Owing to the sudden demand for housing, off-plan buying is back in Spain

Off-plan buying is back in Spain

With the onset of property construction in Barcelona and Spain, buyers now have the option to modify their properties.

Due to the high supply without proportional demand as a result of the industry collapse in 2007-08, there are some areas of Spain that are so badly in need of new housing that off-buying has been a trend to cater to the increasing demand.

Buying Off-plan property is in demand again

As per Juan Antonio Gomez-Pintade, the President of APCE, said that there are several parts of Madrid, Barcelona and Costa del Sol with large stocks of unsold housing projects and now, they have become ‘practically inexistent’, due to several underlying factors such as the growth in economy overall, decrease in the unemployment levels and the sudden growth of property market on the whole perspective. Consider the case of Madrid, where there are around 3,000 homes available immediately, with 30% of the properties in the M-30 ring road’s proximity.

Due to this factor, the overall demand of the property increases and there is a reactivation of the construction industry which had come to a standstill in 2008 with many owner loosing their off-plan deposits until now. and last year, the total number of licenses granted shot up after a decline since 2008 and it was up by 42.5%. Going by this statistics, the activity is back and there is a recovery.

When the case of off-plan buying was considered, the recovery slowly started in 2013 and as of now, the growth in off-plan buying is termed as exponential in the case of Madrid and it is observed more often in the upper end market where there is a dearth of luxury amenities and top-class infrastructure in the homes provided. It is similar in the case of Barcelona as well, where people who do not have an issue with the delivery date are finding it to be highly beneficial as the prices are lower.

Also, the political uncertainty that prevails in Spain does not affect the housing market and the low interest rates are proving to be more encouraging to the investors with high anticipation for appreciation.

Even the markets that are dwindling due to a large number of unsold properties are slowly recovering and the recovery is spreading across regions, due to which buyers are getting a choice to make changes in the design and architecture of their property based on their individual preferences. Buying new and Off-plan property in the costa del sol is so in demand that as soon as the developments are released the majority of the properties get sold, confirming the recovery of the property market.