Spanish agents enjoy "best spring in a decade"
Engel & Völkers' Mallorca office has enjoyed a strong start to the year. The area was not only a favourite holiday spot this Easter with visitor figures up overall by 7.17 per cent (source: AENA), but the estate agency (which has 16 offices around the island) also saw sales jump 20 per cent year-on-year.
The Balearic Islands economy has already turned a corner with expected growth of 2.4 per cent in 2015 ahead of 2.1 per cent economic growth predicted for the rest of Spain. Now, Engel & Völkers reports the housing market is in even ruder health.
Prices per square metre in Palma are starting to increase by 10 to 15 per cent, while a new development overlooking Portixol Harbour is scheduled for completion this summer. To date 13 of the 32 units have been sold valued between 1.2 million Euros and 3 million Euros. Buyers include Germans, Brit, Swedes, Swiss and Spaniards.
In the exclusive residential area of Son Vida, the E&V office reports that sales doubled this Easter - the best figures for this period in seven years.
"Investors from Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Norway and France have been looking for a new second residence and many for a family home where they can enjoy the facilities of three top golf courses and a choice of international schools nearby," says the agency.
In South West Mallorca, E&V reports the best sales activity this quarter in a decade, with demand for a range of property from 500.000 to 10M Euros. The Central and South areas also enjoyed a busier spring than last year, with increased interest for fincas with land, townhouses and plots, which are now selling in top locations. In the villages, the townhouse market is coming back and there is more interest in apartments.
The planned motorway extension (between Llucmajor and Campos), which will cut down the journey time to Palma Airport by approximately another 10/15 minutes, is expected to boost the South East's appeal, while sales in the North are up 25 per cent year-on-year. The British now make up 80 per cent of the company's clients in this area, adds the agent.
The figures follow a positive indicator of gradual market improvement from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which found that house prices rose 1.8 per cent in 2014, the first annual increase since 2007.
Nonetheless, data published since then by Tinsa, one of Spain's larger valuation experts, shows that the average price for Spanish property slipped 2.8 per cent year-on-year in March 2015, with the Balearics and Canaries suffering a 1.7 per cent slip in values. Mediterranean coastal property, on the other hand, saw prices increase 0.2 per cent, the first rise since January 2008.
If the mixed results suggest the country has some time to go before it recovers fully, though, Engel & Völkers' consistently positive signals highlight the varying strengths of regional hotspots within the country.
Indeed, Sotheby's International Realty has also reported strong figures for Mallorca's market, with sales up 29.2 per cent in 2014.
Alejandra Vanoli, Managing Director of Mallorca Sotheby's International Realty, says that favourable currency rates have helped to boost the Balearics in 2015: "Currency is by far and away the biggest influence on Mallorca's property market right now. Thanks to negative interest rates, affluent Germans are currently paying to keep their money in the banks and some would rather see it being put to good use in real estate investment."