These are the properties that ex-pats are looking for on the Costa del Sol

The number of ex-pats buying properties in Spain has shot up in recent years and businesses catering to their needs have recovered well from the crisis that hit the rest of the real estate business in 2008. The Costa de Sol, Balearic Islands and Canary Islands are the most popular ex-pat destinations, and the most popular types of properties are luxury houses, those on golf resorts and, more than anything, with sea views. Pedro Losada, technical director of Planificalia, tells us about these properties, which never fall below 800,000 euro.

According to the latest stats published by notaries, there were more than 50,000 real estate transactions with 2017 in the first half of 2017, a record interannual growth of 13.4%. This trend toward real estate investment by foreign buyers has been on its way up since 2014.

Such transactions are mainly focussed on the Mediterranean coast and the islands. The percentage of ex-pats buying is astonishing: Canary Islands (42.3%), Balearic Islands (37.7%), Valencian Community (35.5%), Murcia (26.9%) and Andalusia (19.4%) between January and June of last year alone.

“The market for high-level second homes for ex-pats is booming, having passed the worst of the crisis,” says Pedro Losada, technical director of the developer Planificalia, specialists in property projects for foreigners, with prices between 800,000 and a million euro.

The Costa del Sol is, year on year, one of the most popular destinations for a lot of ex-pats with many looking for a luxury second home. “Most international buyers looking for a house on the Costa del Sol are either Nordic or British, who start out buying to spend their holidays here and, on many occasions, end up retiring here,” explains Pedro.

What kind of properties are these people looking for? Contrary to what a lot of people might think, the type of property ex-pats look for is quite different from what a Spanish national would look for, being more interested in living right on the seafront.

For a non-native buyer of a certain standing, the perfect property should have sea views. It doesn’t matter if it is a little way away from the beach because it’s more about enjoying a round of golf and lounging by the pool.

“When we do a feasibility study of the ground, we prefer not to build a house at all rather than build one without sea views, even if we have the land available,” adds the Planificalia director.

One of the most recent developments of the company is ‘La Cala Views’ in Mijas in the Costa del Sol in Malaga. It is a complex that consists of 16 detached houses, an infinity pool and, of course, amazing sea views.

“As well as the views, we have open-plan kitchens built into the living room and connected to an exterior porch. The houses come fully-fitted and we are hoping to finish the development in April 2018, with the handover of the first properties the following summer,” he says.

To buy one of these villas, with prices starting at 800,000 euro, most investors don’t need financing and those that do are usually helped by banks in their home countries.

“There’s business focussing on foreign buyers up and down the Costa del Sol. Now we are meeting an existing demand that was previously unmet and we think, at least for the moment, there is not a case of a second property bubble being created here as happened before the crisis,” Pedro stresses.

Although there are scores of unsold properties on the Costa, many of these new houses which were finished and never sold, or which were left half-finished, could be said to have gone out of fashion.

“Ex-pat buyers who want to buy luxury homes in Spain want new constructions because the products have changed from what was on offer during the property boom. The designs have changed and the building materials are better – the insulation, the energy efficiency and the finishings. The type of villas which are on offer now didn’t exist 10 years ago,” concludes the technical director of Planificalia.