Marbella looks to American Real Estate Market for Inspiration and Investment

Colorado based Real Capital Solutions (RCS), a leading American private capital investment company specialising in the re-capitalisation of investment portfolios of residential developments in financial trouble, is heading to the Costa del Sol. With a 4-year investment plan in the region of EUR 200 million, the company is hoping to expand its operations into Spain and the rest of Europe.

Pulling troubled Developments out of Real Estate Oblivion

So far the company has invested EUR 15 million in two residential property developments that had run into financial difficulties and been taken over by Spanish banks.

Although the Costa del Sol has had some luck in attracting large scale institutional investors, the glut of unsold properties up and down the Spanish Costas has meant that progress has not been as swift as local economies would like to see. At the end of August an official delegation travelled from Marbella to New York to drum up more interest.

RCS Spain, the European branch of the American operation, has invested in the Golden Triangle area of the Costa del Sol, as the resorts of Marbella, Estepona and Benahavis are often referred to.

Cosmo Beach development, located between San Pedro and Estepona, and the Valley Heights development on the edge of Benahavis are the first two troubled developments taken on by RCS Spain. This gives RCS Spain a head start with ca. 100 residential properties. The EUR 15 million investment includes deposits made and the running and maintenance costs of the properties.

At the Cosmo Beach development asking prices per property lie between EUR 186,000 and EUR 380,000. Designed to appeal to buyers of second homes rather than investors, the seafront properties overlook the beach and have already attracted attention from both European and domestic buyers.

Valley Heights' properties are about to come onto the market and were designed to appeal more affluent house purchasers. The high-end apartments will cost between EUR 269,000 and EUR 464,000.

Three Decades of Experience

 RCS has extensive experience in the second homes and holiday homes market, particularly in Florida. Marbella and Miami, it seems, have more than just a sunny climate in common.

Peter Wells, managing partner at RCS, explained in a recent interview with the magazine SUR:  “They are very similar destinations, with regards to climate and tourism. But to go one step further, Miami was the first city to recover from the economic crisis in the USA, and Marbella is also currently under going the same process in Spain and is becoming very attractive to investors.

He added that, "with investors from UK, Scandinavia, central Europe, Kuwait and the Baltic countries, buyers are seeing great potential in Spain, just like the South Americans in Miami."

Regarded has one of the most active and one of the largest commercial real estate developers in their native Colorado, RCS has made acquisitions of more than $1.5 billion across the US market and has pursued a long-term strategy over the past 30 years.

Promoting Marbella and the Costa del Sol as a great place to buy a holiday or second home is therefore very much part of their long-term outlook and their plans for Europe.

Appealing to a different Type of Clientele

Marbella with its luxury villas and apartments, its amazing shops, restaurants and fantastic attractions, has recently been promoted to the New York tourism market in an effort to appeal to a different type of tourist and holiday home buyer.

A delegation, headed by Marbella's Mayor, went to the Big Apple in the hope of promoting the city's refreshed image, now that scandals involving corruption have begun to fade. A previous trip, undertaken in 2010, fell rather short of expectations and did not result in the hoped for increase of American tourists visiting the Costa del Sol or wealthy USA citizens deciding to purchase Marbella real estate.

The Mediterranean real estate market as a whole is gradually picking up pace though, with more retirees opting to purchase residences in Portugal for example and new markets opening up in China for the Costa del Sol.

Now is a good time to purchase, while prices are still low in the Golden Triangle of Marbella, Estepona and Benahavis.