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Firstly I’d like to thank every one who has taken the trouble to reply both openly and privately to my original inquiry and hope that this has an equally helpful response.
I have literally just returned from Malaga where my wife and I have spent the last four days with M** viewing property and meeting contacts to facilitate any puchase that we may make.
With regards to the trip, the professionalism and genral advice I have to say they were absolutely spot on, a first class act and at no time did I feel A, uncomfortable or B, pressurised in any way. I know this will contradict many peoples opinion, but that is all it is “My Opinion”. All I can say as a genuinely interested investor the balance that my particular investment specialist (Ciaran) made between information, advice and what we were made to feel was right for us was exemplary.
We are now thanks to their advice strongly considering The Arenal Golf development in Benalmadena (Phase 6 off-plan with view to rent on completion). If there is anyone out there with information regarding this area, ie rental market, prices or experience in that area it would be very helpful if you could share that with me. It would also be very interesting to hear from anyone who has or is using any of the services offered by M** as your first hand experiences will be invaluable.
Thank you in advance,
Royce. 🙄
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Hi Royce,
As a resident in C. del Sol, who bought property “off plan” several years ago, I would recommend you think long and hard about buying off plan. The reason I say this is because Spains property market is going through a difficult spell at the moment, with supply far far exceeding demand. The old days of,make 30% profit by buying off plan are well and truly over and there are many hundreds of people who recently bought this way suddenly discovering that they cannot sell there apartments.
In the last few weeks alone I have seen several 2 bed apartments advertised in Arenal for sale privately at cost price, which suggests to me that Arenal is not going to be any easier to make a profit on or re sell later.
If of course you are buying purely to keep as a long term investment and not to sell, I would also say , please do not buy if you would need to rent the property to pay a mortgage, there are no guarantee’s of rental anywhere and again there are also thousands of people trying to rent there apartments out here and many remain empty for long long periods.
I am sorry if this is a very negative reply but I feel it’s better for people to be armed with the reality’s of property here to enable them to make a choice based on there needs.
The reason I feel slightly qualified to offer this advice is because I did buy off plan (to live in , no mortgage to pay) SEVERAL YEARS AGO , and for a long period of time I have been watching the property market and have seen the start of a property slump, even I am having difficulty selling a very decent property and have been reduced to trying to sell at just above a break even price. So do please be careful .
I wish you all the best in whatever you decide. -
If you have your heart set on Arenal Golf, maybe you should consider buying privately or going straight to the developer and see how much you could save by not going through an agent. There are quite a few apartments in various phases that are well below current agents prices (I am not completely anti-agent, but some of their comissions are very high).
In regards to renting, there will always be a large number of people going on holiday to Spain and in particular, the Costa Del Sol. The rental market is full of apartments and you would have to do a very good marketing job on your own to make it pay its way, so not a good idea to rely on it to pay the mortgage. Anyway make sure you think long and hard about your decision, there is a lot of uncertaintly in property markets throughout the world at the moment.
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Royce, you might find some helpful info @ http://www.devwatch.com It gives information about new developments.
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Unless buying purely for self use and you can afford to either use a motgage or to use your own funds to complete the purchase I would leave Arenal Golf alone.
I can get some units in there for people that are ready now at knock down prices.
To suggest you try to go direct to the developer to save money is complete nonsense from someone who does not know how things work! Go direct and you will find that you will not save 1 centimo in doing so!
With rental in mind I KNOW there are far better options on CDS,(a couple of interesting one’s with 5 year guarantee rental!) to consider. I am though not allowed to put my contact details here!
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PJA…I do not know if you are referring to a specific development? I know of two in particular where what you say is not in fact the case. In one case a 5 year rental guarantee from when the devlopment is finished. The owner has the option to opt in again with a renewal at the end of that period.The rentals are run and managed by a stand alone Hotel Group and have no baring on the sale position of the developer.
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