THREE COSTA DEL SOL TOWNS ARE DRIVING MALAGA’S PROPERTY MARKET INTO THE TOP OF NATIONAL RANKINGS

MARBELLA, Estepona and Benahavis are officially among the hottest and ‘most mature’ markets in Spain.

The three towns saw sales shoot up by 11.15% in 2017 compared to the year before, exceeding  pre-2007 levels by 10.4%.

The rest of Spain, meanwhile, still lags 21% behind pre-financial crisis levels.

The figures come from The Marbella Property Market Report 2018, compiled by Christopher Clover at Panorama Properties – Marbella’s longest-running estate agency.

Estepona saw sales rocket by 28.3% last year, while Marbella saw a 6.9% boost.

 

This is mainly due to Estepona having greater availability of urbanizable land, while there are delays of a year or more when applying for building permits in Marbella. Estepona is also cheaper.

Demand in the most sought-after areas of Marbella  is outstripping supply and in urbanisations like Casablanca on the Golden Mile, prices have almost doubled.

Meanwhile, in Benahavís, 499 Sold boards went up, representing 6.7% of the total 7,487 purchases made in the three municipalities.

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) has confirmed that Malaga – driven by hotspots like Marbella – had the fourth highest amount of sales last year (30,064 compared to 15,917 in the Balearic Islands), beaten only by Madrid, Barcelona and Alicante.

And the sales boom is having a positive knock-on effect in attracting new businesses.

In 2017 there was a net increase of 924 start-ups in the municipality of Marbella.

Panorama CEO Clover said 2018 and the years to come ‘represent an exceptional time, perhaps even a historic opportunity to acquire properties in this area.’

Source: The Olive Press