Sales of luxury homes in Marbella have tripled in the last year: more demand than supply

Luxury real estate in Marbella is becoming increasingly attractive as a safe haven. According to Engel & Völkers, a real estate company specialising in the luxury segment, sales of prime real estate have tripled in 2021 to a record high.

"If there is one good thing that the health crisis has brought in the face of the uncertainty of what may happen in the world, it is the trend towards greater investment in luxury products, including the high-end real estate market. The same trend can be seen in Marbella, where the client is expressing the need to enjoy a better quality of life, in a more natural and pleasurable environment. Attracted by the quality of the urbanisation and the good climate, the international buyer has focused on Marbella to buy both first and second homes, and thus spend long periods of time or even live permanently in the coastal town," says the company.

In its case, sales of luxury homes have reached a volume of 561.6 million euros, of which 353.8 million euros have been resale properties. The real estate agency states that many of the properties were transacted for more than 4 million euros and that the most expensive unit was a villa which sold for 15 million euros. However, it puts the average sale price at 1.8 million euros, including villas, flats and townhouses.

In this scenario, Engel & Völkers affirms that "all expectations have been exceeded by far". However, the real estate agency warns that "a unique phenomenon in the history of Marbella's urban development is taking place: there is more demand than supply". In his opinion, the growing interest in prime housing in the city "represents a challenge for the coming year as new homes will be needed to meet the growing demand from international buyers", especially considering that this record level of activity could continue to rise this year.

In fact, the real estate agency points out that "all market indicators point to continued stable demand: a low Euribor, the property market as an investment haven and Marbella's established position as a luxury destination on the Costa del Sol".

Younger and European clients

The firm also explains that in recent times it is detecting a growing interest from younger buyers, attracted by the lifestyle in southern Spain. In this sense, it stresses that "the target audience is also changing, with relatively younger clients (35-55 years old), mostly from the IT sector, commonly known as "digital nomads", as well as young international sportspeople who have decided to settle in the area".

In the specific case of Engel & Völkers, there has been an increase of close to 150% in the German, Swiss, Austrian, Belgian and Dutch public, "with the latter having made the two largest purchases. In addition, the Scandinavians, who are already a regular in the luxury market, continue to be in the spotlight, with transactions of over 10 million euros".

Record results

The pull of luxury homes has boosted the real estate company's results. In 2021, for the first time in its history, it exceeded 3,000 million euros in brokerage volume. Last year, it handled 8,356 sale, purchase and rental transactions for a value of 3,153 million euros, representing a growth of 88% compared to the results of 2020 and 65.5% compared to 2019, the year before the pandemic.