A Good Time to Sell in Spain?
January 18th, 2008
Question: We purchased an off-plan property in 2006 intending to sell on completion in 2008. Considering the current market what would you advise?
Answer: In general, as you’re probably aware, selling property in Spain AND being attached to a completion date is a little fraught at the moment.
There are a few things you might want to bear in mind. The vast majority of off-plan properties are purchased by Spaniards (93% according to the Ministry of Housing’s 2006 figures) . They classify any property under two years old as ‘off-plan’
My advice would be to also market to Spanish buyers – either via the two largest Spanish portals (Idealista.com and Fotocasa.es) if your Spanish is reasonably fluent, or via an estate agent who already advertises there.
Bear in mind that the current credit crunch has affected the willingness and ability of Spaniards to get a mortgage too, so I would imagine that there will be fewer Spanish buyers to go around in 2008 than in previous years.
Ensuring that your property can be found on Kyero.com via any of the estate agents who already advertise with us will ensure that you also get seen by the vast majority of foreign buyers too. We also have a significant volume of Spanish visitors but, in reality, not anywhere near that of the two Spanish portals already mentioned.
Plan B, if you can afford to delay the sale, is to make the property available for long term rental. Currently in Spain, there’s a huge surge of interest in renting rather than buying (for all the obvious reasons). We’ve seen demand for long term lets triple compared to this time last year.
Perhaps a strategy of making the property available to sell and let at the same time might be worth a try? Again, advertising via an estate agent on Kyero.com will address both opportunities with foreign buyers – and with luck, the same agent will take care of the Spanish portals too.
Martin Dell, Kyero.com
Related Posts
- Time to Target Spanish Buyers
- Good News for Property Investors in Spain
- Off plan property still good investment
