Widely reported and commented on across the Spanish and other media such as internet forums this past week, has been the confirmation by the Málaga Association of Builders & Developers (ACP) that more than 10,000 new-build units have been sold during 2011, out of what was reported to be an unsold stock in the Málaga province of some 20,000 units.

What we all have felt in the market is that of course tides turn, and when it comes to the law of supply and demand, well if you don’t build any new projects then eventually – as in the early to mid 90s – there comes again a shortage and a real demand, and off we go to a new cycle.

You might say that this is still a way off. But not really. Lead times in construction tend to be 3-5 years from initiation of a project to completion. Think about that… no new product coming to the market for 5 years. At VIVA, we have already seen double digit growth in 2011 and we’re seeing a fabulous start to the year in property sales every day.

What does happen in prime areas such as Marbella and the Costa del Sol in just five years’ time, when all our stock will have been long ago sold and everyone then competes for properties coming to the market?

And how well might today’s buyer feel at that time.

Well, this was the official news recently released by Tinsa which provides an index as to property prices and other real estate information across Spain. But really, we ourselves could have told you exactly the same thing more than a year ago.

The problem with the ‘official’ version of facts is the time lag that it takes to get them out into the market, as in fact, we would say that completed sale prices today – against asking prices at peak – are more likely near 40% down from that peak, and we often see certain types of properties selling for 50% below peak today.

What is important, however, is the true picture of when the bottom of the market has been reached. That point, or moment in time, when our buyers all have a certainty that prices will not fall any further. Well, we won’t guarantee that this is a fact across all markets, and we can only talk about certain prime areas of the Costa del Sol, but we certainly believe that in the case of all the properties we are completing sales on at present, these prices will not go lower; we know that we are at the bottom of the market.

Though you probably won’t read that ‘officially’ for a while yet, when you do read it, in our view prices will have already started to begin their eventual rise.

If you are buying, there has never before been a moment or a market like it. But it is incredibly important that you buy the right property, for the right reasons and at that all-important right price.

An article in the Daily Mail reports on how Spain comes out 45th in a league table of 51 countries in relation to their house price falls. Now is this a bad thing?

Not at all! In fact, if you read the article to the end, they state the obvious, that the turmoil in property prices faced particularly by the likes of Ireland (51st) and Spain, is actually a confirmation that these housing markets are over the worst.

We have never been ones to bury our head in the sand at VIVA. If it’s bad we face up to it, and we don’t talk the market up either, because it’s not our role. We simply help buyers acquire the right home at the right price, whatever the prevailing market conditions. But I have to say, it’s ohhh… so nice to be able to point to a whole variety of indicators that demonstrate we are at the bottom of our own crisis, that we are facing recovery and, well, an end to a pretty tough past six years really.

So, don’t shoot us for being happy about that.

For more than 20 years, chairman and president of DM Properties, Diana Morales, has been a keen observer of the changes taking place in Spain in general and Marbella in particular, especially within the property sector.

Every year we eagerly anticipate reading Diana Morales’ annual Marbella Real Estate Market Report.

This year it seemed to come to us a bit later than usual, I guess because Diana was watching the market carefully and no doubt checking how the land was lying before fully committing to her Report.

We have even waited a few weeks ourselves, for the whole ‘eurozone crisis’ to settle itself back down, before presenting her Report to our own blog and website visitors.

Regardless as ever, whenever it comes, Diana’s Report is always an excellent piece of work and, as every year, we have no hesitation in providing a link to it.

While DM Properties and VIVA of course operate in the same geographical area, our respective markets are, however, quite different…

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Spanish Secretary of State for Housing, Beatriz Corredor

A few months back, I engaged in some private mail with a poster called ‘Roots’ on the Spanish Property Insight forum. Roots has, along with another poster called ‘Keith110’, long been campaigning to bring to account the Spanish government, the Bank of Spain and any number of lawyers, estate agents, developers and well just everyone connected to the issues concerning abusive practice and abject failures, in relation to many Bank Guarantees given to British buyers that have not been honoured.

It is an enormous and disgraceful tragedy that people such as Roots and Keith110 have had to now dedicate so much of their personal time and lives to seek redress and action on the part of the Spanish government and in fact the whole real estate industry, over something that I’m sure started out for them as an exciting adventure into buying a home in Spain…

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Based on an analysis of our own business trends and my personal instincts – both of which have been tested in the Costa del Sol property market for some 22 years now – I can finally answer the oft-asked question, and state with certainty – probably long before you’ll hear it elsewhere – that we have now finally reached the ‘bottom of the market’ for Costa del Sol real estate.

How can I do this ahead of official government statistics or our economic guru journalists? Well, here are the facts of the matter…

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Here is an interesting link, a detailed uSwitch survey has analysed 10 major European nations with a quality of life index based on a whole series of factors from incomes, retirement, healthcare, education, food, energy prices et al.

Shocking, but perhaps not surprising to many, the UK comes bottom of the pile, even below neighbours Ireland who have been suffering badly these past few years. The UK is in the last place, yes 10^th; however Spain is narrowly 2^nd to first place France. Although of all the countries where people would choose to live, then Spain features far and away as the highest and most favourable place to be, with double the preferences of France… Continue Reading

Record numbers of visitors to Spain… I have to admit I get carried away from time to time, I was just going to comment in this post on the detail of tourist stats below. But then I thought back about what such reports have always meant and then delivered for the future, when I have read the ones produced during the past 20 years. Well forgive me, I have seen it before, and then I get excited.

According to a Frontursurvey for the Institute of Tourism Studies…

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Can you believe what a Costa del Sol real estate agent’s website tells you or offers you?

A bit of background first

About six or seven years ago, around 100 or so agents with offices on the Costa del Sol became used to sharing a single software platform, that then allowed them all to display not only their own properties on their websites, but those of the 100 other agents on that same platform.

The result…

All well and good we thought. Very helpful, everyone believed, as agents often shared their clients between each other in the typical USA broker and European Agent way, thus also sharing their commission. Everyone benefited from the developing Internet phenomenon at the time.

Today it’s quite a bit different …

90% of so-called Agents no longer even have offices so it seems. But they do have quite good-looking websites, sometimes really terrific ones, but the stark reality is that their office is actually a corner of their living room or a desk in the back bedroom of their Costa apartment.

I don’t have a problem with that per se. Well, yes, actually I suppose I do… Continue Reading

Forgive me for giving out some good news now and again, however, with all the doom and terrible gloom seemingly purveying itself in every corner of Europe and USA at the minute, it’s nice to report, as is being published on various sites and forums at present that…

Spain had a 22% increase in property sales quarter on quarter, and things look a whole lot better than they did last year. Which, in these tough times, is what people tend to forget and/or miss.

Government stats also show more foreign purchasers are buying, with figures up by a reported 23%.

I am incredibly cautious about good news myself, or trumpeting a rallying call to the market. There was too much wrong with the ‘old days’ and I don’t want a ‘bubble’ to pop up only to burst, so I’m not one for jumping on a bandwagon or creating one by accidental comment.

But the truth is that we in VIVA just keep plugging away. There are always people who want to buy, there is always something good to buy, and we work with vendors who are keen to sell, be they private, developers or banks. There is of course always a market and if you have sound practices and some common sense, then things can and will work.

What I want to say is, don’t be surprised that the market is returning. It may have a slip or two on the way, especially with more talk of a double dip recession throughout Europe, but, it is unstoppable in its own way.

In fact, for sure, we will have a bubble here or there also at some point. Today’s buyers, however, might well turn out to be the smartest of all… especially if they’re out on their terraces enjoying their investment already.