Quality Design and high-end Construction wins the Day in Spain’s Property Market

Scandinavian and Russian buyers have been particularly active on Mallorca, but have also been noted to snap up seafront and golf property over and above the EUR 500,000 mark in Marbella and elsewhere at the Costa del Sol. Particularly sought-after are high-end properties in prime locations. Where developers invested in quality design and build for their smaller apartment projects, properties often sold off-plan, unheard of just a couple of years ago. Increasingly, British and German buyers are also returning to the Spanish property market.

Creating a better Holiday Experience

There are similarities between the Balearic Island’s desire to attract a different type of tourist sector and to create a year-round destination and Marbella’s latest efforts to make the resort more attractive for families. Both destinations have realised that offering “cheap as chips” low-end holiday accommodation and attractions are no longer what a large segment of the tourism sector wants. In Mallorca this has already led to a rapid increase in 4-and 5-star hotels, with ancient manor houses and palaces in Palma for example being turned into chic boutique hotels.

A similar move away from traditional Andalusia house design and offering better quality hotel and private villa accommodation is also emerging at the Costa del Sol, where holiday accommodation has always been more luxurious than in other parts of Spain but where a certain amount of complacency allowed the sector to slip over the past decade.

Better quality of design and higher construction values mean happier tourists in the long run and foreign investors looking to buy a Marbella property that costs more than EUR 1 million are looking for modern design and luxury finishes that will appeal to tourists for many years to come.

Attracting Buyers who will invest in the local Economy

However, it’s not just investors looking for improvements in the construction and design of homes. Buyers from emerging markets like Scandinavia, Russia and China investing in semi- or permanent homes at the Costa del Sol have typically purchased an overseas home before and they know what they want – having already bought a home at the French or Italian Riviera or a London city pad.

On Mallorca estate agents registered 729 completed sales of high-end properties, most of which were purchased by foreign buyers. On average, Mallorca’s luxury properties changed hands for around EUR 1.1 million in 2013, although it’s not unusual for villas and apartments to be bought for EUR 3 to EUR 4 million. A similar picture has emerged in glamour resort Marbella, where already resident wealthy buyers were just waiting for prices to fall further before making a move.

These buyers may not live at the Costa del Sol or on Mallorca permanently, but they visit sufficiently often to make a sizeable contribution to their local economies. From ordering luxury furniture to hiring gardeners, maids and a chap to clean their infinity pools, these buyers create jobs, spend money in high-end restaurants and cafes, hire cars and charter yachts, entertain lavishly at home and spend money on their children’s education, if they bought the property to enable their off-spring to enrol at one of Marbella’s or Mallorca’s international schools.

Marbella Property attracts Big Spenders

The latest figures for Spain’s record-breaking tourism year show that international tourist spending rose by 9.6%, reaching 59,082 million euros, according to the Tourism Expenditure Survey (Egatur) which was prepared by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism’s tourism studies section . Overall, the number of tourists saw a gain of 5.6% in the year.

This represents an enormous chunk of revenue for the country but hasn’t even taken into account the residential tourism that occurs every time a Marbella homeowner visits their property and spends a few weeks per year living in it.
 
For non-millionaires there are still plenty of quality homes left that won’t require a lottery win to purchase. Head to Marbella del Este and EUR 325,000 will buy you a luxurious Elviria property with 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and access to a swimming pool right next to one of Marbella’s finest beaches and luxurious resorts: the 5-star Marriott Beach Resort and Nikki Beach Club.