Barrapunto

Esta para la semana que viene In Spain, 100% Home Loans Are Back [wsj.com]

The reason: Spain's banks took possession of a large inventory of homes, buildings and land two years ago, forgiving the debt in hopes of heading off defaults. The plan was to resell the properties when the market bounced back and evade the worst impact of the looming housing crisis.

But Spain's housing market has only gotten worse, and now the bill is coming due as the banks labor under the weight of an estimated 59.7 billion ($73.8 billion) in real-estate assets on their books. Under pressure to make further markdowns on the assets by their main regulator, the Bank of Spain, many banks are now scrambling to unload the properties as quickly as possible.

...

Some analysts, however, suspect the strategy is simply kicking today's housing problems into the future. "They're making a bet," said Alfonso de Gregorio, director of wealth and fund management at Gesconsult, a Spanish fund manager. "Wait for the economic crisis to resolve itself, push forward the problems by three or four years, and try not to let it show too much on the bottom line.

 

Muchas gracias por el enlace (Home Loans Get Easier For Spaniards [wsj.com, l20100621; redirigido vía Google, para evitar el "antilink" del wsj] [google.com]).

Es un artículo muy fino, que explica de manera sencilla y clara lo grueso del problema de la banca con la construcción. Tarde o temprano se tenían que enterar en el resto del mundo de los entresijos de la banca y su huída hacia adelante. Me resulta especialmente dramático el que hayan comprendido lo de que los constructores siguen construyendo a pesar de haber un stock enorme sin vender... y la "necesidad" de construir en los suelos comprados para evitar que pierda valor, y que tal situación es un marrón para la banca. A medida que los inversores internacionales vayan enterándose de qué va la película, nos irán crujiendo vivos (con razón).