Hi, this is a question for those resident in Madrid.

How is the Madrid government funding all the new stations and lines on the Metro? Is this structural money from the EU? Is it money from sale of housing development land? Or is it money borrowed against future revenue?

I've been a visitor to Madrid for many years, and I've been amazed by the growth in the last few years. Even by UK standards the rise in property prices has been astronomical. Yet most people don't earn the high salaries to compensate (I realise that rents are 'relatively' low). I'm just trying to figure out where the growth money has come from...

Flibert, that's a pretty tough question to ask. Madrid's metro funding does not come from the EU (except part of the Airport line). Madrid's government created a company that sold land (although not housing land). Right now there are concerns about it because the EU wants Madrid government to count all that money spent as debt, and thus Madrid would have more debt than the EU comission recomends.

However, you should know that building metro in Madrid is fairly easy. I've taken part in quite a few projects of new metro lines, and the Madrid metro expansion is right now model in the world. We have a pretty good soil that helps a lot, and also using many huge tunneling boring machines, high safety standards and a long experience has helped us build metro TEN TIMES cheaper than in London, for example. The Jubilee line, about 8 km long, took almost ten years to be completed. We've done more than 140 km in 8 years.

Thanks for that info JasMadrid. I always realised that it costs more in London than in Madrid to put in new infrastruture, but ten times more..!!!

I'm still trying to work out why housing, business etc has boomed so much in Madrid (this is from someone who has always had a high opinion of the city). Any ideas?

There has been a lot of debate about the subject. In the early nineties everyone thought Madrid's population was gonna go down, back then there were almost no inmigrants in the city. Instead of that, Madrid's population has grown more than 10% in the last five years. At the same time, lots of babyboomers (me included) are buying new houses on new development areas in the city.

Meanwhile, the interest rate has gone down from more than 12% to 3% in the last ten years. As a result, when you get a loan, it takes the same amount of money each month now to buy a house 2.5 times more expensive.

However, to tell you the truth I don't have the answer to your question, I can only give hints. Maybe some of the other members know better...