Added to the reduction on the number of transactions that were reported last year in Marbella & Benahavis compared to 2015, the inventory of properties for sale keeps on going up. Trying to look for an explanation for that, I will attribute it to three main reasons: the banks, or investment funds that bought properties from those banks, are putting complete developments that were stocked during the crisis into the market after preparing them for the sale; since there is a general positive sense in the market due to the increase number of transactions, more owners are putting their properties in the market after, waiting for a number of years, thinking that the crisis is over; and the fact the number of closed transactions went down in 2015.
Therefore, as it can be seen on the below chart, the situation is not in favor of the sellers. That chart shows the number of months required to sell the complete inventory. According to the statistics, if the number of months required to sell the complete housing inventory is less than 7, it is a seller’s market. If it is higher than 7, it is a buyer’s market.
On the graph it can be seen that our index is around 15 and increasing for Marbella so it is still now a buyer’s market. Both numbers analyzed in this article show that the market instead of going in favor of the sellers is again going against them. That may explain, again, my latest comments about the impression we receive when working with buyers, they do not have any sense of urgency when buying. There is no fear of loosing a property.