Marbella Property Report 2018

The residential property market has improved significantly in the Marbella area in 2017, consolidating the trends established in prior years. Property as well as financial professionals have announced the beginning of another Golden Age for Spain’s housing sector, but this time without excesses until at least 2022.

The increase in the volume of residential property sales nationally in 2017 has been the largest since 2007, rising 14.6% over 2016 with Málaga province leading the way. Annual national sales figures show a total of 464,423 properties sold in Spain in 2017, climbing from a low of 312,593 in 2013 to the highest number recorded since the 2008 property crash.

Source: El País

The property market touched bottom in our area in 2011, with recovery starting in 2012, two full years before the rest of Spain. Led almost exclusively by foreign investors/purchasers from many different countries, the international market has always distinguished the Marbella market, as well as most Spanish resort areas, from the rest of the country.

The increase in sales volume in Marbella from 2014 to 2015 was an extraordinary 28.3%, as buyers rushed to purchase the best bargains before prices started to increase. Consequently, the market recovery in the Marbella area is more mature than the national market and percentage sales increases have begun to level off, whilst still increasing on a national level. For example, on a national level the 2017 sales volume is still 21% below that of pre-crisis levels of 2007, whilst in the Marbella-Benahavís-Estepona area, the 2007 sales volume has been surpassed by 10.4%.

The enormous increase of 28.3% in sales in Estepona compared with 6.9% in Marbella is attributable to the following factors:

• Substantially greater availability of fully zoned development land in Estepona compared with Marbella.
• Delays in obtaining building licenses in Marbella of a year or more, pushing developers to buy land in Estepona and Benahavís where licenses are granted far more quickly.
• Lower prices of properties and land in Estepona, compared with the most consolidated residential areas of Marbella.

There were only 499 sales in Benahavís in 2017, representing 6.7% of the 7,487 properties sold in the area of the three municipalities. Notwithstanding, this municipality is of vital importance to the entire area due to the exclusivity of most of the residential estates in this area, such as La Zagaleta, El Madroñal, La Quinta, Los Flamingos, Marbella Club Golf Resort, Los Arqueros, La Reserva de Alcuzcuz and others.

Demand in the very best areas of Marbella is outstripping supply, due to the fully consolidated nature of the most popular areas of the city, such as the beach side of the Golden Mile and Puente Romano, resulting in a significant upwards push in prices in these areas. Here the sale prices for apartments or villas have easily doubled between 2011 and today. Fortunately for those who now can’t afford to buy in the few ultra-prime areas of Marbella (and many who never wanted to be there in the first place), property prices in many residential areas are still below their 2007 highs.

New Property Developments

There is high activity in the Marbella area in new construction and off-plan sales. The number of new developments launched and the number of units built in 2017 is slightly lower than in 2016, but the number of investors and end-user clients is growing, especially motivated by the exciting new projects launched at the end of 2017 and first quarter of 2018.

These new projects plus our stock of resales of refurbished properties provides today’s buyer with a very wide variety of contemporary and modern homes. This includes villas and apartments to purchase “off-plan” at competitive prices, and those under construction (with the clear advantages of stage payments in both categories), and others already finished, ready to move in.

Check out our latest super modern properties for sale.

Is now the Right Time to Buy in Marbella?

Any time is a good time for those buying with lifestyle objectives in mind, which has always been the single most important factor influencing buyers in Marbella. From an investment standpoint, even though prices have started to rise again, they have not yet reached the 2006 and 2007 highs in most of the municipality. Historically low variable and fixed rate interest mortgages are becoming commonplace, and tourism is breaking records year after year.

The national and local economies are improving significantly and the Spanish market itself is beginning to buy in Marbella again. Not to forget the big money – many major investment funds – that previously ignored Marbella but from 2012 have invested hundreds of millions of euros buying development land on the whole of the Costa del Sol, betting on the medium and long-term success of residential tourism in this area, often referred to as the California of Europe.

For many, the hard evidence of the positive evolution of the Marbella property market, will no doubt lead them to conclude that 2018 and the coming years represent an outstanding time, perhaps even a historic opportunity, to purchase property in this area, while Marbella is just entering its New Golden Age.

If you are thinking of investing your money into a property at the Costa del Sol, give us a call. mci real estate will advise you professionally and support your search for the right purchase here.