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Hi I’m new to the forum. We have been looking at buying an apartment for a number of years. it will be for our personal use. We have done our homework as to the area we want to be in. We have seen an apartment and I will be having a second viewing in 4 weeks when we are back in Spain. The apartment is in Benalmadena, one bedroomed, one bathroom with communal pool. It is 90,000 Euro’s. I know it has been on the market since February but I don’t know how long before this it was for sale.
Do you think an offer of 54,000 euro’s is too low and cheeky. The apartment will need a new bathroom, some electrical work in the communal corridors that the resident will have to pay for. Any advice is much appreciated.
Thank you 🙂 -
Nothing is cheeky. If the vendor does not like your offer he can say to you to go & fly a kite. You dont do this & you go & look for another property.
Do, mention in your offer the amount that will be needed to carry out the works & the incovenience that it will cause to you & your family & the Hotel cost whilst the work is being carried out.
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@Jack1892 wrote:
Thank you for your help.
Sounds a bit low to me Jack.
Sounds also like you have certainly done your research, but what do you base offering 40% less on exactly?
Many Vendors have already brought their prices in line with a far lower market so when you make the offer – which you are entitled to do as Shakeel rightly says – do ask the question WHY? It is not acceptable; if it is refused. If the property has literally been priced to sell, then you might be lucky to get 5% off. So, don’t be surprised if the answer is no.
You are not unique in offering 40% less by the way, it happens all day every day right now, so don’t be offended either if the Vendor just laughs his head off.
Everything sells at the right price, literally everything, just depends if your offer is right for them… we often find also that if you get a Vendor into thinking of such a low, low figure, he has other options then to play with in going up from there, such as speaking with previous interested viewings to see whether they will go higher than you, so you may be doing him a favour.
But good luck to you, you are a brave man coming into our market at this time, however you are far from alone, we sold 3 properties this very day and am still sitting in the office looking at paperwork, so some of us evidently think it is a great time to buy. Depends upon the individual. And if you did get it at the price you are offering well… wow! Might even start a stampede from some of the naysayers on the forum!
Hope you get the right price.
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I don’t understand the British mentality, I am baffled! I am in the process of looking to purchase a property in the uk as we speak.
I have offered on 3 properties at a starting point of 15% below the asking price. Every single one has been rejected. I have increased my offers and still to no avail. The estate agents tell me that in the UK people tend to come in at around between 10% to 15% below the asking price but many end up purchasing at around between the 5 to 10% below the asking price.So why is it when the British try to purchase in Spain they think they will get an offer accepted at nearly 50% below the asking price??!!
If you put that sort of an offer across in the UK they would tell you to get lost!
I think that sort of level is way too low and I would be completely surprised if it gets accepted. Good luck though and let us know how you get on. If someone offered me 40% below the asking price I would just ignore the offer and think they were complete timewasters. But that’s just me.
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@jonas wrote:
I don’t understand the British mentality, I am baffled! I am in the process of looking to purchase a property in the uk as we speak.
I have offered on 3 properties at a starting point of 15% below the asking price. Every single one has been rejected. I have increased my offers and still to no avail. The estate agents tell me that in the UK people tend to come in at around between 10% to 15% below the asking price but many end up purchasing at around between the 5 to 10% below the asking price.So why is it when the British try to purchase in Spain they think they will get an offer accepted at nearly 50% below the asking price??!!
If you put that sort of an offer across in the UK they would tell you to get lost!
I think that sort of level is way too low and I would be completely surprised if it gets accepted. Good luck though and let us know how you get on. If someone offered me 40% below the asking price I would just ignore the offer and think they were complete timewasters. But that’s just me.
But it has all to do with the asking prices. Asking prices in Spain have always been absurd and it was common even in the hay days that it took 4-6 years to sell certain homes. Enough time passed with inflation and what not that the price was not that much wrong off in the end. In Spain at the moment about 70% of the homes are way off in their valuations and then 25% is about 10-15% off. The rest is 5% off. Just a guess.
In Sweden it’s the opposite. You set your minimum price and the last ten years the average price have ended about 20-30% higher then the asking price in cities. The average time a home is on the market is about 3-4 weeks. May sound scary but this way you get the true market price since it’s an auction style system. When Lehman brothers went belly up you could give offers though about 10-20% less then the asking price “usually set just a few weeks before”. At the moment the prices are pretty well balanced.
The UK seems to be somewhere in the middle.
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It also depends on areas in the UK. When we were looking to buy again in the UK. we were quickly outbidded on the first 3. One sold for £50,000 more than asking price. A relatvie recently sold a house in the netherlands within 3 days! Spain is different. To offer 40% less you need to have a knowledge of the property and it’s owners. Are they desperate to sell? How long has the house been on the market? Has it already been reduced?
I have friends in marbella who have had a property on sale for cerca 3 years. They were asking 975,000 euro and have gradually reduced it to 695,000. I think they may accept about 645,000 but wouldn’t consider ridiculous offers even though they are keen to sell. A property that has been on the market for some time is likely to have already been reduced a bit. Spanish sellers rarely reduce by much. In the 90’s we decided to put in an offer for a villa owned by a Spaniard. Offered 2 million pesetas less which was minimal. He came back with a 2M increase on the original price. 😮
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The pricing structure in Spain & UK is completely different. In London you will be lucky to get away with five percent. In other areas e.g Northampton, Rochdale etc you may be able to reduce the price.
In Spain the agents commission gets loaded onto which is substancial as appose to Uk of 1.-1.50%. The cost of agents commission of say 5% can create pricing issues.
In UK you have various sites including the land registry and you will have accurate data, there maybe a lag time between the sale & the registration of the property..
Finally in UK the price varies due to various local issues, Schools, open spaces, Council Tax & services etc. In spain it done by M2 irrespective if the property is facing a dump or have a scenic view.
I am surprised with the remarks that has been made like “not serious, complete time wasters” etc. There is no need to take it personaly, you were not going to marry the person & should not personaly feel devalued by their offer. These kind of remarks shows that one is neive about the market, whatever the commodity is.
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@shakeel wrote:
In Spain the agents commission gets loaded onto which is substancial as appose to Uk of 1.-1.50%. The cost of agents commission of say 5% can create pricing issues.
Bit of a groos generalisation here. If the agency does their job properly, they simply state at what price the property can be sold and the commission is included within that. This not the boom anymore where vendor want X and the agent has to put their commission on top.
@shakeel wrote:
Finally in UK the price varies due to various local issues, Schools, open spaces, Council Tax & services etc. In spain it done by M2 irrespective if the property is facing a dump or have a scenic view.
Again that is the same here. M2 prices vary quite dramatically based on location. Most of this is reflected quite nicely in official valuations
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@Jack1892 wrote:
Hi I’m new to the forum. We have been looking at buying an apartment for a number of years. it will be for our personal use. We have done our homework as to the area we want to be in. We have seen an apartment and I will be having a second viewing in 4 weeks when we are back in Spain. The apartment is in Benalmadena, one bedroomed, one bathroom with communal pool. It is 90,000 Euro’s. I know it has been on the market since February but I don’t know how long before this it was for sale.
Do you think an offer of 54,000 euro’s is too low and cheeky. The apartment will need a new bathroom, some electrical work in the communal corridors that the resident will have to pay for. Any advice is much appreciated.
Thank you 🙂What are the average prices in the area?
At what price do people buy 1 bedrooms in that area.
Saying you have to put in a new bathroom is fine, but that is a personal issue and in my eyes would not be an effective argument for a drop of 46.000€. Nor would the communal electrics which would be paid by the entire community and should be a minor expense all in all.But for you information, as a guide price, 1 bedroom apartments near the Benalmadena Marina (5/8 minutes walk, 3/5 minutes from the beach) are selling for around 1300€ sqm. Of course this can very a bit. So your offer (depending on the property in question) is not necessarily too low, but I would not bother trying to knock vendor 40%, i would simply try to find properties that are better priced.
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“Bit of a groos generalisation here.”
I would have thought its obvious that this thread and many others here are general discussion & not specific cases.“M2 prices vary quite dramatically based on location.”
Here I am talking specifically. I had my property valued & it was based on M2. It is in a very well maintaned development, all facilities, less than 200 meters from the beach & infact once in there one would not even need a car if one does not wishes.
The survey was based on local M2 ( the company which carried out the survery are well respected, what ever that means in Spain ) I did ask him about the above factors which would make price difference. While on the subject of valuation his valution came to the nearest €.
Curious, that valuation is not a perfect science and in a Country where everything is “mas o minus” their valution was to the nearest € and not to nearest hundred or thousand..
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@shakeel wrote:
“Bit of a groos generalisation here.”
I would have thought its obvious that this thread and many others here are general discussion & not specific cases.But you imply that is how all agencies work, which is not the case.
@shakeel wrote:
Here I am talking specifically. I had my property valued & it was based on M2. It is in a very well maintaned development, all facilities, less than 200 meters from the beach & infact once in there one would not even need a car if one does not wishes.
The survey was based on local M2 ( the company which carried out the survey are well respected, what ever that means in Spain ) I did ask him about the above factors which would make price difference. While on the subject of valuation his valuation came to the nearest €.
The company would have valued your property based on m2, yes. And would take into account the previous valuations done on the complex, yes. But any valuation i have seen done by a serious company, takes into account the urbanisation, the property itself, and the surroundings. Normally the documents you receive (yours as you have to pay for them) take into account building density in the area, age of building, age, views, light in apartment, state of community, road access, building qualities, build/finish, community services, local infrastructure, etc…. i also should compare it to similar properties in similar complex nearby. That is why normally a valuation is about 20 odd pages.
@shakeel wrote:
Curious, that valuation is not a perfect science and in a Country where everything is “mas o minus” their valuation was to the nearest € and not to nearest hundred or thousand..
again I am surprised, referring all valuations that i can remember, it is to the centimo.
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@shakeel wrote:
I am surprised with the remarks that has been made like “not serious, complete time wasters” etc. There is no need to take it personaly, you were not going to marry the person & should not personaly feel devalued by their offer. These kind of remarks shows that one is neive about the market, whatever the commodity is.
Sorry, but if I had a property on the market for 200.000 euros and someone offered me 100.000 euros, I would tell them to stick their offer where the sun don’t shine (talking about sun, where the hell has the sun gone in the uk, god the weather is crap here!)
And I would see them as completely trying it on.
I am yet to hear of someone who has succesfully purchased a property in Spain at 50% off the asking price.
If anyone on here has, please come forward 🙂I bet the location was sh** if they did!
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Jonas,
You very disparagingly refer to locations where 50% discounts have been achieved as probably being “sh**”.
Well, I’m aware of 2 sales involving villas in urbanisations on the eastern outskirts of Marbella centro – one in Elviria Playa, the other in Los Monteros Playa. The latter urbanisation would probably be considered as prime by anyone familiar with Marbella…unless of course you view as “sh**” an urbanisation that includes some villas with initial asking tag hitting 8 digits.
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I don’t know any that have sold for 50% less in Elviria and I know a lot of people there including agents, also I have relatives there. They could be the MFI type sales of 50% off some imaginary price. We viewed a villa was 1.3 million reduced to 695,000, wasn’t even worth the reduced price. Some reductions are meaningless……pie in the sky!!!
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From what I’ve viewed, the “MFI” technique isn’t uncommon. It serves no purpose, other than to cement distrust in the potential purchaser and create unnecessary barriers for the genuine seller – hence Jonas’ [understandable] frustration. With such an opaque market, all you can offer is what you think it’s worth to you – what it’s worth to the seller is another matter; so different from the transparancy of the UK market…unfortunately.
BTW, the sale in Elviria Playa was about 15 months ago. Multiple agents with an asking price ranging from 1 million to just over half a million (about 525,000). On paper, someone either got it for half price, or nearly the asking price. As you say….meaningless!
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@Snowy wrote:
BTW, the sale in Elviria Playa was about 15 months ago. Multiple agents with an asking price ranging from 1 million to just over half a million (about 525,000). On paper, someone either got it for half price, or nearly the asking price. As you say….meaningless!
In the example you have just given I don’t view that as a 50% discount at all. As you rightly point out it is meaningless.
I think some people have been conditioned into thinking that all properties are overvalued and that a realistic price is about 40/50% off the asking price. In fact such thinking could encourage sellers to up their price to allow for a 40/50% discount
As fuengi rightly points out you have to do your homework in order to ensure that you pay a realistic price for a property. Strangely enough there may be instances where a 10% discount of the selling price might offer better value than one where 50% is achievable.
As in any negotiation discounts mean absolutely nothing, its the net price that one should keep an eye on.
Richard
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@shakeel wrote:
Jonas, you sound like a person who will go down to that level.
Don’t understand what you mean. I own a property in Spain and I would not accept an offer of 50% off the asking price.
When the market was in its height everyone in the location I lived in Spain knew what a 1 bed, 2 bed or 3 bed, apartment was worth, you also knew what a villa was worth. All the properties had similar values depending on location etc.
Even though you may say that they were overpriced, they were all in the same price bracket depending on bedrooms, location, etc… So there was definetely some price structure going on as there is in the uk.
It has only been since the crash that everyone is running around like headless chickens wondering whether a properties listing price is over inflated.I am still waiting to hear of a “genuine” property that was genuinly sold for 50% off its asking price, in a decent location of course. So far one property on here… doesn’t give the 50% drop argument much credibility, does it 😕
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@jonas wrote:
@shakeel wrote:
Jonas, you sound like a person who will go down to that level.
Don’t understand what you mean. I own a property in Spain and I would not accept an offer of 50% off the asking price.
When the market was in its height everyone in the location I lived in Spain knew what a 1 bed, 2 bed or 3 bed, apartment was worth, you also knew what a villa was worth. All the properties had similar values depending on location etc.
Even though you may say that they were overpriced, they were all in the same price bracket depending on bedrooms, location, etc… So there was definetely some price structure going on as there is in the uk.
It has only been since the crash that everyone is running around like headless chickens wondering whether a properties listing price is over inflated.I am still waiting to hear of a “genuine” property that was genuinly sold for 50% off its asking price, in a decent location of course. So far one property on here… doesn’t give the 50% drop argument much credibility, does it 😕
geuine decent property will not see a 50% drop because the owners have paid to much to loose 50% and if the banks own them probably need to recover more than 50% to get their money back.There does seem to be alot around with 20% off that still haven’t sold so maybe the real level is somewhere between the 2.
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Percentage’s off are pretty meaningless., the fact is a one bed apartment at 50K is overpriced in stark economic terms. The price is based on speculation. If a vendor is asking 90K and work needs to be done, don’t bother wasting your time making an offer – the vendor is deluded and won’t be interested in reality based pricing,
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The worst thing is that many sellers make their properties unsellable because they put on a 40% plus price tag. The buyers won’t even notice that property when they compare it to other ones.
If you want it to sell you need to price it right and then add 5% or something like that because in Spain everyone wants to haggle. Because of the extreme price variations the buyers have no trust in the market and will rather wait to buy.
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As a UK agent once told me – a correctly priced property will always sell.
If a property is hanging around on the market for months on end (which seems to be the case with most property in Spain) then it is not priced to market, and the seller should expect to hear offers of 20% less than asking price, regardless of whether the seller thinks it is a fair price or not. If a property has been on the market at the same asking price for a few years in a falling market then they should expect to hear offers of up to 50% off. Whether they like it or not. And if they don’t like it it’s their fault for placing an unrealistic price on their property – they are just wasting people’s time.
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@Chopera wrote:
As a UK agent once told me – a correctly priced property will always sell.
If a property is hanging around on the market for months on end (which seems to be the case with most property in Spain) then it is not priced to market, and the seller should expect to hear offers of 20% less than asking price, regardless of whether the seller thinks it is a fair price or not. If a property has been on the market at the same asking price for a few years in a falling market then they should expect to hear offers of up to 50% off. Whether they like it or not. And if they don’t like it it’s their fault for placing an unrealistic price on their property – they are just wasting people’s time.
This can’t be stated enough times. A properly priced property will always sell within one to three months.
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