When it comes to the property market in Spain, for the best insight into how it’s performing, we need to look no further than Sean Woolley, the Founder of real estate agency Cloud Nine Spain. Currently, Marbella is experiencing a much-heralded property boom; in this article, Sean discusses the reasons behind the huge interest.
Just as we agents here on the Costa del Sol began settling into the New Year, expecting at least another six months of COVID chaos, a scarcity of clients, and huge market uncertainty, many of us are now reporting record sales volumes achieved in the first quarter of the year, with Q2 looking just as, if not, even more, promising.
So what on earth has been happening?!
The main thing to note is that enquiry levels for property in Marbella are very stable compared to previous years, indicating that interest in buying property on the Costa del Sol remains buoyant. Secondly, the interest is coming from all directions.
No one buyer market is dominating. A reflection of this is that our last 22 sales transactions have come through buyers from 18 different countries. This tells us that we are dealing with a truly international client base and possibly the most cosmopolitan residential property market on the planet.
Whilst appointment levels have declined mainly to travel restrictions; many more ‘viewings’ are now using virtual technology. Video tours for properties in Marbella are now the preferred route, whether they be professionally edited productions or prospective buyers joining agents on a WhatsApp call for a live look around a property.
The big benefit of this is that even those who have been stranded in their home countries are now able to conduct viewings of a sort, which then places them further along the buying journey.
Many of these clients are in the midst of planning to fly to Spain in May/June, already well researched and armed with a suitable shortlist of attractive properties to view.
We have noticed a marked shift in typical budgets into the HNW and UHNW brackets in terms of buyer profiles. The most active segment of the property market can be found at the super-high-end, i.e. transactions of €3 million+.
In fact, one Marbella-based promoter alone has been responsible for over €90 million worth of property sales in the first three months of 2021. That’s a staggering achievement and is probably a testament to these types of clients being the fortunate ones that can more freely travel and take time away from the workplace or their business.
Our feedback from these client groups is that the COVID pandemic has accelerated their overseas purchase plans. Budgets for their purchases have also increased as they seek a home that can now offer the space and homeworking solutions that these strange times have forced upon us.
In 20 years, we have never before handled such a volume of clients with such a concentrated level of wealth. It’s not at all what we had expected in this locked-down world in which we are living.
It clearly shows that buyer appetite is truly alive, and those purchasers at the top of the spending tree feel comfortable investing considerable sums in a luxury lifestyle purchase in the California of Europe.
About Sean Woolley
Sean is the Founder and Director of leading real estate agency Cloud Nine Spain. He has more than 20 years of experience in helping clients buy and sell properties in Spain. In addition to running the agency, He wrote a book titled ‘From the Ground Up – The Insider’s Guide to Buying Spanish Property’. The book talks about some real-life stories along with insider tips to help buyers who are seeking to invest in Spanish real estate.
The book is available on Amazon now and features a bonus chapter on the Impact of COVID-19 on the Spanish property market.
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