This is a website for buyers, owners, and sellers of property in Spain, offering reliable information and resources to help you get things done with confidence. It is run by Mark Stücklin, author of the Spanish Property Doctor Column in The Sunday Times (2005-2008), and the book ‘Need to Know: Buying Property in Spain’ published by Collins.
If your asking price is right you will sell your property in a day argues José Luis Jimeno (pictured above), Managing Director of Noteges, a property company.
You have nothing but your own unrealistic expectations to blame if your property doesn’t sell fast. That’s the conclusion Jimeno has reached based on his experience of this market. “The homes that have sold are 40pc on average below the price of other properties for sale in the area,” he recently explained in an article in the Spanish press.
So who is selling? Vendors who bite the bullet and drop their prices to be the most competitively priced on the market. They tend to be people who really need to sell, like divorcees, people who have lost their jobs, or people who have to relocate. It’s vendors like this that buyers should be targeting.
“You can have a home for sale for months or even years, but until you drop your price to where the demand is, you can forget about selling,” says Jimeno, whose organisation sold more than 6,000 homes around Spain last year.
Vernon White says:
Please target this article to inland Costa Blanca North , they seem to still have same asking prices of over a year ago , some stating `reduced` but usually reduced from a Crazy sum to start with !! Come on you Agents ,be honest and tell your clients that the prices they are expecting are wasting their and everyone elses time , get a life and either sell the bloody place or take it off the market if you are so `narked` that you cant get that fabulous profit off years ago !!
Sainsworth says:
This is absolutely correct. Average sale prices are about 66% of average advertised prices. But many adverts are as high as twice the price that a property will actually sell for i.e. its true market value , and will therefore never sell. This isn’t a case of prices having fallen spectaculary , these properties were never worth such huge prices, people just believed the boastful wine-fuelled fantasy being spouted that ‘my property is worth Exxxx’. It never was.
william says:
Please stop attacking the poor souls who still believe the dream of owning a “Place in the sun”.
It was good while it lasted and it takes a long while for everyone to accept that the fun is over.
We all have had the conversation that my place is going up in value by xxx pounds per year and it was fun to have but like all bubbles it has burst.
tom lavin says:
Also don’t forget sterling depreciation against the euro- that needs to be taken off the price before any price reduction to reflect true worth comes into play. The price of the house is a product of the imaginations of the seller and agent. The value of the house is the price that a willing purchaser is prepared to pay.
So deduct 20% for currency depreciation then deduct 40% to reflect the bloated prices sought, the result broadly equates to a fair price. So a Euro 200K property is worth buying for E96K.Thats why sales are so sluggish.Either sterling strenthen or sellers will wait for a purchaser buying with Euros.
Randal says:
As an agent in Marbella I have been saying this for years. I tell vendors like it IS… If the property is priced right then it’s IN THE MARKET and the way to tell is IF you are getting regular viewings and offers. If it’s PRICED WRONG then it’s OUT OF THE MARKET and it might as well be in NO MAN’S LAND !! No viewings or offers and it will still be un-sold for years to come. Unfortunately some agents continue to delude vendors by allowing them to over price and let them live in their dream world. The good news is that some vendors are finally waking up from their delusions and acknowledging that the property market we’re in, is the property market we are going to have for a few more years. Here’s the bad news…Most properties approx 90% on our MLS data-bases on the coast are in NO MAN’S LAND. I think its high time the agents and the vendor’s of this 90%(Over priced props) to wake up to the truth, price drop accordingly or take their property off the market. The agents out there who continue to keep the over priced properties on their books perhaps are doing a dis-service to their vendor clients and themselves. Maybe in 2020 they’ll eventually get their price. For the record I’m putting my money where my mouth is and following my own advice. I’m asking the same price for my small villa that I paid for it in 2003. What’s the point of chasing the market as it continues to decline. Best to get it sold and move on…
Glen Paterson-Mandagie says:
My message to Jose Luis Jimeno.
I am glad you are not selling my house in Spain. It does not take a genius to know that you’ll sell anything if you make it cheap enough. I guess that is why you have managed to boost your own sales figures on the backs of those sellers under pressure to do so. Well… I am a seller, but not desperate enough to “give” my home away.Considering the present state of the housing market, I am asking a fair price for my house, and will continue to avoid dealings with, for want of a better word “Chancers”
My statement to Sr. Jimeno if he were to be involved would be Adios Amigo
Angie says:
It is virtually impossible to determine what the asking price should be these days – a lot of people go by price per square metre but I’ve no idea what that is and it varies greatly from place to place.
I’m sure the estate agents, who charge such enormous commissions anyway and seem to do so little for it, would happily tell me that my 5 bedroom house should be sold for 150,000 euros because 5% of that is better than nothing.
So how do we find out what is a reasonable asking price?
Lionel Westell says:
Some expert,anything sells if the price is right for the purchaser. It is a buyers market and will be for many more years to come. So either drop price to the floor or be prepared to wait for ? years.
John says:
To Gelen Paterson and others. Keep on dreaming but forget selling your house.
Nothing in this world is worth more than someone is willing to pay. Its that simple.
If you are not selling your house its because you are asking a price nobody is willing to pay, because its not worth the asking price no matter what you belive.
Cracker….
John says:
Adios Amigo!?!? That is propably what people are telling YOU when they hear your asking price….
Keep on dreaming but forget to sell your house – Adios Amigo!
Neil says:
Hi all I have seen it all before the human race is driven by two things greed and fear, we are at fear at the moment for sellers and greed for buyers who want the cheepest price they can get.So we are all as bad as each other looking out for ourselves.
Herb says:
Glen Paterson, you’re preaching a foolish message. Buyers with cash in their pockets are not paying asking prices unless the price reflects the state of the market. Asking price for the villa I just bought was 560K, I bought it for 470K and I was the only person in quite a while that had made ANY offer. The vendor had paid 740K in 2003 and had a 466K mortgage. Your house is worth what someone will pay, not how much you think it’s worth.