This period of depression in the Costa Brava property market is set to last years, but it will also be an opportunity to buy prime property on the Costa Brava Catalan coast at a good price.

January 2012

The Spanish property boom, which was largely fuelled by cheap credit, is long over. Post boom, property prices on the Costa Brava have been in continual decline. Even so, you still find asking prices on the Costa Brava out of line with the new market realities, which means there is a lot of overpriced property on the market. Anyone who buys now without doing their research, and pays yesterdays prices, will not being making a good investment in the short or medium term.

Timing is everything when it comes to investing, and paying too much on the way in can wipe out investment returns for 5 years or more. The housing market is deep into a recession on the Costa Brava, so we are now starting to reach the moment when it gets interesting as an investor, when everyone else is selling and capitulation starts to set in. You will now find a reasonable amount of distressed sales, where vendors of attractive properties have to accept a low but reasonable offer for a quick sale, and it is worth keeping an eye on the market for that reason alone.

Regardless of the ups and downs in the market, the long term prospects for property on the Costa Brava and now starting to look reasonably good. The best parts of the Costa Brava have not been terribly over-developed, and the market is not awash with newly built properties, so the market is not fundamentally flawed. It is an upmarket destination that attracts affluent buyers from both Spain and the rest of Europe, so demand is reasonably well diversified. And now that the AVE fast train has reached Figueres and Girona, I expect demand in the region to get a boost. You can now reach Girona from Paris in a few hours by train.

If you are not that concerned about financial returns, and just want a home to use and enjoy, then now is a great time to buy attractive property in the Costa Brava at a reasonable price. Just don’t confuse cheapness with good value.