As mentioned in a previous post, one of the datapoints I look out for when it comes to the Spanish real estate market, is price change requests by property owners. Clearly, in an upward trending market sellers would be more likely to raise their asking price after a few viewing appointments, so this provides us with an early signal of possible market turns: if sellers are not daring to raise their asking price, then price reductions might be round the corner.
I will compare the data of the previous article ( https://www.eyeonspain.com/blogs/spainstatistics/17316/to-sell-your-costa-del-sol-property-raise-its-price.aspx ) with year 2018 data, and elaborate a bit more on the time a property spends on the market.
(the data is from a sample I have access to, not the totals of property sales on the Costa del Sol. It is however quite widespread geographically so I believe it is fairly representative)
1. How many decreased vs. how many increased
| Properties sold at a price lower than the initial |
1445 |
| Properties sold at a price equal to the initial (changed, then changed back) |
40 |
| Properties sold at a price higher than the initial |
435 |
| Properties sold without a price change |
4538 |
An impressive 22% of the price-changed properties sold at a higher price than their initial one. This is lower than in 2017, however still an indicator of a highly optimistic environment. Some of those price-increased properties were on the market for less than a month, for example in Estepona or Nueva Andalucia - the longest waiting periods were in Benalmadena, Benahavis, and Casares Playa. 60% of all properties examined were sold within less than a year. The hottest areas in that respect were Fuengirola, Calahonda and Malaga city, where around 80% of the properties were sold in less than a year.
2. The maximum amount of a price upward change
The highest upward price change was for a villa in El Rosario, by 310,000 euros, a 20% increase for that particular property. Again, some cooling down from 2017, which in my opinion indicates a healthier, non-bubbly market, while still on a positive trend. The highest average asking price increase was for townhouses for sale in Mijas, where 50% of the properties had their prices raised 27% on average and still were sold.
3. Similar time on the market
Of special interest to us this time, was drilling down to individual areas to see which were the most likely to "allow" an increase in asking price, while still being sold within a reasonable time. First the data:
| Location |
Min days to sell |
%age sold in less than a year |
| La Mairena |
62 |
100 |
| Malaga Centro |
13 |
80 |
| La Duquesa |
46 |
71 |
| Elviria |
15 |
67 |
| Fuengirola |
27 |
67 |
| Riviera del Sol |
21 |
63 |
| Mijas Costa |
27 |
58 |
| Benalmadena |
70 |
47 |
| Miraflores |
21 |
40 |
| Benalmadena Pueblo |
69 |
40 |
| The Golden Mile |
12 |
38 |
| Nueva Andalucía |
31 |
33 |
| Selwo |
55 |
33 |
| Estepona |
37 |
29 |
| Casares |
53 |
25 |
| Guadalmina Alta |
63 |
20 |
Let's take the example of Fuengirola: of the properties whose owners realised they could demand more, 67% were still able to sell it within a year, and in some cases as early as 27 days! If you live in any of the above top competitive areas, consider revising your asking price!
As always, my disclaimer: the data sample is not encompasing the whole of the Costa, even though it is quite a varied sample. And I am presenting here data averages - individual properties will of course warrant individual prices. However, I hope this has been useful in giving you an idea of the current state of seller confidence in the property market on the Costa del Sol.
Thanks for reading, any questions below I will try to answer as soon as I can.