Three Reminders of What Makes the Costa del Sol so Special

Costadelsol continues to break ts own records

Three Reminders of What Makes the Costa del Sol so Special

It’s been shown by recent news events that the 17 autonomous regions of Spain are proud of their heritage and identity and rightly so, including their cuisine, language, culture, and history.

Despite all this, one of the most famous spots in all of Spain isn’t one of the autonomous regions. It’s the “Costa del Sol”, which is loosely defined as a slice of the eastern coastline of southern Spain. Most of the area comes under the jurisdiction of the province of Malaga, but if you asked someone in a region like Manilva if they consider themselves to be in Malaga and they would say no.

The entirety of the Costa del Sol does fall within the autonomous region of Andalucía, which does give the region some uniformity when it comes to their terrain, climate, and cuisine.

The unique strengths of the Costa del Sol are most apparent when you break it down even further and go to the regional level. Here are three reminders of what makes the Costa del Sol so special…

It’s Truly International

The Costa del Sol is home to the Malaga airport, which makes it easy for people all over the world to make their way to the region. This makes the area more international than anywhere else in Andalucía and puts it on a level even higher than that of Seville. The Costa del Sol is perhaps the most international region in all of Spain with the exception of Barcelona, Ibiza, and Madrid.

This means that the region is home to the finest bars, restaurants, fashions, and trends. Marbella is still the home of the international jet set; Fuengirola is still at the forefront of mass tourism, and Puerto Banus is still the destination of celebrities, movie stars, footballers, and multi-millionaires alike. 

There’s More Variety Than you Think

For all the he hotel complexes with pools, restaurants, and family entertainment options hugging the Costa del Sol coastline, there’s plenty of charming villages that provide visitors with a real taste for traditional Spanish life.

For all the expat enclaves complete with pubs, plumbers, football teams, electricians, cafes, and schools built for Brits, there are similar places that have a Scandinavian feel to them, not to mention the places with German flavours and the growing influence of Asia. Even so, the Costa del Sol as a whole remains strictly Spanish. There are cobbled streets with Andalusians that have been there for generations even in Marbella. It’s this variety that makes the area so fascinating. 

It’s Beautiful

Not much can prepare someone for the sights and sounds that will be waiting them on a Friday night on a Friday night in summer along the Puerto Banus second line. Stag and hen parties alike filling the air, stylish Swedes walking the streets, a mixture of American, British, Irish, German, and Spanish people mingling and enjoying themselves. The Costa del Sol is a place where anyone can come together and party the night away for a few weeks out of the year, which is what it is most known for.

There’s still so much more to the region though. Don’t forget the beaches which come in rural and packed. The resorts which can be as cheap or expensive as you need them to be. A wide choice of properties matching every taste and budget waiting for a buyer. Then there is the terrain, which can go from an urbanised beach to the wilderness of the mountains in a matter of miles.

The Costa del Sol really does offer something for everyone.

Spanish Mortgage Approval Rates hit Seven-Year High

Mortgages are on the up and banks start to lend more.

Spanish Mortgage Approval Rates hit Seven-Year High

Some 26,583 mortgages were approved in Spain during August, making it the highest monthly figure since 2010, not to mention a massive increase of 29.1% compared to the same month last year. 

The continued upward trajectory of Spanish real estate has been made clear by a range of data released over the year. Whether it’s the number of transactions, or prices, or regional growth and overall outlook, the Spanish real estate market is in good health and only growing.

This recent data, which comes from statistics released by the Spanish central statistics unit, is perhaps the most accurate reflection of how things are right now. The numbers tell us that the peak of summer is when the most homes are bought, and the economic data shows that more and more Spaniards feel financially secure enough to begin climbing the property ladder.

The figure is naturally topped up by buyers from Britain, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, and other countries. This is shown by the fact that Andalucía, home of the illustrious Costa del Sol, saw the highest annual increase in August mortgage approvals. 50.2% more mortgages were approved in Andalucía compared to August of last year.

The average mortgage amount is also increasing, albeit not as sharply as mortgage approvals. The average mortgage amount has increased a minor 0.7% to €111,488, which is still encouraging despite being lower than the average increase in property prices. It shows that banks are once again feeling confident enough to lend money.

When taken as year-to-date statistics, the first eight months of 2017 saw over 210,000 mortgages approved, which is an increase of 12.85% over the same period of 2016. When looked at in terms of the past 12 months, the increase becomes 12.1% with 306,000 mortgages approved in Spain between August 2016 and August 2017.

Market Analyst PwC Says Conditions for Investing in Spanish Property are “Perfect”

Market Analyst PwC Says Conditions for Investing in Spanish Property are “Perfect”

Spain continues to be a fantastic long

term investment

The financial analyst firm PwC recently published a positive assessment of the Spanish property market, saying that the sector was “perfect” for investment in 2018. The report, titled Tendencies in the European Property Market in 2018, looked at leading property markets in the continent, assessing past performance and potential futures.

PwC believe that 2018 will be as strong as 2017 for the Spanish property market, with both sales numbers and average prices expected to increase. An interesting part of the report is the correlation between the health of the European economy and Spanish property. As European countries get stronger financially and have better job security, the Spanish real estate sector improves.

These parallels may be obvious but they aren’t always clearly defined by historically cautious analysts. Because of how foreign homebuyers affect the Spanish property sector, the more confident and rich Europeans are the better it is for Spain. 

Conditions in the country itself also make investing in Spanish property attractive for both domestic and foreign investors. Prices are expected to increase between 4-6% during 2018 and this kind of growth is ideal. It balances out returns on investment without increasing so much that it scares financial markets and banks. 

When you consider that Spanish property prices are still around a third lower than they were at the peak of 2007 and it’s obvious that Spain guarantees value for money when it comes to property.

The report was also impressed by how Spain is able to maintain interest in the recovery of their property market. Values and sales have been growing steadily for the past three years now, and PwC were pleased by this stability. This is why they concluded that Spanish investment conditions are “perfect”, which is high praise.

British Holidaymakers Spent an Average of €48 Million per Day in Spain Last Year

British Holidaymakers Spent an Average of €48 Million per Day in Spain Last Year

Brits continue to flock to the Costa del sol 

Everyone knows that Brits love heading to Spain when they’re choosing a destination in the sun. It seems the Brits weren’t content with just being the main property investors and tourist group for Spain in 2017, as they were also – sort of – the biggest spenders.

As a collective British holidaymakers were spending an average of €48 million a day in Spain, which works out at around €2 million EACH HOUR. All in all, this figure accounts for 20.1% of all tourist spending in the country in 2017. Tourism spending reached a total of €86.82 billion in Spain, with Brits spending around €17.42 billion of that.

German tourists were barely spending more than Brits pre head, but their overall €12.2 billion spent in Spain puts them below the British. The reason for this was that there were more Brits than Germans in Spain 2017, with around 18.78 million Brits and 11.89 million Germans visiting.

French and Scandinavian tourists threw another €7 billion each into the Spanish economy last year, leading to tourism accounting for 11% of the GDP for the country; meaning tourism is one of the most important industries in Spain. 

The data comes to us from the Ministry of Tourism in Spain and shows just how important it is that Spain continues attracting city breakers, sun-seekers, hikers, golfers, and culture vultures to their shores.

Overall, a total of over 81 million people visited Spain during 2017, representing an annual increase of 8.6%.