Taking a look to the latest information on the transactions closed in Benahavis in the last year, the number is somewhat scary with a reduction of 35% in the number of closings. Is that really the case or the official numbers are not reflecting the reality of the market? Maybe two reasons: again the effects of the Brexit and the sale of new developments in the area.
The truth is that there are 35% less closings at the Land Registry that one year before and that goes from July 2016 to end of June 2017. When talking to some professionals in the real estate business, they refer that the cause maybe that buyers are going for new developments, still many of them under construction, and those sales will not be reflected on the official numbers, that is when they are fully close at Notary, until 2018 or even 2019. On the “good old times”, I mean between 2003 and 2007, 40% of the sales were of new built properties so that may be the case again. That is just an speculation as it is impossible to check as that information is not public but private. However, what is true is that the sale of second hand properties, that is fully reflected on the statistics, did go down 35% and those are not good news for people selling or thinking on selling their properties. Again, with a market loss of that level on the sale of second hand properties, having a competitive price is of the essence to be able to close a sale and it is even more critical now than one year ago.
If the take now a look to the numbers of Marbella, the year on year loss has been a minimum 1,4% that, thinking on the two reasons given for the market in Benahavis is more than reasonable.
