Irish property investors to recoup cash lost in Spanish crash

Irish investors who lost millions in the Spanish property market crash are finally beginning to get their money back, after more than a decade of setbacks and legal wrangling.

A ruling by the Spanish supreme court in December 2015 paved the way for an estimated 60,000 Irish people to claim directly from the banks rather than property developers, most of whom were not worth pursuing as they had been declared bankrupt.

Last November, an elderly couple in Galway became the first Irish investors to win a case they took against the Spanish bank that took their deposit on an off-plan development in the Costa Del Sol. Final judgment was granted in January when the Spanish court awarded them their full deposit of €54,000, plus interest and costs.