Amid recent price rises, have you budgeted enough for your Sotogrande property purchase?

Events continue to move quickly in the Spanish property market, which could have important implications for those wondering whether to buy property in Sotogrande this year.

One key factor is likely to be budgeting, especially given the marked price increases that have been seen for Spain as a whole in recent times. The UK Mirror newspaper, for example, recently reported that as of January, Spanish house prices had gone up by 9% compared to the situation a year earlier.

That statistic emerged from a real estate website’s monthly index, and it represented the steepest rise in Spanish property prices since September 2006, prior to the late 2000s global economic slowdown.

Buyers with tighter budgets are getting squeezed in the current market

The need for foreigners seeking out property on the Costa del Sol to be sure what their budget will buy them was further underlined by a recent episode of British lifestyle TV series A Place in the Sun.

Presenter Laura Hamilton had the task of helping a prospective buyer find a Costa del Sol holiday home on a budget of £85,000. However, she was forced to warn the would-be purchaser that “a budget of under £90,000 for a two-bedroom property is going to be exceptionally tough. So I think in terms of your budget, we are definitely going to need to have some flexibility there.”

Such situations – as played out between many potential Spanish property buyers from overseas and their real estate agencies – draw attention to the fading of Spain’s previous image as a relatively cheap place for expats from countries like the UK to snap up property.

But could prices be set to slide during 2023?

The recent trend of climbing prices for properties in Spain might come as a surprise to some observers, given that interest rates also went up considerably over the course of 2022.

That situation, however, could be characterised as a post-pandemic rebound, rather than necessarily an indication of things to come over the next few years. Indeed, it has been predicted that Spanish property prices could even fall by as much as 3% in 2023, as the impacts of the interest rate hikes and general economic uncertainty feed through.

But even if this comes to pass, we suggest that you should not expect the same thing to happen to property in Sotogrande.

Sotogrande is, after all, far from ‘just another’ part of the Costa del Sol. It is, instead, a highly sought-after residential development that has been strongly associated with luxury and exclusivity since it first began to be built up as a destination in the 1960s.

This has meant that even in previous times of uncertainty – such as the aforementioned late 2000s economic slump – the prices of property in Sotogrande held up strongly.

That might give you all the more reason, if you have been considering acquiring a home in Sotogrande, to not watch the economic or property news headlines too closely. Such is Sotogrande’s desirability and affluence, that the “usual rules” of Spanish property-market dynamics haven’t always applied in this part of the country.

BM Sotogrande is well-placed to help you obtain your dream property in Sotogrande

Would you like to learn a little more about how our experts at BM Sotogrande could assist you in finding the property in Sotogrande that best matches your needs, whether you are buying for your own enjoyment, or as an investment? If so, you are very welcome to contact us by email or phone, or even to visit us in person at our Pueblo Nuevo office.

Sources -

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/place-sun-hosts-spain-warning-26337981

https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/place-sun-presenter-laura-hamilton-29303209