Spanish Property Market Report and Overview September 2009

Susana Suspenda Marketing and Operations manager for Spanish Hot Properties  gives her views on the current and future trends for the Spanish property market

Overall trends at Spanish Hot Properties

September has actually seen a downturn in the numbers of enquires for Spanish property  and the number of people visiting our site.  However the enquiries are probably now more serious than at any time of the year and most interestingly we have more people out on visits (or confirmed to visit) in September than any month this year and the trend looks certain to follow through into October.  My own view as to why this is the case is that in reality if you visit now your pretty serious and the decision to come over now has been probably taken over a 3 to 6 month period and those people coming over have decided now is the right time if they can find what they are looking for.  I also think it is the same reason that traffic to the website is down is that there is no real point looking at Spanish property now if you have no intention of doing anything before Christmas.  So we are hopeful of our best every month this year in September but as usual you never know.

Other Views about the Spanish property Market

In Septembers issue of High Society down here in Malaga Real Estate Impresario kristina Szekely expressed views I very much agree with about the Marbella property market. When asked if she thought prices would go down further her view was “While no one can be completely sure I do think at these current levels you can’t go wrong. Even in the event that they drop a further 2 percent you might not be able to find what your looking for when or if the do fall” very wise words indeed as for clients that still want to wait Kristina points out “That’s fine as we need clients for later as well and as they say Rome wasn’t built in a day”.  As for the totally different market of Costa Blanca sale have never been so high and as the lovely Sara in La Zenia puts it “we have never been so busy and are selling a lot of properties but at an average of €120,000” this makes a lot of sense because at these prices people can still very much live the Spanish dream where maybe they no longer can in Costa del Sol where in reality you still need €200,000 to buy a place you would be really happy with and probably a bit more.

So what’s selling and what’s not

Well I doubt it will surprise you but 90% of our enquiries are for Costa Blanca property, Mallorca Villa & property in Costa del Sol even with our efforts to make properties available in Costa de la Luz, Asturias, Costa Azahar and Galicia.  The most physical sales buy numbers are taking place in Costa Blanca and the most financial volume is taking place in Mallorca with Costa del Sol between the two so to speak.  In all of this the real value on the Canary Islands is been totally overlooked where there are some cracking deals to be had and very much at Costa Blanca price levels and not Mallorca price levels.

Conclusion

Nothing really has changed that much in that it’s a terrible time to sell and a great time to buy but the best deals are now being taken from the market place and come Christmas time I am pretty convinced that the deals on offer now will not be on offer then, Gazules del Sol being a very good example of that.  Were very much at the bottom of the market and have been for sometime and in reality there will be less Distressed sales as times improve and some people who had there property for sale are now not in such as distressed position as they were a month ago.  If you are one of the people who have bought this year you’ve got a great deal and I commend you for your courage which I strongly believe you will see the benefit of in two to three years time. Whilst we will not see rapid growth I don’t expect to see price falls next year, obviously there are always exceptions to the rule.  However the challenge for the Spanish property market is for Developers and promoters to develop products that will get the second home and holiday home market customers back buying in Spain and the sooner they embrace Fractional Ownership the better.  The first scheme to be launched in that area is in Fuerteventura where someone can buy 12.5% of an apartment for €20,000 and get 6 weeks a year usage out of the property and unlike Timeshare that person has a real asset. Time will tell if this is the way to get Holiday home market back on its feet again.

Anyone wanting more information about Spanish property should contact Spanish Hot Properties either by phone or email.