Property
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FREE INTRUDER: In waters
Blast off ANOTHER Spanish warship has entered British territorial waters at Gibraltar while blasting its national anthem. A 300ft patrol boat engaged in a two-hour stand off with a 50ft Royal Navy boat, during a training exercise off Gibraltar. As the HMS Sabre began the drill at around 9am, the Spanish Tornado boat interupted the exercise and refused to move. Local reports said Royal Navy personnel heard the Spanish national anthem being played over the radio at a base on Gibraltar. It comes after a Spanish warship illegally encroached into Gibraltar’s waters back in December, also blaring the national anthem of Spain.
Incident
After the December incident British Ambassador to Spain Simon Manley confirmed that the UK would make a formal complaint to Spain. Media reported that the UK will also protest to Spain over this latest incident. “We can confirm an incursion by the Spanish navy occurred this morning,” a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said. They added: “As with all incursions, the Royal Navy challenged the vessel. “When challenged, the Spanish navy vessel subsequently left British Gibraltar Territorial Waters. “Incursions are a violation of sovereignty, not a threat to it, we have no doubt about our sovereignty over Gibraltar.” Questions of Gibraltar’s sovereignty have arisen during the negotiations for the UK to leave the European Union. However, the Rock’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo was firm in his new year’s message, as he said the concept of joint sovereignty of the territory with Spain was ‘as dead as a dodo’.
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Issue 26
February 13th - February
February 2019
From medieval to modern
We 26th 2019
9
roundup the lucky few buildings on the Rock to receive a heritage award See page VII
T: +350 20051020 E: info Unit 3 Royal Ocean Plaza, As Spain adds 11 new we explore how their towns to its ‘most beautiful’ list, unique architecture helped them there, see Belissimas get page VIII
West One - 601
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Waterport Terraces - 603
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Merlot House - 617
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LET IT GROW
SPAIN’S property market is expected to continue growing least another two years, experts for at According to a leading Catalanhave predicted. slow down until at least 2021. institute, ITEC, there will be no It comes after last year saw sales reach their highest since crisis, with a 9.7% year-to-year the 2008 Meanwhile, the number of increase from January to September. Growth was particularly strong in compared to the same monthsales in October rose by a huge 17% ingly, Sevilla Murcia, up 53%, and interestin 2017, according to official province saw a 50% spike. ment statistics (INE). govern- Growth was also strong across New home sales were up 15% lona in particular with a rise the board in Catalunya, and Barceto 7,971 and resales up 17% of 31%. to 43,536. And it was hotspots like the Costa del Sol and Costa Blanca which
Expansion for two more years, as market approaches growth of 17% this winter
Vol. 4 Issue 90 www.gibraltarolivepress.com February 13th - February 26th 2019
continued to be in the top ments in the world for Brits.three destinations for property investThe only regions where sales Islands, the latter of which fell were in the Canary and Balearic saw a significant 3% drop quarter. in the last Meanwhile, the Spanish house price index published Spain’s biggest appraisal company, by Tinsa, showed prices in the such as Barcelona and Madrid were up 9.4% in November.big cities The Mediterranean coast shot up 7.8%, and the Balearic nary Islands up 2.3%. and Ca-
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Windrush expat ‘terrified’ no-deal Brexit would force him back to the Caribbean A BRITISH expat fears being kicked out of Europe just before his 90th birthday in the case of a no-deal Brexit. Windrush pensioner and former black cab driver, Basil Moonilall, 89, relies heavily on Spain’s health system after having a throat tumour removed in 2000. However if the UK crashes out of the EU without a deal, Moonilall, based in La Linea, fears he won’t be
able to afford private insurance on his €511-per month pension. “If I don’t get free healthcare, I don’t get to see the doctor,” Moonilall, who only has one vocal cord from cancer, told the Olive Press. The expat, who worked as a taxi driver in the UK for 35 years, also fears that if he was forced to return to Britain he could be deported back to Guyana after arriv-
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ing as part of the Windrush generation in 1958. “I’m worried that if I leave, I will have to start life all over again,” added the anxious grandfather, who moved to Spain in 1993 to be with his Spanish wife who sadly passed away two months ago. The Windrush generation were born British subjects and arrived in the UK before 1973 from the Caribbean, but shockingly in recent years have been refused healthcare or had their citizenship revoked. Some have even been forced home. “They were asked to come to the UK to rebuild the country after the war,” Moonilall’s son Raymon, who lives in Gibraltar, told the Olive Press, adding that he is worried his father may be sent back to Guyana.
Security
VIEW: From home while (inset) Basil with son
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This despite not visiting since 1958 and where only one of eight siblings is still alive. “In the draft withdrawal deal we only have until 2020 to enjoy free healthcare, but what happens at the end of those two years?” Javier Rodriguez, an assessor with the Expat Agency, insisted he expected more problems for expats like him in two years. He told the Olive Press that most private health insurance companies ‘don’t want
TM
FEARFUL: Expat Basil Moonilall to cover you’ if you are 65 and over. He said: “I know many Spanish people who when they reach 70 their insurance companies don’t want to cover them, or make them pay as much as €1,000 per month.”
TM
Tel: 902 123 282 902 123 282 See page 10 & 18
He added that over-65s could pay into the Spanish social security system, for which the minimum payment is currently €283 per month. It would mean however that, without any reciprocal agreements between the UK and Spain, in the event of a no deal Brexit, the next best scenario could see Moonilall with only €228 spare capital per month. The UK is scheduled to leave the EU in just six weeks. See Anxiety Rises, page 6 Opinion Page 6