How does it look like? What are the features, trends and costs for luxury property in Costa del Sol today? Let’s see with our expert.
What do buyers expect?
For our clientele, luxury real estate in 2021 is first and foremost about quality. When you walk into a brand new property built to 2021 quality and EU standards, you will struggle to find another (older or inferior) property that compares. Buyers expect exclusive features such as smart house systems. It means complete control of your property electrical system and appliances from your phone or tablet. Underfloor heating, 120×120 porcelain floor tiling, high quality bathrooms and Gaggenau kitchen appliances are also required. But buyers now expect much more, and low quality construction can easily be spotted by a discerning buyer.
Fashion trends
Externally, having a swimming pool on the same level as the groundfloor living area and kitchen are super important. As well as a bedroom at this level. Style wise, many clients are still asking for a modern minimalistic design, often the rectangular white box style. However many clients are now looking further ahead and believe this style could date very quickly. So an ‘Andalucia modern´design is becoming more popular. Basically – the rectangular design but with a roof!
Demand for luxury in 2020
The demand was very high. Even with the lockdown and economic conditions, the luxury end of the market has moved from strength to strength. If we use our local area of Marbella as an example, there is a large gap appearing in the villa market from €1,000,000 to €2,000,000. Villa with a good quality modern design now costs anything over €2.1/2.2m.
What are the costs?
The keys areas on the Costa del Sol at present are definitely Mijas, Marbella, Benahavis and Estepona if you are looking for a luxury apartment, townhouse or villa.
For a brand new modern design villa in the Mijas or Estepona area you are looking at a purchase price from around €600,000. At the same time a similar property in Marbella or Benahavis is likely to be closer to €2 to €2.5m. But even at these levels there are very few properties to choose from. Ideally you would need a budget closer to €3m to find a perfect villa in Marbella or Benahavis.
These price differences are largely due to the fact that in Mijas or Estepona there are much small villas being constructed, and the land being built on has a much lower initial purchase price. For the same plot of land in Marbella or Benahavis you are likely to pay double, with much higher building/transportation costs and much larger ’super villas’ being constructed.
Discount and sales
The luxury end of the market is the most buoyant of all at present. We have seen some minor price reductions, but have equally seen several price increases. On average, our initial offers are introduced around 10% under asking price, but settle closer to 5% off full asking price. We do not foresee this situation changing during 2021, but we are predicting further price rises during Q3 and Q4 of 2021.
James Vizetelly