Are you looking for a bargain property on the Costa Blanca?
Comaskey are the longest established estate agent in La Zenia. We are Ireland’s top selling (and friendliest) Spanish Estate agent and we can get you bargains like no other agent in Spain- that’s not sales talk and we hope to prove it to you below. Here we present to you five special deals, all of which have seen dramatic reductions in price over the past two weeks. La Zenia, Playa Flamenca and Cabo Roig are all represented here … but before we actually show you the discounted properties (please, have patience… ) there are another few points we feel are worth making.
Why do we see price drops on our La Zenia/Cabo Roig/ Playa Flamenca?
Fair question- These are the three hottest areas (sorry for the sunny pun) so you’d wonder why we are reducing the selling prices rather than increasing them. Here are the reasons, or a few of them.
Owners originally priced their property too high. It’s the obvious one- owners sometimes overvalue their property. They tell us that they added bathroom tiles, planted trees and built a conservatory. Although that all helps sell the property, it generally is not reflected in the ultimate selling price. Sure, building a private pool or large extension will increase the value of any home in Spain, however often owners, to their ultimate cost, value their properties too high. If a property sits on the market more than 6 months, ultimately when we get an offer on that property, it will be 20% less than the original asking price. This applies more to one off or unique properties. If you own a Colinas de La Zenia townhouse and everyone on the road is valued at 100,000 – that’s what your property is valued at. If, however, you own a detached San Miguel Mansion it can be harder to put a value on it. If the owner does not get their price within that critical 6-month period however, the chances are that the buyer is going to get a great purchase price. We always council our property sellers to pitch their property at a good price, if they don’t, the buyer is the one who benefits. The answer to the question of “What is my property in Spain worth” is simple- it’s worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Brexit. What a crazy time pre- Brexit really is. The uncertainty caused by the surprise “leave” vote is having some effect over here on the Costa Blanca! First things first, whether or not you agree with the decision of the British people, you must admit, it’s a perfect storm and what a time to buy a property in Spain. The reason why it’s perfect… We have loads of British people who own property all around the Alicante region and beyond who are panicking. The Red Top newspapers love it- Headlines like “British people to be kicked out of Spain due to Brexit” , help sell these 50p tabloids but are not fair on the poor people who read and believe them. There are 400,000 British people living full time in Spain. *(Source Spanish association of nation statistics). These people pay tax, support local industry and businesses, spend money in bars and cafes, buy groceries here. Do you think Spain wants them to leave?? No, they do not, but due to the panic and to use a Trump quote “Alternative facts” being put out there by sensational publications, the British people who live here in many cases have over reacted. They have been told that their British TV will be cut off, British cars repossessed, private medical cover cancelled and other scaremongering that you would not believe. How can this benefit a crafty buyer of property in Spain? Well, you know people are willing to take and accept an offer well below the market price, as the actual cut-off date for Brexit gets closer. It’s not ethical of the Fleet Street journalists to do this, but that’s not your fault and it’s your chance to get a deal.
Did you know there are 3 million EU citizens currently living in the UK? (Almost 1.5 Britons live in the EU zone). These people are there to learn English, work, see a new way of life and in most cases- they pay their tax to the UK economy. Can you imagine a situation whereby Britain will send these people home and Europe will do the same with Brits living abroad? It just physically can’t happen. So, if you hold your head, buying in Spain right now, while there is such uncertainty is the perfect time.
Motivated seller. We are not your typical estate agency in Spain- Anyone who knows Comaskey will agree with that. We grew very organically from humble beginnings in the back office of Paddys Point pub which our family opened back in 1999 to opening our first registered office in 2002. Today we boast 3,000 happy buyers and 8,000 happy clients including buyers, sellers, tenants, landlords and holiday makers. Why does that make a difference to the price of property in La Zenia? We know everyone who was here from the beginning, just like us. People trust us and choose to use us to sell their property. Many of the hard sell estate agents, will promise you the moon and stars, but people thinking of selling property on the Costa Blanca know they can trust us with even the most sensitive sales.
We’ve sold property on behalf of our sellers due to a recent death in the family, a divorce or separation, dramatic change in personal financial circumstances and more. I always tell our buyers however that you are helping the seller, not taking advantage of them. If I want to shift my Molino Blanco apartment across from the park at La Zenia, for example for 75,000 euro for whatever reason, and you offer me this amount, even though it’s probably worth 10,000 more- you are helping me. We get these deals to offer to the Spanish property market more than any other agent in the whole La Zenia/Orihuela Costa area and that is an absolute fact. Everyone wins- the seller gets rid of whatever problem the property was causing them and you, the buyer reap the benefits with a bargain property in the sun!
Currency shifts. If I was selling my property in Cabo Roig a couple of years back I would need to achieve a much higher price then, than I do now, to get the same amount of pounds in my pocket (or UK bank account). Let me explain what I mean. Let’s say I was moving lock, stock and barrel, back to Britain and in order to buy the property back in Manchester I wished to buy, I need to clear 100,000 GBP. When the currency was not going in my favour then, I’d need to sell the property for 130,000 euro to achieve this 100,000 GBP. Now, with an exchange rate much closer to 1 : 1.20 (approx as of February 2017) then that selling price can easily be as low as 120,000 euro. It’s another win/win situation, seller gets the price they want in pounds, and the buyer (yes, that’s you) gets a bargain property in Spain! We can give you actual examples of how both buyers and sellers benefitted from this situation back in 2016 and are still taking advantage today.
Repossessed property on the Costa Blanca dragging prices down! As part of the list of five properties with dramatic properties I advise you to look at, two of them is in Royal Park Spa in Cabo Roig. This is one of my favourite developments on the whole Costa Blanca- why the reduction in price? The reason is bank repossessions. We represent many of the major banks in Spain and we have authority to sell reposed property in Spain for Sabadell, Caja Murcia (now, BMN bank), Caja Madrid and more. We have repossed property in Royal park spa for sale and this affects the value of all the other non-repo property too. If owners want to sell they must reduce their price to the current market price – the lowest common denominator for want of a better expression. When we got the latest list of bank repossession, we notified the owners who were not in any difficulty with the bank and we advised then to drop their asking price to that of the banks. Our loyalty is with our clients- buyers and sellers so we are not the kind of agency who will keep secrets from our clients. Yes, we feel these properties in royal Park Sap are worth more than what we are selling them for but it’s an intelligent market out there- if our sellers want to sell, they must drop prices. Who is going to win here- The intelligent Spanish property buyer who gets in touch with Comaskey (La Zenia office is 0034966773453). Call and ask for Claire and she’ll call you back.
Right time, right place. Sometimes, there is no skill involved and as much as we like to claim that we are responsible for everything good that happens in the Spanish property market, it often can be a case of the right time, right place! Let’s say we had a seller who just has had enough viewings, and wants to reduce the price; maybe the seller does not need the money and will take a hit for a quick easy deal; maybe the owner wants a family he likes to enjoy the property as much as he did, he may take a reduction; maybe it’s just one of those things, you get the owner on a good day and get the deal you want? We don’t know the science behind it, but often that’s how it works. If you find one of these too good to be true deals, please remember to:
- Have your deposit ready, 3,000 euro is generally fine.
- Have a lawyer in place (we recommend Spanish Solutions legal and taxation firm in La Zenia for obvious reasons!!!)
- Be prepared to sign a contract there and then and when you see the best Spanish property deal in history…. Jump on it!