Spanish Investment Properties Costa Tropical
Drive around the outskirts of almost any city or town in Spain and the amount of building work going on is clearly excessive and unsustainable. The coastal towns have been worst hit and especially those of the Costa del Sol. Over the past few years Spaniards and foreigners alike have been seduced by the easy money available from buying into almost any new development "off plan". Low interest rates together with the former virtually non existent capital gains system and the seemingly continuous rising market made it a very attractive proposition for anyone prepared to make a very modest initial down payment usually with no intention whatsoever of being the eventual owner of the property concerned. Now reality has set in and suddenly everyone is panicking. The main surprise to us is that this over-development crisis has taken so long to surface!
The press like to dramatise such happenings and we can quite understand anyone currently considering buying in Spain being concerned. However we are offering properties in the established residential areas of a town where development has been well controlled. The residential areas we specialise in have had no "off plan" developments and even individual spec. built new houses have been few and far between.
Although this mass market crisis and the media stories generated will no doubt give us some additional explaining to do when we meet new clients, we suspect that this long overdue reality check will turn out to be good for the market in Salobrena as some people who would previously have been tempted by the prospect of easy money might now realise that they will be better off buying into established residential areas where there in the medium to long term there will be a limited supply of interesting properties.
So how come you have never heard of Salobrena before?
Salobrena escaped the attentions of the mass tourism explosion of the recent past that turned much of the Costa del Sol into a concrete jungle simply due to the traveling times from the nearest (Malaga) airport. Nowadays Salobrena is just 75 mins by car from both Malaga and Almeria airports and it will soon to be less than one hour with the coming of the new coastal motorway. International flights are now available at Granada airport too, less than 1 hour from Salobreña. (location map)
With the coastal and north/south motorways getting closer all the time many more people are now discovering Salobrena for the first time and finding it to be a refreshing change from the generally over-developed Costa del Sol. Unlike most other nearby coastal towns there are no new large scale villa developments here and with increasing demand for the existing properties, values have in the past risen steadily. We expect this trend to continue once the motorways arrive and more people discover the delights of the area. The motorway from the north of Spain via Madrid to Motril/Salobrena is encouraging more Spanish nationals from Granada, Madrid and other towns along this route to buy holiday homes here on the Costa Tropical. Although it now gets rather busy here in peak summer holiday times it is a small price to pay for this area remaining well and truly Spanish.
And we are lucky to have a relatively enlightened local authority who during the 20 years that we have lived here have not permitted any high rise development in Salobrena, have not permitted any ugly plastic greenhouses to be built, have not increased the land area on the hillside zoned for residential development, have invested in the maintenance and improvement of the historic old town and have maintained the density rules ensuring that villas are sensibly spaced with gardens around them. Quite a contrast to what has been happening in most parts of the south coast of Spain including the nearby towns of Almunecar, Motril & Nerja.
Return to our introduction about procedures and costs for Spanish Property Sales
Spanish Property Buyers Guide 1
Spanish Property Buyers Guide 2
Spanish Property Sales - Purchase Costs
Spanish Property Sales - Procedures