weeks from today Christmas will be over!

This will be a Christmas like no other regardless of your opinion about the coronavirus pandemic and here in Murcia this year the tinsel is up, the lights are on, but in spite of attempts by our councils to drum up a little enthusiasm for local shopping campaigns, virtual santas and nativities aren´t quite as stimulating as the normal tour around the municipal nativities and seasonal shopping markets, but never mind, chestnuts on the fire at home taste just as good as those normally bought from the street vendors and the post-Christmas diet should be easier as there's been less opportunity for indulgence thanks to covid!

Although most of us will admit to being a little “covid weary” we can´t hide from the scale of the pandemic; the official number of cases diagnosed by PCR passed 70 million overnight and the official fatalities are just under 1.6 million. We know that this figure is inaccurate and the true death count is way higher (just this week doctors in India rubbished the official figures claiming that the real death toll in just this one country was nearer to 1 million) and even in countries such as Spain in which we have a sophisticated modern health service, the official statistics are believed to have “missed” over 20,000 covid deaths simply because PCR kits weren´t available to carry out tests in the first wave of the pandemic.

This “covid weariness” is the biggest threat we all face now as the momentum to drive down the spread of the virus through respectful and community conscious social actions has been weakened by boredom, indifference and complacency, the result being a prolongation of the pandemic which can only be halted by an intensive vaccinations programme.

We know that to reach a sufficient level of immunity to suppress the spread of the virus through a vaccination programme will take many more months (vaccinations in Spain won´t begin until the early part of January we've been told this week), but before vaccinations even begin, the festive season must be navigated with all the perils it presents.

Spain has been recovering well from the second wave, with case numbers and the pressure on the hospital system reducing right across the country due to the restrictions we’ve all had to endure.
Just over a month ago the weekly total of new cases was 143,154, the week after 129,759, followed by 98,139, then 70,478 and 56,439 last week; a positive downwards evolution. This week the national total of cases is now 1,730,575, which gives a total of 45,928 for this week; maintaining a steady downward trend.

The accumulated incidence rate nationally over 14 days has fallen to 189 per 100,000 inhabitants this week, a positive evolution compared to the high levels which exceeded 1,000 in some points of Spain during the past weeks, but a long way from the 25 cases which is the target set by the Government.

The pressure on the hospital system continues to ease;

Last week there were 12,552 patients hospitalised with more severe cases of covid, 14,819 the week before,17,963 the week before that and 20,239 the previous week; this week the total has fallen to 11,648.

Last Friday the bed occupancy rate was 10.13%, 11.95% the week before and 14.52 % the week before that; this Friday the figure is 9.22% reflecting a continued easing of hospital pressure.
In intensive care units, the situation has also improved; The national average for ICU beds last Friday was 24.64%, falling from 28.44% the week before and 31.02% the week before that; this Friday it's 21.98%, with 2,100 patients in a serious condition.

The week has concluded with a total of 47,624 fatalities, giving a total of 1,372 compared to the 1,584 of the week before, and the 2,049 of the week before that, so is another positive evolution. As can be clearly seen from the graphic, the number of deaths remains at a much lower level than the spring, although this second wave is spread across a much longer period and will foreseeably continue for some weeks to come.

All of which is positive.

But towards the end of the week there has been a slight shift in the evolution of the figures. On both Thursday and Friday the national totals of new cases started to tip upwards once again after a month of continuous falls. The AI rate increased in 7 of the 17 autonomous regions (Balearics, Canaries, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Cataluña, Comunidad Valenciana and Madrid) and on Friday 10.519 new cases were reported, the highest number since the end of November.

This slight rise is being attributed to over-confidence during the Bank Holiday period and given the normal evolution of the virus, it will take a few more days to assess whether the social interactions of last weekend have resulted in a raft of new contagions.

There is absolutely no doubt amongst health professionals that should the public not respond to the calls for prudence this festive season that the result will be a dramatic upward surge in new cases during January and February, ( a third wave) but there is also considerable concern about how to ensure that the message is positioned in a fashion which will be palatable for a covid-weary public who have become de-sensitised to the deaths and fatigued by the social impact of coronavirus.

Our governments are fully aware that they are unable to enforce the total lockdowns which will bring the virus under control, but are also aware that the partial measures can never deliver the required results; the balancing act of placating the business sector, maintaining public confidence as the partial measures fail and trying to keep the economy afloat as the pandemic rumbles on is an unenviable task as the public demands miraculous solutions which are not simply not possible in the short-term.

It is noticeable that media attention tends to focus on the situation in their own "home" nation and there is little coverage of the evolution of the pandemic at a worldwide level, the result being that the public tends to look inwards at their own situation and lose touch with the scale of what is happening elsewhere. A poignant reminder this week was a short video of German Chancellor Angela Merkel pleading with the German parliament and public for stricter measures to be applied; new diagnoses on Thursday alone were just under 30,000 people, and there is a daily average of 590 deaths in the country: Click to see the video

Epidemiologist Rafael Ortí, president of the Spanish Society of Preventive Medicine, Public Health and Hygiene was amongst the many voices warning this week that it is “difficult to take the AI rate down to 50, but very easy for it to return to 500” given what he calls "an excess of confidence and moving into the festive season with a higher incidence than we had at the end of the first wave."

This week there have been many articles trying to analyse how the important factual warnings from the scientific community can be framed; “Incoherent messages are being given, for example, we’re being told on the one hand to stay at home but also to go out to buy to support the retail sector; giving contradictory messages is very harmful," said one professor of Social Psychology.

"It is not advisable to make people very afraid" because they "stop listening" and can even "ridicule" the messages he said, but it is necessary to inform about the "relevance of the problem", with "coherent, clear and consensual" messages.

The Spanish Scientific Society of Social Psychology (SCEPS) published its conclusions that there are two "profiles", which react differently to the warning messages being given, "There are people who are looking forward to the situation opening up a bit so they can party as if there were no tomorrow" but also "many people who are afraid" with rising "anxiety levels", who view the opening up of restrictions "as putting us at risk ", they said, their view being that this creates "social polarization" between the groups.

The national Government has concluded that appearing to be too dictatorial in enforcing the necessary restrictions is as bad as not being strict enough and although attempts have been made to create national unity in the face of the pandemic has left the main day to day decision making processes to the elected regional governments of the 17 autonomous regions, arguing that they are better placed to understand the needs of the population at a local level.

This, in turn, is now creating contradictory messages and confusion as the regional governments attempt to resolve the potential issues over the festive season; 

Arguments over allegados make travel restrictions around Spain even more confusing.Regional governments cannot agree about Christmas and New Year travel restrictions.

The Spanish government’s policy regarding a relaxation of pandemic restrictions on movement and social gatherings during Christmas and the New Year has caused a considerable amount of controversy and confusion since plans were first discussed, and the regional administrations in the country’s 17 Autonomous Communities are adopting different interpretations and approaches to the national guidelines as the festive season grows nearer.

Governments of most of the autonomous regions of Spain (except Galicia and Extremadura) are maintaining their external border closures until after the festive season, their intention being to limit movement other than for essential reasons, between the regions of the country.

However, regional governments have agreed to permit travel between the different regions from the 23rd December to 6th January in order to allow people to visit family members and “allegados”. The government has made it absolutely clear that the travel “pass” is NOT for leisure purposes and is NOT for those wishing to visit holiday homes or go ski-ing, but is purely to enable families to meet up during the festive season.

This term “allegados” is now causing a real “riff-raff” between the respective regional governments and the national government, as the word is full of ambiguity and doesn´t have a literal translation; it might be translated as something akin to “nearest and dearest”.

More formal definitions of the word might be restricted to close family members, but it is the nuances which make it so open to different interpretations and this is the cause of all the disagreement, as some regions want to restrict the travel purely to family members and not to “nearest and dearest”, the result being a situation whereby potentially a traveller is permitted to leave Madrid, but not to enter Andalucía!!!!! Click to read full article

Spain changes requirement for PCR test before entering the country.The Spanish Ministry of Health has announced that following a significant number of complaints about the requirement for travellers to submit a PCR test when entering the country that the conditions will be modified.

The first of these will remove the obligation to present a negative PCR test for children under the age of 6.

The second is to change the requirement to present a negative PCR test, taken 72 hours before arrival in Spain; it will now be permitted to submit a blood plasma analysis instead "(TMA Transcription -Mediated Amplification) test and other tests based on equivalent molecular techniques."

It must be pointed out that many people in the UK are reporting that they are finding it impossible to find anywhere offering this test, which has been developed by a Spanish company.

The third modification is to permit translations of the test results and accompanying documentation to be in French and German instead of only Spanish or English.Click for link to the BOE

Antigen Covid testing in Madrid and Murcia pharmacies delayed.The plans which were announced last month to allow antigen coronavirus testing to be carried out in pharmacies across Spain have been delayed for the time being while the Ministry of Health continues to evaluate the proposals presented by the regional governments of Madrid and Murcia to implement such testing. Click to read the article

An unavoidable consequence of the coronavirus pandemic is the effect on other medical and hospital services. Hospital waiting times for operations in Spain up by almost 50 per cent over the last year. An indication of the stress under which the resources of the health services in Spain have been placed by the coronavirus pandemic is that the average waiting time for non-urgent surgery throughout the country has risen from 115 days in June 2019 to 170 days this year, an increase of almost 50 per cent.
According to the OCU consumers’ association, waiting times in the Region of Murcia remain shorter than the national average but have risen from 79 days to 118, while across the country 33.8 per cent of patients are now waiting for over six months to enter the operating theatre, more than double the proportion reported a year ago (15.8 per cent). Click to read the full article

Granada doctors save unborn baby after mother dies of coronavirus.The Covid fatality rate is slightly higher in mothers-to-be than in other women.

The life of an unborn baby whose mother died from Covid-19 has been saved by the doctors at a hospital in Granada after an emergency Caesarian section was performed successfully.

The mother, aged 30, lost her battle against the virus last weekend, becoming the latest of numerous pregnant women to have died as a result of the pandemic since it was first detected in Spain in February of this year. It has been observed in a study of over 400,000 cases that there is a slightly higher fatality rate among mothers-to-be than in women who are not pregnant (1.5 per cent as opposed to 1.2 per cent), although as in the population as a whole it appears that the second wave of infection has been less lethal than the first.Unfortunately, another pregnant woman has also died from Covid this week in Villarreal, in the province of Castellón, becoming the first such victim reported in the region of Valencia. In this case the woman was only 4 months pregnant and it is reported that she suffered from previously existing medical conditions which were exacerbated by the virus.

Lions at Barcelona Zoo test positive for coronavirus.All four of the lions at Barcelona Zoo have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the veterinary service at the zoo, but are experiencing only mild symptoms and the risk of the virus being transmitted by them to humans is, logically enough, considered minimal.

The three 16-year-old females and one 4-year-old male all returned positive test results after they were observed to be suffering some mild respiratory discomfort in November, at the same time as two of the zoo staff were also diagnosed with Covid. However, Zala, Nima, Run Run and Kiumbe have all responded well to treatment after experts at the Bronx Zoo in New York were consulted: the presence of coronavirus in big cats was also reported at this facility earlier in the year. Click to read the full story

In the end, it's been decided to allow ski resorts to open in Spain, although obviously the border restrictions in place until after the 6th January will prevent skiers travelling to resorts outside of their immediate "home region". Sierra Nevada ski resort to open on 18th December.

Elsewhere, meanwhile, the ski resorts of the Spanish Pyrenees remain closed for the time being, with Baqueira Beret having decided to postpone the opening which had been planned for 11th December. Attempts are being made to ensure that the campaigns and coronavirus protocols of the different resorts in Catalunya are centrally coordinated, but the good news for skiers in León is that the small resort of Leitariegos is already up and running!

It was confirmed on Friday that Catalan ski resorts will now open on Monday 14th December. Click for article

Brexit

Here we go with the most toxic topic of the last few years and one which we have studiously avoided covering due to the aggressive response it provokes but which cannot now be avoided due to the possibility that a hard Brexit may be the outcome.

 90 day maximum stay in Spain post-Brexit subject of outrage in UK media. This article was posted at the end of last week but has rumbled on throughout the last few days as the UK media focuses on the possible side-effects of a hard Brexit, and underlines the changes that will take place from 1st January.

This is a nightmare scenario for all those who own holiday properties in Europe and are accustomed to spending the winter months in their second home, to say nothing of the inconvenience for camper van owners who currently enjoy meandering around Europe at their leisure and will now have to assume the high cost of travelling back to the UK after 90 days.

It's been surprising to observe this week how many people have failed to understand the true implications of what Brexit means for UK nationals planning to travel to the EU in the future; obviously those of us who live in Spain permanently are very aware of what Brexit means to us in terms of loss of automatic rights as we have had to ensure our residency is in place by the end of this year, that driving licences have been put in order, passports checked, wills made, medical arrangements checked etc but it has become very obvious that many UK residents who had planned to retire to Spain (or other European destinations) had failed to understand that leaving the EU would remove their automatic right to free movement within the EU and to settle here should they choose to do so.

This was highlighted when the FT and Guardian published articles stating “UK holidaymakers barred from EU after 1 January under Covid rules”.

There was incredulity and disbelief about these articles, but the truth is, that a ban on British travellers entering the EU in January is entirely possible should the current rate of Covid infections in the UK remain at high levels. Click for the full article:  Is it true that UK nationals may be prevented from travelling to Europe after Brexit?

This is NOT a measure being implemented specifically because of Brexit, but is a consequence of the UK leaving the EU combined with the unfortunate Covid situation and this ban on entering has been in place almost since the beginning of the pandemic for non-EU nations. Currently there are only eight non-EU members on the list of countries whose nationals are permitted to enter the EU, and the European Commission confirmed on Thursday that there are currently no plans for the UK to be added to that list.

The measures were put in place to prevent movement between EU nations and areas in which high Covid infection rates prevailed, and each member state has the right to amplify the list as it sees fit or create safe travel corridors between specific countries not on the “safe list”.The EU has the right to close its borders as a measure to protect member states from the potential entry of nationals from other countries where rates of Covid-19 are higher. Many non-EU countries have adopted similar measures throughout the pandemic.

When the 12 month transition period ends on 31st December, British nationals are no longer EU members and so have no automatic right to enter Europe unless an exception is made for them. It is entirely possible that an exception can be agreed upon as part of talks between the UK and the EU which are reportedly still continuing until Sunday, but the rhetoric has become downbeat, Boris Johnson saying there is a “strong possibility” of a no-deal and the EU and a statement from the European Commission saying that there is currently "significant uncertainty" about whether a deal would be in place by the 1st January.

And many British nationals have never even stopped to consider that leaving the EU means they will no longer use EU fast-track passport control and customs lanes but must instead stand in the same queue as the “Non-EU nationals” (that’s the go-slow queue in which there are always queries about visas and passports). Of course, some airports may choose to open additional counters, but again, this will be down to the discretion of each country.

British travellers must now be extra vigilant about taking out travel insurance as the EHIC travel card system will no longer be valid. In the past, British travellers could use the Spanish health service if they experienced an accident or fell ill due to a reciprocal arrangement which will end on 31st December, so it is now essential to ensure that any travel insurance includes health cover.

This is particularly important for second home owners intending to stay for 3 months, who must also ensure that they bring sufficient prescriptions to cover their needs for the time spent in Spain.

It’s also important for those intending to drive in Europe to check that they have an international driving permit or a "green card" from their insurer before hitting the roads in Europe.

Although this week EU presidents have refused to be drawn into the negotiations on an individual basis, there has been a great deal of talk about the possibility that EU nations can make exceptions and negotiate agreements between the UK and their respective countries post-Brexit and there is a great deal of optimism that this will indeed be the case with regards to the conditions imposed on British nationals travelling to Europe for tourism purposes.

However, the UK did little to advance its case this week when it announced that the tourism corridor established before the last UK lockdown would be closed. More ruined holidays for Brits as UK closes travel corridor to Canary Islands.

There was great excitement when the UK Government announced the opening of a safe travel corridor to the Canary Islands on 22nd October, following which thousands of UK citizens booked a bit of winter sun, much to the relief of the beleaguered airline industry which laid on extra flights to cope with the demand for bookings, then just a week later, the UK Govt. put the country back into lockdown and imposed a travel ban on international travel.

Following the end of lockdown, the travel ban was removed.

The travel corridor with the Canary islands was once again operational.

However, only a week later the UK Government has now decided that it is too risky for UK nationals to travel to the Canary islands due to “the increase in positive cases and positive weekly tests” on the islands.

It is difficult to understand what they mean by this as the Canary islands has consistently maintained the lowest coronavirus rates of any Spanish region throughout the last few weeks.

The accumulated incidence rate according to the Thursday figures published by the Spanish Health Ministry show the islands as having a rate of 96.92 cases per 100,000 of population over the last 14 days and a rate of 51.83 over the last 7 days.

From Saturday 12th December anyone returning from the Canary Islands will now have to self-isolate.
British transport secretary Grant Shapps said in a tweet “Data indicates weekly cases and positive tests are increasing in the CANARY ISLANDS and so we are REMOVING them from the #TravelCorridor list to reduce the risk of importing COVID-19. From 4am Sat 12 Dec, if you arrive from these islands you WILL need to self-isolate.”

This is devastating news for all those who have pre-booked a winter sun holiday on the basis that this was a safe travel corridor and they would not need to take further time off work or self-isolate and will not only ruin holidays for those who had booked a winter holiday but could also ruin their Christmas plans as well, as some will still be in isolation instead of spending precious time with their loved ones.

It's also sending out the wrong message to Spain that the UK is willing to reach a mutually beneficial compromise on the new rules; the tourism market has been badly hit in Spain by Coronavirus and these thousands of cancelled holidays would have greatly helped the Canary Islands tourism sector.

Murcia exported 688 million euros worth of products to the UK in the first nine months of 2020. Click to read the full article

Although for most of the British nationals now living in Murcia and those hoping to move to Spain for their retirement the forthcoming Brexit at the end of this year has important implications, for the businesses of the region a hard exit without a trade deal could potentially mean additional costs running into millions of euros or the loss of business from the UK altogether.

The Region of Murcia occupies fifth position in the league table of Spanish regions exporting their products to the UK, and during the first nine months of 2020 increased sales to the UK by 8.5 percent compared to the previous year, reaching a total of 688 million euros.

There are worries here in Spain that the UK may seek to do business with countries outside of the EU in order to secure goods at more advantageous prices due to the lower tariffs outside of the EU. Murcian tomato producers are particularly concerned about the potential competition from Morocco, where production costs are lower than in Spain.

Although transport costs will be higher to the UK, the advantageous source prices could make Spanish tomatoes, produced in the EU, less attractive to UK purchasers and result in the loss of millions of euros worth of orders should there be a no deal exit.

The United Kingdom is the third most important destination country for Murcian products, with a market share of 9.24 percent of total regional exports.

Tariffs both ways
During the first nine months of the year, Spain imported 6.7 billion euros worth of products from the UK. The tariffs will also work the other way round, and during this same time period, the Murcia Region imported 247 million euros worth of goods from the UK, a growth of 233.06 percent.

The main products exported from the Region of Murcia to the UK are fresh and frozen vegetables (worth 252 million euros), fresh and frozen fruits (177 million), juices (78 million), chemical products (28 million) and ingredients and additives for food (24 million).

So the implication of potential tariffs is a worrying situation for the Murcian farmers who depend almost entirely on British supermarkets for their sales.

If no trade deal is agreed, the UK and EU will trade on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms - the basic rules for countries without trade deals. From 1st January 2021, the UK will apply a UK-specific tariff to imported goods, a situation which will inevitably lead to price rises.  

Cartagena port opens new post-Brexit container route to Liverpool. Click for full article

With the prospect of a Brexit taking place in just three weeks’ time with no trade deal having been agreed on, the port of Cartagena is introducing a new container shipping route providing a direct link with the UK, making it easier to export certain products of the Region of Murcia to the British market after the departure from the EU takes effect.

The route is being operated by Containerships, whose vessels will travel from Cartagena to Liverpool in 6 days and to Dublin in 7 days, and has been finalized after almost three months of preparation and a successful trial period, according to Yolanda Muñoz, the president of the Cartagena Port Authority. Sra. Muñoz explains that the intention is to turn the potential adversity brought about by Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic to the advantage of the port and the Region of Murcia by providing additional export options.Maritime freight already operates smoothly with other countries outside the EU and its systems are adaptable, and it is to be hoped that once the huge backlogs currently affecting British ports are cleared the Cartagena-Liverpool route will be an attractive option and the first of various linking the Region of Murcia to the United Kingdom.

Another topic which has been discussed this week in relation to Brexit, although undoubtedly also influenced by coronavirus is the property sector: Could Brexit lead to less Brits buying properties in Spain? Click to read the full article

British no longer the biggest property buyers in Spain
The latest figures produced by Spain’s notaries show that during the first half of 2020 the number of properties bought in this country by British nationals was 41.1 per cent lower than in the same period last year at 3,917, and while there is no doubt that the scale of the decrease is due mostly to the coronavirus pandemic which began in Europe in the spring, it is undeniable that the imminent end of the transition period before the effects of Brexit become a reality have also played their part.

The 41-per-cent drop in the number of British buyers compares with an overall decrease of 37.4 per cent in the figure for all non-Spanish purchasers, and the six-month period ending on 30th June was the first since 2009 when UK nationals did not represent the largest group in terms of nationality, being overtaken by the catch-all category of “other countries outside the EU”. With foreign buyers accounting for 17.3 per cent of all purchases, a proportion which is broadly in line with those reported in recent years, the decreasing figures for the UK mean that Britons were responsible for only 2.1 per cent of the overall figure, and Spain’s property registrars report that in the third quarter that proportion dropped to only 1.5 per cent.

The notaries’ statistical bulletin shows that the number of purchases made by Britons in Spain was already falling in 2019, perhaps in anticipation of the activation of Brexit, the total dropping by 12.7 per cent to 13,360.

Given the restrictions on air travel since March it is of course logical to find such notable decreases, but it is by no means certain that the figures will pick up again when the pandemic eventually eases and flights become more readily available. Post-pandemic Europe will also be post-Brexit Europe, and the readiness of many Britons to relocate to Spain and other EU states could be affected significantly when the added difficulties created by the departure from the EU become apparent.

From now on the plunge will be a far more important one, requiring either a greater level of commitment to living in Spain (and therefore taking out residency) or an acceptance of the fact that there are limits on how much time non-resident owners can spend here. This in turn is likely to affect both the type of properties favoured and the nature of the expat communities which have sprouted over the last few decades in many parts of the Costa Blanca and the Costa Cálida.

Potential buyers will now have to ask themselves the following questions:
Are they prepared to buy in the knowledge that they can only spend 3 months here at a time.?
This is no problem for those who genuinely only want a holiday property which they can lock and leave and for the majority of holidaymakers, Brexit will make very little difference; family buyers are generally limited to school holidays for holiday home visits anyway and very few have the luxury of being able to spend 180 days a year on holiday.

Are they ready to leave the UK behind and take Spanish residency?
The main market which will be affected is that of retirees, who will have to ask themselves if they are committed enough to living in Spain to sever their ties in the UK by applying for Spanish residency and all that it implies.

The situation post-Brexit will make it so much more difficult to “give it a try” before making a permanent move and the bureaucracy involved in applying for residency may well deter many of those who have been “thinking about retiring abroad” and now find it more difficult to make the move.

Will some potential buyers be unable to meet the financial requirements to be accepted for residency?

There is also the cost of living abroad to now be considered.
UK Nationals applying for residency must prove that they have either regular income or a sufficient lump sum with which to support themselves, as well as taking out private health insurance. Will some be unable to afford this? Couples living on nothing more than a UK pension may find it very difficult to afford the cost of private medical insurance, particularly if they have pre-existing medical conditions. There have already been multiple posts in social media from British nationals desperately trying to find "cheaper" insurance as the quotes they have received are higher than their circumstances will permit, as well as posts from those who have already decided to buy a holiday property and accept the duration of stay limitations this imposes rather than trying to gain residency. There is also the possibility that the pound-euro exchange rate will drop post-Brexit, particularly if there is a hard Brexit, affecting the income level of all those who depend on money being transferred from the UK and that flights will become more expensive as the airlines struggle to survive post-covid. Covid and Brexit is a toxic combination, which holds lots of uncertainty.

The uncertainties are numerous and the answers to the questions above can only be guessed at. But while it is not hard to find indications that the state of the Spanish property market as a whole will remain a fundamentally healthy one when Covid can be taken out of the equation, there are also signs that the decrease in the number of British buyers will be more permanent than the pandemic.

The property sector is itself undergoing change due to the Coronavirus pandemic, as domestic buyers adjust their own needs, increasing demand for country properties, properties with gardens and outdoor space, in suburbs rather than apartments in city centres and with an increased flexibility to permit working from home. Holiday properties are currently in less demand, due inevitably to the decreased buying power of the domestic market which is worrying about the economic  and laboral implications of covid, and the fact that there have been very few potential holiday apartment purchasers travelling to Spain due to the pandemic this year.

Tinsa report gradual pandemic-induced fall in Spanish property values.

The leading Spanish property valuation firm Tinsa has published its latest batch of monthly data regarding the market value of housing across the country, reporting that in November 2020 the downward trend sparked by the coronavirus pandemic continued, albeit only gradually in most areas.

Following a long period of slight increases in property values, the 2.2 per cent year-on-year fall observed in November marked the fourth consecutive month in negative territory, although during the month there was actually a minimal rise in the nationwide index of just 0.2 per cent. On the downside, the Tinsa index in Mediterranean coastal areas dropped by 4 per cent in November alone, while in the Balearics and the Canaries the value of housing is reported to have fallen by 5.3 per cent over the last 12 months, but more encouragement can be found in a fall of only 0.7 per cent on the Mediterranean coast since November 2019.

The sharpest 12-monthly fall is reported in the major cities and provincial capitals of Spain at 3.4 per cent, while the decrease has been only 0.1 per cent in the catch-all category of “other municipalities”. Meanwhile, the national average is now reported to be 34.5 per cent lower than at the peak of the property boom in early 2008, but 14.5 per cent higher than when the subsequent market collapse bottomed out in 2014. Click for full article

Property price recovery in Spain slowed by the pandemic.

It goes almost without saying that the coronavirus pandemic has had a significant effect on the property market in Spain, but while sales figures have plummeted as a consequence of the restrictions imposed on movement and of the sharp increase in unemployment, the latest data published on Thursday by the government’s central statistics unit suggest that the effect on market prices has not been as drastic, at least for the time being.

According to the report made public this week, at the end of the third quarter of 2020 the nationwide housing price index was 1.7 per cent higher than a year previously, timidly continuing an upward trend which began in 2014. On the other hand, it is noticeable that this is the least significant upward movement since the recovery began, and it is hard to avoid attributing the slowdown at least in part to the pandemic.

This may also be reflected in the fact that during the third quarter, when Covid protocols were relaxed, the index rose by 1.1 per cent, whilst during the previous three months, which coincided with the lockdown restrictions of the first wave of the pandemic, the increase was just 0.1 per cent.

As ever, it has to be pointed out that there is considerable variation among the trends reported in the 17 regions of Spain, and on this occasion the year-on-year rise in the housing price index is most noticeable in the Balearics (3.4 per cent) and the Region of Murcia (3 per cent). At the other end of the scale are the regions of Madrid, La Rioja and Andalucía, with increases of 1.2 per cent, and Extremadura, where the index remains unchanged from a year ago.

Irregular migrant situation made worse by covid

It's been impossible to hide from the topic this week, due principally to the revelations relating to the transfer of hundreds of irregular migrants who had managed to reach the Canary Islands via small boats "pateras" during 2020 to the Spanish mainland and the "covert" manner in which the transfers have been undertaken.

Nearly twenty thousand have made the sea crossing to the islands from north-western Africa in small boats throughout the year, nearly 900% more than last year.

During the Bank Holiday weekend several planes took hundreds of the migrants to various cities on the Spanish mainland including Granada, Alicante and Valencia, seemingly without advising the relevant regional authorities of their arrival. The Cruz Roja, which provides humanitarian aid for migrants, also says that it was given no notice of the transfers and was not asked to provide help or facilities for those being brought onto the mainland, the majority of whom were simply deposited in arrivals halls and left to go wherever they wished.

A frequently asked question is why these illegal migrants can´t simply be sent back to where they came from if Spain isn´t willing to take them in, legalise them and find them work, but this is in itself a complicated topic which touches on EU humanitarian laws and the difficulties in proving where the migrants actually came from; although for example, the departure point may have been in Morocco, the origin of the migrants could be any one of the sub-saharan areas and without being able to prove where an individual with no paperwork or ID actually came from is a difficult task. It’s certainly not possible to deposit them back in Morocco, which in turn has its own problems with sub-saharan migrants breaching its own borders, without setting off a diplomatic row, something Spain is keen to avoid.

However, it is possible to prove the origin of around half of the Moroccan and Algerian migrants who reach Spain and the Ministry of the Interior has announced that the procedure of fast-track deportation – i.e. simply handing back migrants to the country from which they are entering Spanish territory at the border - will resume in the near future.

This procedure, which in the past has been used in the north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, has had to be suspended during the coronavirus pandemic as the international frontiers with both Morocco and Algeria have been closed, but the Ministry states that after weeks of discussions with the African countries involved, a re-start of the immediate repatriation policy is imminent.

The optimism that the pandemic may soon be brought under control by the introduction of mass vaccination programs is also reflected in the announcement that Morocco will re-open its borders with during January, most probably on the 10th of the month. The frontiers were closed in mid-March, when the first state of emergency related to the pandemic was declared in Spain, and were partially re-opened in May in order to create a humanitarian “safe corridor” for Moroccan nationals who had been caught in the Spanish enclaves by the sudden border closure.

It had been hoped that the official date of the re-opening would be confirmed during a meeting on 17th December between the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and ministers in the Moroccan government, but that meeting has now been postponed until February 2021 due to the risks involved in ensuring a contagion-free environment for the two delegations.

But attention in the Spanish press continues to focus on the migrants who have been flown from the Canary Islands to mainland Spain, two of whom are reported to have tested positive for Covid in the city of Valencia. The Ministry of the Interior again reiterated on Thursday that it neither organizes nor manages the transportation of people who have entered Spain without authorization and who are entitled to remain for humanitarian reasons, but a document published by La Razón on Friday appears to prove that in fact orders are given concerning the procedures to be followed when such re-locations occur.

The document is presented as proof that the Ministry is aware of migrants travelling on flights from the Canaries to other parts of Spain, and is entitled “operational instructions for support at the airport of Manises” (the airport just outside Valencia). It concerns the arrival of five flights in Valencia during the latter part of this week and the policing strategies to be adopted at Manises.

The documentation clearly indicates that the Ministry has given permission for the transfer from the islands to the mainland to take place. The migrants who are flying have all been identified and are given an exceptional pass with which to enter Spain, so it is a little bewildering that the Ministry continues to deny its involvement when it is the Ministry itself issuing the documentation, planning the flights and arranging a police presence on the mainland for the scheduled flights.

However, the government continues to play down its involvement on any level, limiting its explanations to a reiteration of the fact that international protocols are being followed and that any migrants who are re-located undergo PCR coronavirus tests and fulfil quarantine requirements.

At least 3 irregular migrants killed in fire at Catalunya squat.

At least three people are reported to have died with another 23 injured, four of them seriously, after fire broke out on Wednesday night at an industrial warehouse occupied by squatters in Badalona in Catalunya.

Firefighters believe that more victims may yet be found inside, but the precarious state of the building, which is reportedly occupied on a regular basis by at least a hundred people and sometimes up to 200, has so far made it impossible to ascertain whether this is the case.

Most of those seeking accommodation in the property are irregular African migrants, and during the night many were rescued from the roof while others are reported to have thrown themselves from windows as they attempted to escape the smoke and flames.

The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol (PP), stressed that the local Council had already warned several times about the existence of squatters in the building and the implied risks, and that the police and council received regular complaints from local businesses and residents about the squat. Less than an hour before the fire had started, police had been at the site trying to resolve “problems of coexistence” at the location.

The municipality is no stranger to this type of situation; in January 2019 three people squatting in an empty building died during a fire caused by an illegal connection to the electricity supply.

In this case, some of the “residents” had squatted inside the building for many years, building comfortable homes from waste and scrap materials salvaged from bins and thrown away by local residents.

Squats of this nature can be found in virtually all major cities and are a constant source of concern for their local councils. Just a few days ago a similar squat was dismantled in the City of Murcia following complaints from residents surrounding a skeletal construction project which had never been completed and was home to dozens of irregular migrants.

Murcia covid

The covid news for Murcia this week  has continued to be positive, although the same situation exists in Murcia as in the rest of Spain, with new cases taking a slight upward turn again over the last couple of days.

This week Murcia remains the region with the lowest rate of cases per 100,000 of population over 14 days, a position it occupied right the way through the first wave.

At the beginning of November, the region was reporting an accumulated incidence rate of 900 over a 14 day period, a figure which this Friday is now 153, having fallen from 202 last week. The 7 day figure has now fallen to 67 from 84 last week, and the percentage of PCR tests returning a positive result has concluded the week at 6.5% after dropping to around 5% at the beginning of the week.

There are new cases of course, and outbreaks continue to be reported every day, but there has been a reduction in the number of new cases reported compared to previous weeks. This week the total of new cases is 1207, compared to1762 last week, 892 the week before, 2,914 the week before that and 5,487 just over a month ago.

Image; Evolution of cases in the Murcia Region

The evolution of the number of cases can clearly be seen in the graph above, which shows how the number of cases reported has fallen drastically in the last month.

Fatalities:

The number of fatalities has fallen slightly this week from 28 deaths to 26, still much lower compared to 63, 73 and 85 in the preceding weeks, the overall total now 650.

Hospitalisations:

Hospitalisations: The number of patients admitted with more severe cases of coronavirus fell to 250 on Friday compared to 326 last week. This downward motion was the same in Intensive Care Units (ICU), which fell from 78 to 65. The total number in home isolation with milder cases fell to 3,211 (this figure reached 11,000 a month ago) all of these highly positive figures which reflect the maintained downward trend in the region.

The positive cases have risen slightly again in the last two days, but we have to wait and see if this is the start of an upward trend again following the Bank Holiday period; hopefully it's not.

On Monday the regional health authority will review the latest figures and decide whether to finally permit the residents of Torre Pacheco and Los Alcázares to leave their municipality and for their bars and restaurants to fully re-open, but these two remain the worst affected in the region over both the last 14 and 7 day periods. There is concern about the rising numbers around the Mar Menor, with Torre Pacheco, Los Alcázares, San Pedro del Pinatar and San Javier occupying four of the seven worst positions in the region (out of 45).

As this information will be out of date by Monday, it's pointless going into any detail now about the measures affecting the 40 municipalities which have been permitted to open since Wednesday this week. If anyone would like to check to what degree bars and restaurants are permitted to open until Monday, here is the link. Click here

The other situation which may change on Monday when the next meeting of the Covid Monitoring Committee takes place is the subject of boundaries and possibly the lifting of restrictions in LA and TP.

External regional borders.
The external borders of the Murcia Region remain closed for all but essential travel until after Christmas, New Year and Epiphany on 6th January. This means that you cannot cross over into Alicante province, the border with the Almeria Province which is in Andalucía or into Albacete and Castilla La Mancha for example, other than for essential travel such as dropping someone at the airport. It is also permitted to drive for example, up to Santander to catch the ferry if returning to your habitual place of residence.

This INCLUDES holidays, so if you were planning to fly to Murcia (or most of Spain at the moment) over the Christmas period, be aware that the external regional borders are closed for anything other than essential travel.

However, and it’s a big however, regional borders are being opened between December 23rd and January 6th across Spain to permit family visits but NOT for leisure trips or holidays.

Regions such as Madrid and Barcelona have already expressed their disquiet with this situation and quite rightly highlighted that it is impossible to stop every vehicle containing a family and suitcases and verify whether they are visiting a relative somewhere or going to a holiday home.

There have been many reports on social media of international travellers successfully reaching their holiday homes without being stopped by police or asked to justify how essential their journey is, so it’s up to individual travellers entirely whether they wish to take the risk of flying to Spain to travel to a holiday property this winter, now that the UK Govt. has removed the ban on travelling. Obviously it’s not a very clever idea to be contemplating holiday travel while the world is immersed in a pandemic, and the regional government does not want people entering the region from outside, and that includes from other countries, but there are some people desperate to get to their properties who consider the risk of a minimum 601 euro fine worth taking , even after paying for PCR tests.

The Region of Murcia is divided into 45 local municipalities and the ban on travelling between municipalities has been lifted everywhere EXCEPT LOS ALCÁZARES AND TORRE PACHECO so there is now no problem in travelling within the region itself, so if you want to stock up on Christmas puds and Quality Street at Tesco in Mazarrón port then you can!

Apart from all of this, Murcia has been reassuringly quiet for the three working days of this week, the only other article of any interest being the continued journeys of Argonauta, Caretto and Bobico, three of the year-old turtles fitted with trackers which were released in the summer after becoming the first turtles to hatch from eggs laid on a Murcian beach in 100 years.

Argonauta was located off the south-western coast of Sardinia on 5th December,  Bobico is around half-way between the Balearics and Sardinia and Caretto is close to the island of Ibiza, all of them travelling beneath the waves without valid PCR tests and worries about covid restrictions!

Thank you for your continued support and hopefully by this time next week we may be able to stop worrying about the "what if's" of the Brexit situation and concentrate on moving forward with the minimum disruption possible! Have a good week!